By Mark Gordon of Suicide of the West: A Continuing Chronicle of the West's Cultural Distintegration
At this year's Easter Vigil, I will celebrate the tenth anniversary of my homecoming to the Body of Christ, the Church. During Lent, I'll be posting a daily reflection on one of the practices, doctrines, personalities, and moments that have been particularly precious to me during my ten years as a Catholic.
Prior to a “shotgun start” at a golf tournament, the players are evenly distributed at every tee on the course and begin play at precisely the same time. A given player will therefore end his round on the hole (15, for instance) immediately preceding the one at which he began (16). This ensures that all the players will finish their rounds at roughly the same time, which is important because hot food, cold beer and prizes are usually waiting in the clubhouse.
A golf tournament with a shotgun start is a lot like the rich diversity of lay ecclesial movements in the Catholic Church. The goal of every “player” is the same - personal sanctity - but depending on which group one belongs to, the start and the path to completion are just a bit different.
So, for instance, members of Communion and Liberation take their formation and sustenance through Schools of Community which meet in academic settings to read and discuss texts that focus on the distinctive charisms - or graces - of C&L: the wonder of the Incarnation, an enthusiasm for it and a recognition of its reasonableness; the affirmation that Jesus of Nazareth is a present event in a sign of communion; and that only in his presence can man be truer and mankind be truly more human. The goal of Communion and Liberation is to assist its members to grow in holiness.
Members of the venerable Society of St. Vincent dePaul also seek to grow in holiness, but they do so by serving the poor: collecting and distributing clothing, maintaining food pantries, seeking donations to help those less fortunate with housing or utility expenses, and so on. Like members of C&L, Vincentians meet and pray together, but the special charism of the SVDP is to provide practical assistance to the poor.
Those involved in the Confraternity of Penitents seek to grow in holiness by living a modified version of the Franciscan rule of 1221 A.D. This Rule of Life prescribes specific daily prayers and a simplified form of life centered on penance and bodily mortification. The unique charisms of the CFP include humility and simplicity.
Now, you’ll note that the goal of each of these lay ecclesial movements is the same: the sanctification of its members. But each of them take a slightly different path to achieving that goal. The C&L is a more intellectual path, while the SVDP centers on practical action. The CFP, by contrast, emphasizes personal prayer and penance. However, members of the C&L certainly strive to serve the poor, while Vincentians seek humility and simplicity as highly as Penitents, who also value the intellectual formation of C&L. There is no “right way” to be found when comparing lay ecclesial movements; instead they are each expressions of the manifold “ways” in which grace can be enlivened in the lives of individual Christians. Everyone involved in these movements, to return to the golf metaphor, will complete their rounds, but they’ll play the course a bit differently than the group behind or ahead of them. And with the aid of grace, they’ll all end up at the Lamb’s Feast in the Heavenly Clubhouse.
A special note about one former lay ecclesial movement, now the only Personal Prelature in the Catholic Church: Opus Dei. Opus Dei was founded in 1928 by St. Josemaria Escriva, a Spanish priest. The goal of Opus Dei, like that of every extraordinary movement within the Catholic Church, is to assist members in their struggle for personal sanctity. Opus Dei’s unique focus is on ordinary life as the means - not just the context, but the means - for growing in holiness. It is predicated on the idea, later made explicit by the Second Vatican Council, that the laity have their own vocation that is every bit as vital to them and to the life of the Church as the vocation of priests and religious. It was the conviction of St. Josemaria that every baptized Christian is called to be a saint, and Opus Dei’s particular charism is the integration of the spiritual life with a person’s professional, social and family responsibilities.
Universal Call to Holiness, National Shrine
The members and associates of Opus Dei seek to become saints in and through the lay vocations - familial, social and professional - in which they find themselves. While some lay ecclesial movements encourage their members to withdraw from the world, Opus Dei encourages its associates to dive ever more deeply into the muck and mire of real life, and to find there the grace to become saints.
I have been a “cooperator” with Opus Dei for several years now, and it has been an amazing grace in my life.
From: http://suicideofthewest.com/?p=537
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