The document discusses the universal call to holiness in the Catholic Church. It states that all lay people share in the common priesthood of Christ and are called to sanctify their lives and become holy. While individuals cannot achieve holiness on their own, the Church provides graces through the sacraments and its guidance to help lay people grow spiritually. The document also outlines how lay people can participate in their common priesthood through sacrifice and offering their lives to God, and explains that their secular vocation in the world is how they transform society according to God's will.

1. St. Joseph’s Cathedral
Cathedral Confirmation Class
Chapter 11: The Church in the Life of the Faithful:
The Universal Call to Holiness

2. The Church in the Life of the Faithful:
The Universal Call to Holiness
Poornima D’Souza
Email: pord_33@yahoo.com
Twitter & Pinterest: @pord_33

3. Litany of the Saints ~ Prayer
In the name of the Father…
St. Joseph, pray for us;
Blessed Virgin Mary, pray for us;
St. Peter, pray for us;
St. Paul, pray for us;
St. Therese of Lisieux, pray for us;
Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta,
pray for us;
All the angels and saints…. pray for us;
Amen.

4.  The Church has four identifying
characteristics or marks.
 They are one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.
Review Chapter 9 & 10

5. PPS –The Four Marks of the Church
Showcasing Students’ Work
http://catholicconfirmation.wikispaces.com/Chapter8
Review, Collaboration and Discussion

6. Classroom Discussion
 What is the vocation of the laity?
 What is the universal call to holiness
and how can we accomplish it?
 What place God might want
you to have in the Church?

7. Ch: 11– Performance Objectives
 Understand that we become holy by our
cooperation with the gift of grace
 Understand that we exercise our common
priesthood by offering our lives and sacrifices to
God for ourselves and for others.
 Understand that the vocation of lay persons is
secular; we seek to live our ordinary lives in
holiness and virtue.
 Understand that we are called to holiness and
sanctity in our lives through participation in the
liturgy and Sacraments, prayer, self-denial, and
apostolate.

8. Ch: 11– Performance Objectives
 Understand that fostering a good prayer life
is essential to living the call to holiness
 Understand that sacrifice and self-denial
help us build virtue and avoid sin
 Understand that we are called to be Christian
witnesses to the world by how we live

9.  We are all created in the image and likeness of God
 We have been given charisms (Graces and Gifts of the Holy
Spirit)
 Charisms enables us to build of the Body of Christ.
 The Church helps us cooperate with God’s grace to use these gifts
and by doing so we become holy.
Cooperating with Grace

10.  The lifelong challenge and goal of every Christian
 to know, love, and serve God in this life
 in order to live happily forever with him
 and all his friends (saints) in heaven.
Cooperating with Grace

11.  By Baptism we all sharing the one common
priesthood of the faithful
 Ordained ministerial priesthood shares in the
priestly ministry of Christ.
Living our Common Priesthood

12.  Sacrifice – offer ourselves to God and others
 We offer everything to God.
 Sin, possessions, work, prayer, sufferings, pleasures,
joys, relationships, etc.
How do we participate in this Common Priesthood?

14.  Laity means all the faithful except for those in
Holy Orders or in a religious state.
 The vocation of the Laity is to be in the world
and transform it as God wants us to
 People of God that share in Christ's office.
 Have a part to play in the church mission
The Vocation of the Laity

15. Answer the following question:
Reflection Question #1
We are called to participate in the common priesthood
by offering sacrifice. What type of things can we
sacrifice or give to God? (Silent read p.108)

16.  By our baptism we are all called to seek
holiness.
 We do this through prayer, penance, self-
denial, charitable works
 detachment from the things of this world
 Beatitudes, and more.
Universal Call to Holiness

17.  The Church is there to help us become holy.
 The primary way of sanctifying is through the
Sacraments.
 Christ confers grace through them that helps
us grow in holiness.
 The Church’s discipline or rules also aids our
sanctification.
 They help us to be faithful and stay united to
Christ.
The Church as Sanctifier

18. Christ confers grace through the sacraments:
 Baptism – incorporated into the church and become members
 Confirmation – strengthens us to live as mature Christians
 Eucharist – gives us Christ himself as spiritual food
 Penance – forgives our post-baptismal sins
 Anointing of the sick – helps us to face illness and death
 Holy Orders – gives men the power of acting in the person of Christ as a
bishop, priest or deacon
 Matrimony – makes marriage a means for spouses to grow in holiness
The Church as Sanctifier

19. Answer the following question:
Reflection Question #2
Why are the rules, also called the discipline, of the
Church, like going to Mass on Sundays, important for to
have and follow?

20. Those who ‘“seek God with a
sincere heart, and , moved by
grace, try in their actions to do
his will as they know it through
the dictates of their
conscience…may achieve
eternal salvation’” (CCC 847)
(p.110)
Salvation Outside the Church

21. Lay people share in the common priesthood
of Christ enjoy the universal call to holiness,
and can become holy by sanctifying all of the
events and circumstances of their lives in the
secular world. This is God’s will for them, but
it is something they cannot accomplish on
their own. They need the grace of the
Sacraments and the guidance of the Church
to grow and mature along the path to
holiness.
Conclusion

22. “Come Holy Spirit” ~ Prayer
In the name of the Father…
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your
faithful and kindle in them the fire of your
love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be
created. And You shall renew the face of the
earth. O, God, who by the light of the Holy
Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful,
grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may

23. Questions or Comments

24. References
 Hahn, S. The Church: Sacrament of Salvation (1998). Didache Series: Midwest Theological Forum
 http://www.stjosephcathedral.net/
 http://www.faithfirst.com/html/
 http://onecatholic.net/
 http://rlv.zcache.com/
 http://truthforsaints.com/
 http://www.wolframalpha.com/
 http://www.sfx.com.my/
 http://www.creativealliance.org/
 https://c1.staticflickr.com/
 http://newheavenonearth.files.wordpress.com/
 http://gardenofmary.com/
 http://taylormarshall.com/
 http://www.verybestquotes.com/

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26. THE END.