THE VARIOUS FIELDS OF SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP
CHAPTER III THE VARIOUS FIELDS OF SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP
9. The baptized carry out their manifold spiritual leadership both in the Church and in the world.
In both areas there are various opportunities for spiritual leadership.
We wish to list here the more important fields of spiritual leadership, namely, church communities, the family, youth, the social milieu, and national and international levels.
Since in our times women have an ever more active share in the whole life of society,
it is very important that they participate more widely
also in the various fields of the People of God's spiritual leadership.
10. As sharers in the role of Christ as priest, prophet, and king, the baptized have their work cut out for them in the life and activity of the People of God. Their activity is so necessary within the Church communities that without it the activity of the pastors is often unable to achieve its full effectiveness.
The parish offers an obvious example of spiritual leadership on the community level inasmuch as it brings together the many human differences within its boundaries and merges them into the universality of the People of God The laity should accustom themselves to working in the parish in union with their priests,(2) bringing to the Church community their own and the world's problems as well as questions concerning human salvation, all of which they should examine and resolve by deliberating in common.
11. Since the Creator of all things has established conjugal society as the beginning and basis of human society and, by His grace, has made it a great mystery in Christ and the Church (cf. Eph. 5:32),
the spiritual leadership of married persons and families is of unique importance for the Church and civil society. It has always been the duty of Christian married partners but today it is the greatest part of their spiritual leadership to manifest and prove by their own way of life the indissolubility and sacredness of the marriage bond, strenuously to affirm the right and duty of parents and guardians to educate children in a Christian manner, and to defend the dignity and lawful autonomy of the family.
This mission-to be the first and vital cell of society-the family has received from God. . It will fulfill this mission if it appears as the domestic sanctuary of the Church by reason of the mutual affection of its members and the prayer that they offer to God in common, if the whole family makes itself a part of the liturgical worship of the People of God. Among the various activities of family spiritual leadership may be enumerated the following: the adoption of abandoned infants, hospitality to strangers, assistance in the operation of schools, helpful advice and material assistance for adolescents, help to engaged couples in preparing themselves better for marriage, catechetical work, support of married couples and families involved in material and moral crises, help for the aged not only by providing them with the necessities of life but also by obtaining for them a fair share of the benefits of an expanding economy.
To facilitate the attainment of the goals of their spiritual leadership, it can be useful for families to be brought together into groups.[6]
12. Young persons exert very important influence in modem society.
Their heightened influence in society demands of them a proportionate spiritual leadership activity,
but their natural qualities also fit them for this activity. They should become the first to carry spiritual leadership directly to other young persons, concentrating their spiritual leadership efforts within their own circle, according to the needs of the social environment in which they live.[8] Adults should stimulate young persons first by good example to take part in spiritual leadership and,
if the opportunity presents itself, by offering them effective advice and willing assistance.
13. Spiritual leadership in the social milieu, that is,
the effort to infuse a Christian spirit into the mentality, customs, laws, and structures
of the community in which one lives,
is so much the duty and responsibility of the those who are neither clergy nor religious
that it can never be performed properly by others.
In this area the baptized can exercise peer spiritual leadership. It is here that they complement the testimony of life with the testimony of the word.[9] It is here where they work or practice their profession or study or reside or spend their leisure time or have their companionship that they are more capable of helping their brethren. The baptized fulfill the spiritual leadership of the People of God in the world especially by conforming their lives to their faith so that they become the light of the world as well as by practicing honesty in all their dealings so that they attract all to the love of the true and the good and finally to the People of God and to Christ.
They fulfill their mission also by fraternal charity which presses them to share in the living conditions, labors, sorrows, and aspirations of their brethren with the result that the hearts of all about them
are quietly prepared for the workings of saving grace.
Another requisite for the accomplishment of their task is a full consciousness of their role in building up society whereby they strive to perform their domestic, social, and professional duties with such Christian generosity that their manner of acting should gradually penetrate the whole world of life and labor. This spiritual leadership should reach out to all wherever they may be encountered; it should not exclude any spiritual or temporal benefit which they have the ability to confer.
Children also have their own spiritual leadership to do.
According to their ability they are true living witnesses of Christ among their companions.
14. A vast field for spiritual leadership has opened up on the national and international levels
where the baptized especially assist with their Christian wisdom. In loyalty to their country and in faithful fulfillment of their civic obligations, Catholics should feel themselves obliged to promote the true common good. Among the signs of our times, the irresistibly increasing sense of the solidarity of all peoples is especially noteworthy. It is a function of the spiritual leadership sedulously to promote this awareness and to transform it into a sincere and genuine love of brotherhood.
Catholics should try to cooperate with all men and women of good will to promote whatever is true, whatever just, whatever holy, whatever lovable (cf. Phil. 4:8).
They should hold discussions with them, excel them in prudence and courtesy, and initiate research on social and public practices which should be improved in line with the spirit of the Gospel.
