Monday, August 30 : Saint John-Paul II

The Second Vatican Council introduces baptism to us in these terms: “By regeneration and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the baptized are consecrated into a spiritual house”(LG 10). The Holy Spirit “anoints” the baptized, sealing each with an indelible character (cf. 2 Cor 1:21-22), and constituting each as a spiritual temple, that is, he fills this temple with the holy presence of God as a result of each person’s being united and likened to Jesus Christ. With this spiritual “unction”, Christians can repeat in an individual way the words of Jesus: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me”. (…) “The mission of Christ -Priest, Prophet-Teacher, King-continues in the Church. Everyone, the whole People of God, shares in this threefold mission” (…) The lay faithful are sharers in the priestly mission, for which Jesus offered himself on the cross and continues to be offered in the celebration of the Eucharist (…). “For their work, prayers and apostolic endeavours, their ordinary married and family life, their daily labour, their mental and physical relaxation, if carried out in the Spirit, and even the hardships of life, (…) all of these become spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Pt 2:5). During the celebration of the Eucharist these sacrifices are most lovingly offered to the Father along with the Lord’s body.” (LG 34) (…) Through their participation in the prophetic mission of Christ (…) the lay faithful are given the ability and responsibility to accept the gospel in faith and to proclaim it in word and deed (…). They exercise their kingship as Christians, above all in the spiritual combat in which they seek to overcome in themselves the kingdom of sin (cf. Rom 6:12), and then to make a gift of themselves so as to serve (…). Jesus who is himself present in all his brothers and sisters, above all in the very least (cf. Mt 25:40). But in particular the lay faithful are called to restore to creation all its original value. In ordering creation to the authentic well-being of humanity in an activity governed by the life of grace, they share in the exercise of the power with which the Risen Christ draws all things to himself and subjects them (…) to the Father, so that “God might be everything to everyone” (cf. 1 Cor 15:28; Jn 12:32).

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team