As a member of the lay faithful, you are called by your Baptism to be an apostle to bring the Gospel message into the temporal realities of the world such as your family, neighborhood, work, parish, culture, the media, politics, sports, etc.
You are part of the priesthood of the laity who offer, by means of the hands of the priest in the Eucharist, Christ’s body and blood, soul and divinity with your entire existence as praise and thanksgiving to God, as intercessors for the needs of the world and in reparation and atonement for your sins and the sins of the whole world.
The Eucharist must be the source and summit of your Christian life. This leads to what St. Josemaría Escriva called a “priestly soul and a lay mentality.” From this Eucharistic source, you can propose the Gospel message as the best way to solve the personal and social problems of our times, as the best way to seek peace and justice in the family and among peoples, and as the best way to build what St. John Paul II called “a Culture of Life and a Civilization of Love.”
As a Lay Apostle, you are special in God’s plan for the New Evangelization. Your mission is to allow the Sacred Heart of Jesus to flow through you as one of His arteries to bring His grace, mercy and love to His Body, the Church. You can be a Lay Apostle! You don’t need any special education or training. Just be yourself, and practice your faith, hope and love. But you should do more than you are doing now. You should do this:
- Be Holy! Be personally holy according to your state in life as married or single. Learn how here.
- Practice the Blessed Virgin Mary’s personal spirituality of the Divine Indwelling.
- Love one another and your enemies. Forgive those who have hurt you. Be kind and gentle to others and respectful of them.
- Pray the daily Rosary, the Chaplet of Mercy, The Chaplet of Unity,and the Novena for True Hope and Change for America.
- Consecrate yourself to the Immaculate Heart of Mary (learn how here) and wear the Brown Scapular as a sign of your consecration. Click here to see it.
- Sacrifice through fasting on bread and water on Wednesdays and Fridays, if you are able, or make other acts of self-denial such as renouncing addictive behavior, not watching television or using computers, smoking, drinking, etc.
- Practice the First Friday Devotion of attending Mass and receiving Communion on nine First Fridays of the month in reparation for the offenses against the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
- Practice the First Saturday Devotion of praying the Rosary, meditating for 15 minutes on the mysteries, attending Mass and receiving Holy Communion in reparation for the offenses against the Immaculate Heart of Mary on five First Saturdays of the month with confession within eight days of each First Saturday.
- Practice the First Wednesday Devotion in honor of St. Joseph by attending Mass and receiving Communion in the same way that he received the child Jesus in his home in Nazareth and by praying the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary in honor of his participation in the Holy Family.
- Practice Holy Hours of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and visits to the Blessed Sacrament.
- Learn the Catholic Church’s teachings on faith and morals by reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Scriptures.
- Practice personal purity in your mind, your heart and your body, especially sexual purity.
- Avoid persons, places and things that are near occasions of sin.
- Receive the sacraments of Confession and Eucharist frequently.
For Your Home:
- Have your home blessed by a priest.
- Enthrone the image of Jesus King of All Nations for his promised protection of your home. Click here to learn how.
- Install and venerate the image of Our Lady of America as her promised safeguard for your home. Click here to learn how.
- Pray the family Rosary and pray together every day as a family before meals. Use Holy Water to bless yourself, your children and your spouse.
- Wear the medal of Jesus King of All Nations for his promised protection from chastisements and the medal of Our Lady of America for her promised protection from evil spirits. Click here for Jesus King of All Nations medals. Click here for Our Lady of America medals.
- Do not open yourself to demonic influences by viewing pornography, violence and horror, by listening to demonic music or by engaging in occult practices such as horoscopes, fortune-telling and demonic games or violent video games.
Practice Apostolic Action Such As:
- Be a missionary to the culture by speaking and writing seeds of truth in your own environment of family, neighbors, friends and co-workers. You may be the only Gospel that someone ever sees or hears!
- Communicate with your political representatives in favor of good laws and in protest against bad ones.
- Communicate with the media or sponsors in protest against any immoral entertainment.
- Serve in your parish on the parish council, or as lector, usher, sacristan, singer, teacher of CCD, youth or RCIA, in a prayer group or scripture study group, or help with maintenance and repairs.
- Serve in your community by works of mercy of visiting the sick, the poor and the prisoners, feeding the hungry, comforting the sorrowful and instructing the ignorant.
- Host a Visitation of an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe to your parish or home. Click here to learn how.
- Host a Visitation of an image of Jesus King of All Nations to your parish or home. Click here to learn how.
- Host a Visitation of an image of Our Lady of America to your parish or home. Click here to learn how.
- Be a volunteer promoter of devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Click here to learn how.
- Be a volunteer promoter of the Jesus King of All Nations Devotion. Click here to learn how.
- Be a volunteer promoter of devotion to Our Lady of America. Click here to learn how.
- Use whatever talents that God gave you to bring His Good News to our Culture of Death in the New Evangelization!