9. The baptized carry out their manifold spiritual leadership both in the Church and in the world.
In both areas there are various opportunities for spiritual leadership.
We wish to list here the more important fields of spiritual leadership, namely, church communities, the family, youth, the social milieu, and national and international levels.
Since in our times women have an ever more active share in the whole life of society,
it is very important that they participate more widely
also in the various fields of the People of God's spiritual leadership.
10. As sharers in the role of Christ as priest, prophet, and king, the baptized have their work cut out for them in the life and activity of the People of God. Their activity is so necessary within the Church communities that without it the activity of the pastors is often unable to achieve its full effectiveness.
The parish offers an obvious example of spiritual leadership on the community level inasmuch as it brings together the many human differences within its boundaries and merges them into the universality of the People of God The laity should accustom themselves to working in the parish in union with their priests,(2) bringing to the Church community their own and the world's problems as well as questions concerning human salvation, all of which they should examine and resolve by deliberating in common.
11. Since the Creator of all things has established conjugal society as the beginning and basis of human society and, by His grace, has made it a great mystery in Christ and the Church (cf. Eph. 5:32),
the spiritual leadership of married persons and families is of unique importance for the Church and civil society. It has always been the duty of Christian married partners but today it is the greatest part of their spiritual leadership to manifest and prove by their own way of life the indissolubility and sacredness of the marriage bond, strenuously to affirm the right and duty of parents and guardians to educate children in a Christian manner, and to defend the dignity and lawful autonomy of the family.
This mission-to be the first and vital cell of society-the family has received from God. . It will fulfill this mission if it appears as the domestic sanctuary of the Church by reason of the mutual affection of its members and the prayer that they offer to God in common, if the whole family makes itself a part of the liturgical worship of the People of God. Among the various activities of family spiritual leadership may be enumerated the following: the adoption of abandoned infants, hospitality to strangers, assistance in the operation of schools, helpful advice and material assistance for adolescents, help to engaged couples in preparing themselves better for marriage, catechetical work, support of married couples and families involved in material and moral crises, help for the aged not only by providing them with the necessities of life but also by obtaining for them a fair share of the benefits of an expanding economy.
To facilitate the attainment of the goals of their spiritual leadership, it can be useful for families to be brought together into groups.[6]
12. Young persons exert very important influence in modem society.
Their heightened influence in society demands of them a proportionate spiritual leadership activity,
but their natural qualities also fit them for this activity. They should become the first to carry spiritual leadership directly to other young persons, concentrating their spiritual leadership efforts within their own circle, according to the needs of the social environment in which they live.[8] Adults should stimulate young persons first by good example to take part in spiritual leadership and,
if the opportunity presents itself, by offering them effective advice and willing assistance.
13. Spiritual leadership in the social milieu, that is,
the effort to infuse a Christian spirit into the mentality, customs, laws, and structures
of the community in which one lives,
is so much the duty and responsibility of the those who are neither clergy nor religious
that it can never be performed properly by others.
In this area the baptized can exercise peer spiritual leadership. It is here that they complement the testimony of life with the testimony of the word.[9] It is here where they work or practice their profession or study or reside or spend their leisure time or have their companionship that they are more capable of helping their brethren. The baptized fulfill the spiritual leadership of the People of God in the world especially by conforming their lives to their faith so that they become the light of the world as well as by practicing honesty in all their dealings so that they attract all to the love of the true and the good and finally to the People of God and to Christ.
They fulfill their mission also by fraternal charity which presses them to share in the living conditions, labors, sorrows, and aspirations of their brethren with the result that the hearts of all about them
are quietly prepared for the workings of saving grace.
Another requisite for the accomplishment of their task is a full consciousness of their role in building up society whereby they strive to perform their domestic, social, and professional duties with such Christian generosity that their manner of acting should gradually penetrate the whole world of life and labor. This spiritual leadership should reach out to all wherever they may be encountered; it should not exclude any spiritual or temporal benefit which they have the ability to confer.
Children also have their own spiritual leadership to do.
According to their ability they are true living witnesses of Christ among their companions.
14. A vast field for spiritual leadership has opened up on the national and international levels
where the baptized especially assist with their Christian wisdom. In loyalty to their country and in faithful fulfillment of their civic obligations, Catholics should feel themselves obliged to promote the true common good. Among the signs of our times, the irresistibly increasing sense of the solidarity of all peoples is especially noteworthy. It is a function of the spiritual leadership sedulously to promote this awareness and to transform it into a sincere and genuine love of brotherhood.
Catholics should try to cooperate with all men and women of good will to promote whatever is true, whatever just, whatever holy, whatever lovable (cf. Phil. 4:8).
They should hold discussions with them, excel them in prudence and courtesy, and initiate research on social and public practices which should be improved in line with the spirit of the Gospel.