Identity Crisis

[BarbTherese]

I think of The Church as something similar to a vineyard.  Workers till the soil, other workers plant the seeds, others still water the soil, while others pick the fruit still others pack it for market.  What I mean by this is that the vineyard has different types of groups working in the vineyard.  They have all the one purpose to contribute to the purpose of the vineyard and the purpose of the vineyard would not be fulfilled without each group of workers -  while no group can state that it has more value and importance than the other……..without lapsing into the ridiculous of course.

 

 

Here are extracts from a  quite lengthy document (worth the read) by Fr. Jordan Aumann OP – Father is a sound and well respected resource in The Church Short bio of Fr Jordan Aumann OP

 

…… "The Christian Laity" (and implications)

……..Catechism of the Council of Trent explicitly stated that the word "Church" must never be understood as applying exclusively to the hierarchy………

To fulfill the demands of the Christian vocation which they live in common, and as something required of them by the same baptism which they have both received, priest and layman must both aspire equally to sanctity... The holiness to which they are called is no greater in the priest than in the layman, for the layman is not a second-rate Christian. Holiness, in the layman just as in the priest, is nothing other than the perfection of the Christian life, the fullness of divine sonship, for in the eyes of our Father God we are all of equal standing, whatever be the function or ministry assigned to each one: little children for whom, precisely because they are little, the kingdom of heaven has been reserved (Mt 19:14)…………….

…………….Hence, the specific difference that sets the laity apart from the clergy and from persons in the consecrated life is precisely their secular character. However, one must be careful not to place the secular character of the laity in opposition to their active participation in the mission of the Church or their relationship to other members of the Church. ……………….

………………….Pope John Paul II touched on this precise point in his Apostolic Exhortation, Christifideles Laici: "Among the lay faithful this one baptismal dignity takes on a manner of life which sets a person apart, without, however, bringing about a separation from the ministerial priesthood or from men and women religious... Certainly all the members of the Church are sharers in this secular dimension but in different ways... The lay faithful's position in the Church then, comes to be fundamentally defined by their newness in Christian life and distinguished by their secular character.. (Christifideles Laici, n.15.)

Another point deserving of mention was touched upon by Edward Schillebeeckx, O.P., in an article he published in 1965: "It has not yet been understood with sufficient depth that, precisely because he is a non-clerical member of the People of God, the layman has a constitutive relationship with the secular world, which permeates also his participation in the Church's primary mission. The result is that the layman's specific contribution to the work of spreading the Gospel is undervalued, and, when he is genuinely active, he adopts clerical ways which prejudice his character as an authentic layman." (For a full statement of the theology of Schillebeeckx on the laity, cf. La missione della Chiesa, Roma, 1971, pp.129-291.) The same sentiments were expressed by Pope John Paul II in 1984, when he spoke of the tendency to "clericalize" the laity. …………..

……………. At this point in time there can be no doubt whatever that the primary characteristic of the lay Christian faithful is their secularity and that their vocation in the Church is "to make the Church present and fruitful in those places and circumstances where it is only through them that she can become the salt of the earth" (Lumen Gentium, 31). This statement connotes that in the Church there are special vocations for the clergy, for those in the consecrated life and for the laity. There is but one mission for the entire Church but there is a division of labor, a variety of particular vocations, as is indicated in the concept of the Mystical Body. In modern times, unfortunately, with so much emphasis on personal freedom, personal fulfillment and egalitarianism, there has been such a diffusion of functions in the Church that it has caused many individuals and groups to suffer a crisis of identity.
Such confusion is understandable, however, if we reflect on the slow and gradual process by which the laity were given their rightful place in the mission of the Church. For example, in the early days of Catholic Action, Pope Pius XI defined it as "the participation of the laity in the hierarchical apostolate of the Church." That statement was made in 1939, but in 1945, Monsignor Escrivá asserted: "There is no reason why the secular apostolate should always

be a mere participation in the apostolate of the hierarchy. Secular people too have to have a duty to do apostolate, not because they have received a canonical mission, but because they are part of the Church. They must assume personal responsibility in the professional and social order, so as to imbue all earthly realities with a Christian spirit" (Conversations, p. 15). ………….

