The light that shines in the world, though we see it not

I know someone who recently, when praying before the Hidden Lord in the tabernacle of the altar, following confession, felt his soul filled with light and suddenly saw in his mind's eye a network of light of which he was part, between all those souls praying at that moment throughout the world; and he saw in a moment the hidden good, the hidden light that was bathing the world through the prayers of all these souls. And he was filled with hope and understanding that the forces of light have triumphed, will triumph over the temporary darkness of this world.

Such a bringer of light was buried today. A female relative-in-law who with simple faith had become prayer, praying constantly; who always prayed for me and my family, and continues to do so now, just as she promised. May she rest in peace; I am confident that she does.

Levels of Praying the Rosary

The Rosary is a very rich prayer which can be prayed at many levels according not only to one's own personal nature, but also according to one's mental mood and ability at any given point in time.


I'd just like to state here the various levels, with a view to developing later my thoughts on the Mystical level.


Basic: act of will and patience. I desire to pray the Rosary because Heaven asks it of me, because it please Jesus and Mary, because I know that the prayers I say will benefit myself and my neighbour and glorify God. This is the most basic level because it is that which I fall back upon when my mind is unable to concentrate and I am overwhelmed with tiredness or other difficulties. 

Verbal: becoming familiar with the words of the prayers, understanding their meaning. At this level I begin to consider the words I am praying, to consider what I am asking in each of the petitions.

Meditative: learning to dwell on the mysteries while speaking the prayers. When I am able to pray at this level, then I am aware of each of the mysteries as I pray: I begin to immerse myself in the narrative of each episode. Being able to pray at this level does of course require one to research and read the Scriptural passages concerned.

Moral: allowing the virtues displayed in the narrative and the words of the prayers to form one's soul. At this level I am more open to formation by the Holy Spirit. I may be moved by the sufferings of Our Lord and Our Lady, or shown the way to holiness in my life through the pattern of Joseph, Mary, Jesus, the disciples.

Mystical: to see the theological patterns behind the mysteries, to learn to resonate with the Rosary such that it becomes the pattern of one's soul and leads one to spiritual and theological insights. In this level, which cannot be attained except through patience and the humble praying of the Rosary at the other levels mentioned, one is given great grace and understanding. One espies the grand narratives and themes of the Gospel and of Salvation History as concisely summarised and laid out in the patterns of the Rosary. One's soul begins to become modelled after the Rosary and so closer to Jesus and Mary.

The Vocation to the Professional Lay Apostolate

The modern history of the Catholic Church has been marked by an increase in the importance of the laity within the Church and for the Church. One may see this starkly by comparing the actuality of the Catholic Church with its prior form during the Middle Ages, when there was a clear separation between those who laboured for the Gospel and those who laboured in the world: it is significant that those laymen who became involved in third orders and confraternities at that time did so precisely by “putting on” religious garb, both physically in the sense of wearing special habits to indicate that this was so, and in the spiritual sense that their spirituality was modelled after that of religious under vows.

It has only been in modern times, since the 19th century but really only in the 20th and 21st centuries, that the Church has acquired a new understanding of the value of secular Christians – that is to say, the emphasis has changed from understanding such people as being “of the world” therefore not “of the Church” (a relic surely of the Augustinian separation of the “City of God” from the Earthly City), to seeing such people as being “in the world but not of the world” and therefore well placed to influence the world for the good by the living out and sharing of the Gospel.

The Church’s understanding of this mission and role of the laity has been set down within the fairly comprehensive Christifideles laici of John Paul II. My purpose here is not to review that document but rather to focus precisely on one small yet key part of the lay apostolate which is touched upon in that document but not elaborated in full. I am talking precisely of those laymen whose “love for the common cause”[1] leads them into forms of apostolate which are not additional to their professional lives but indeed constitute their chosen profession. CL 23 cites Evangelii Nuntiandi as follows, which I find a helpful summary of the scope of the professions under discussion:

“their own field of evangelising activity is the vast and complicated world of politics, society and economics, as well as the world of culture, of the sciences and the arts, of international life, of the mass media. It also includes other realities which are open to evangelisation, such as human love, the family, the education of children and adolescents, professional work, and suffering.”

