In the decades since the Second Vatican Council, many thousands of men and women have responded to a vocational call to ecclesial lay ministry. According to a 2005 study by David DeLambo and the National Pastoral Life Center, 30,632 lay ministers work at least 20 hours a week in paid positions (66% of all US Catholic parishes), an increase of 53% since 1990.
The call to holiness is the call of all baptized Christians. Holiness embraces all of one’s life. Religious experience, human relations and personal history form the mosaic of an individual’s spirituality. Holiness hinges on three loves: the love of God, the love of neighbor and the love of self. The three cannot be separated. Prayer and Eucharist, personal devotion and meditation are basic to the individual’s response to the call to holiness. Self-discovery and self-knowledge in the context of spiritual direction and theological reflection light the way in one’s search for God. This witness to others in the community of faith gives the individual strength and courage to face oneself and the challenges of life. In living out this challenge of holiness day by day, one discovers how intimately God is involved in his or her life. In this search for God, one discerns a call to service - a vocation. This call to service, whatever it may be, is a call of the whole person. To understand that vocation requires the intuition of the person and the voice of the Church speaking in its members and in its leaders.
The re-awakening of the lay apostolate in the early years of the 20th century gave rise to a new force for cooperation and service in the Church’s ministerial life. This awakened call was realized in a particular seminal way by the Second Vatican Council in its appreciation of the role of lay people in Church life. Today lay people serve the Church in a variety of ways as catechists, parish life coordinators, directors of religious education, youth ministers, teachers, musicians, lectors, Eucharistic ministers, diocesan officials, business managers and in a host of other activities. Lay people participate with priests, religious and deacons in forming communities of service united collaboratively in the common goal of serving God’s people in significant and meaningful ways.
The universal call to holiness “is rooted in baptism and proposed anew in the other sacraments…Since Christians are re-clothed in Christ Jesus and refreshed by his Spirit, they are ‘holy’. They therefore have the ability to manifest this holiness and the responsibility to bear witness to it in all that they do” (Christifideles Laici ). “Holiness, then, must be called a fundamental presupposition and irreplaceable condition for everyone…The Church’s holiness is the hidden source and the infallible measure of the works of the apostolate and of the missionary effort” (CL). This sacramental basis of ecclesial lay ministry calls all through baptism to a continued participation in the mission and ministry of Christ. “Every one of the baptized, confirmed in faith through the gifts of God’s Spirit according to his or her calling, is incorporated into the fullness of Christ’s mission to celebrate, proclaim, and serve the reign of God (Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord ). Through baptism, each is called, in an individual way, to be “active and co-responsible” (CL) in the Church’s mission of salvation, in and on behalf of the communion of the Body of Christ.
The dignity inherent to each Christian’s call is “the source of equality for all members of the Church, guarantees and fosters the spirit of communion and fellowship, and, at the same time, becomes the hidden dynamic force in the lay faithful’s apostolate and mission. It is a dignity, however, which brings demands… the exalted duty of working to assure that each day the divine plan of salvation is further extended to every person, of every era, in every part of the world.” (CL)
In the 1,500-year Benedictine tradition, Saint Meinrad adheres to a holistic approach to learning, grounded in the ongoing conversion that is the heart of authentic holiness, and as reflected in the school motto Sanctitate et Scientia or Through Holiness and Through Learning.