…………………. Today we no longer speak of the apostolate of the laity as an activity that is under the direct control of the hierarchy; the laity enjoy a certain freedom and autonomy of action in the secular sphere of apostolic activity. Thus, we read in the "Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity," issued by Vatican Council II, that every activity of the Mystical Body that seeks to establish the right relationship of the world to Christ goes by the name of "apostolate" (Apostolicam Actuositatem, 2 ) . ………

……………….. What, then, are the areas in social life and in the world that call for the apostolic action of the laity? Monsignor Escrivá answered this question in a manner that echoes the spiritual doctrine of St. Francis de Sales: "The Lord wants his own people at every crossroads on the earth... The great majority he wants in the midst of the world, in worldly occupations. Therefore these Christians must carry Christ to every sphere where human work is going on... You must understand now more clearly that God is calling you to serve him in and from the ordinary, material and secular activities of human life. He waits for us every day, in the laboratory, in the operating theater, in the army barracks, in the university chair, in the factory, in the workshop, in the fields, in the home and in all the immense panorama of work. Understand this well: there is something hidden, something divine, hidden in the most ordinary situations, and it is up to each one of you to discover it." (cf. Palabra (1968), p. 10; Conversations with Monsignor Escrivá de Balaguer, pp. 136-137). ……………

[cappie]

Office of Readings

From The Introduction to the Devout Life, by Saint Francis de Sales
(Pars 1, Cap.3)

Devotion must be practised in different ways

http://www.liturgies.net/saints/francisdesales/readings.htm#loh

[BarbTherese]

Thanks, cappie..... most appropriate!

It was "Introduction to The Devout Life" St Francis de Sales by St Francis de Sales addressing 'Philothea' that first awakened me to the fact (in my twenties - well over 45yrs ago now) that I was not called to be nun-like in married life (the 'nun mould' that had always rejected me) - this made my life a bit confusing for a while. A real identity crisis   A couple of reads of "Introduction to the Devout Life" (initially it just bowled me over) and I started to 'get it' and my married life, with all its ups and downs - the mind boggling minutiae and routine at times, started to make sense to me and fall into place in the bigger picture and one that was beginning to make complete sense to me.   It was from reading the Intro to The Devout Life that I started to insight (in a not so laboured manner) the Little Way of St Therese and returned to her autobiography: "Story of A Soul"

Introduction to The Devout Life is a must read for laity especially - but not only.  I used to wonder from time to time if St Therese of Lisieux had read St Francis de Sales........as well as "Abandonment to Divine Providence" by Jean Paul de Caussade.

 

Edit: The above link to the online autobiography of St Therese of Lisieux also has her letters, prayers, motto, days of Grace and other info as well.  All the links to the various texts I have given above are all online texts.

Edited March 19, 2016 by BarbaraTherese

[NadaTeTurbe]

6 hours ago, BarbaraTherese said:

Introduction to The Devout Life is a must read for laity especially - but not only.  I used to wonder from time to time if St Therese of Lisieux had read St Francis de Sales........as well as "Abandonment to Divine Providence" by Jean Paul de Caussade.

 

Edit: The above link to the online autobiography of St Therese of Lisieux also has her letters, prayers, motto, days of Grace and other info as well.  All the links to the various texts I have given above are all online texts.

Yes, I've always found St Therese very salesian. Don't forget that her aunt, and her sister, were Visitation Sisters ! 

The website of the Lisieux Carmel have posted the library of the Martin family and of the Lisieux Carmel when Thérèse was in. 

http://www.archives-carmel-lisieux.fr/carmel/index.php/en-famille/lectures-de-th In her family library, there was the "Introduction to the Devout Life" by St François, and "help for confession and communion" by St François. 

http://www.archives-carmel-lisieux.fr/carmel/index.php/au-carmel/bibliotheque-communautaire/avant-choeur The website say that the Lisieux library was in two part : "la bibliothèque" and "l'avant choeur". And that thérèse had probably read only books from that "avant-choeur". And what do we found in the "avant-choeur" ? St François de Sales, Introduction to the Devout life ! 

Conclusion : Considering the fact that Thérèse had the "Introduction" in her family and in religious life, that her aunt AND her sister were Visitation Sisters, that the Introduction was on the most read devotion books of its time, Thérèse may have read it. 

Here's a blog who speak about it : 

https://journeytowardseaster.wordpress.com/2013/11/13/therese-of-lisieux-and-francis-de-sales-two-doctors-of-love/

[NadaTeTurbe]

and guess what, J-P Caussade was also in the Carmel "avant-choeur" ! 

[BarbTherese]

13 hours ago, NadaTeTurbe said:

Conclusion : Considering the fact that Thérèse had the "Introduction" in her family and in religious life, that her aunt AND her sister were Visitation Sisters, that the Introduction was on the most read devotion books of its time, Thérèse may have read it. 

 

13 hours ago, NadaTeTurbe said:

and guess what, J-P Caussade was also in the Carmel "avant-choeur" ! 

Thanks heaps for the above, Nada - very much.  Putting this thread into my resources file.  I wondered from time to time if St Therese had probably read the above two works as at times in her autobiography there seemed to me to be similar concepts.

Now I know the likely probability and her access to the works in the Lisieux library.   Whether she actually had read the above and they influenced her thinking, or whether she had not and her concepts were uniquely her own.........both potentials are works of The Holy Spirit.