My own interest in this area comes from my own work in the sphere of religious publishing, and perhaps this is a good place to start when considering this phenomenon. For me this is more than simply a choice of profession. Rather it is a vocation that stems from my own conversion and reception into the Catholic Church, a deep calling I feel to use my skills and effort in the service of the advancing of the Gospel – for the hour is late and the labourers are few.

Is the call of persons such as myself simply a response of the Holy Spirit and of willing hearts to the fact that there are today fewer priests and religious to perform these tasks? Perhaps. But it has to be said that the evangelisation of the spheres of activity in question is not always best achieved by priests and religious, and the vocation I feel is precisely to bring my professional worldliness to bear on the practical challenges faced in proclaiming the Gospel in a secular age which has scant respect for the Christianity which begot it.

Let us delineate the sorts of professions we are really talking about: for I think they fall into three categories, according to the three transcendentals and the three theological virtues:

Truth / Faith

Teaching

Academia

Evangelisation

Writing

Publishing

Campaigning

Beauty / Hope

Arts

Culture

Science

Goodness / Charity

Relief of suffering

Assisting the poor

etc

In all of these spheres, the professional lay apostle not only pursues a career, supporting himself and his family, but also lives out a vocation. The sign that this is a vocation is of course the personal sacrifice involved – there is no vocation without suffering.

Some of the potential sufferings involved can be listed as follows:

1. remuneration is often inadequate, not on a par with purely secular equivalents; hence pressure may be felt especially when balancing the needs of one’s family with the demands of one’s professional vocation.
2. employer or supervisor may be a clergyman or religious, with an insufficient understanding of the employee’s perspective
3. one may encounter and suffer from the hidden battles between factions within the Church, as well as the more obvious battles between the Church and secular forces
4. as the laity are not under obedience, and secular employment law has little sympathy for ecclesiastical employers, disobedient laity may become entrenched in positions where they damage the witness of the Church.
5. one can suffer from the scandal of seeing supposed “men of God” as sinners – the seamy side of the Church can undermine faith
6. career opportunities outside of the niche of evangelical works may diminish.

All of these require a constant spiritual direction of the layman involved, through the sacraments but also through personal prayer and the advice of priests and other laymen. Employers too have a moral obligation to make an especial effort to understand these pressures and give spiritual and practical support to such laymen.

On the positive side there are a number of benefits that this way of life can bring to the layman involved:

1. Personal holiness through a way of life which has unity and is directed towards the Gospel
2. Motivation in one’s work through the pursuit of an activity which resonates with the deepest aspects of one’s identity, and which allows one to bring one’s professional skills into the service of the Church.
3. Catechetical advantage to one’s family and to one’s friends in the social sphere: the layman who dedicates his career to advancing the Gospel is a powerful witness.
4. A powerful sense of being part of the Communion of Saints, of joining in a common enterprise at the service of the Gospel, and the inspiration one finds not merely in the work that ones sees being done for the Lord, but in encountering the many saints working for this end.

So I have set out here the shape of this special vocation and attempted to give it a name. Now I leave it to others to draw out the implications of this: What spirituality should such people cultivate? How can we ensure we are properly formed so as to avoid the sort of pitfalls mentioned above? How can we find a solidarity and communion between ourselves and others who have similar but diverse vocations? How can we benefit each other through our shared experiences and wisdom? How should the Church encourage and support us? Is it even properly aware of us and does it see us as a force for good?

All of these are questions that I am beginning to examine for myself, but which I feel should be more widely discussed and considered.

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[1] John Paul II, Homily at the Solemn Eucharistic Concelebration for the Close of the Seventh Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops (October 30, 1987): AAS 80 (1988), 598. Cited in Christifideles Laici, s.2.