By Cian Molloy - 07 May, 2018
The mission of the laity is the focus for this month’s Pope’s Intention and Pope Video.
The Pope Video for May features lay people of all ages being mutually supportive to one another, in most cases giving one another a hug, a hold or a friendly pat on the back.
There is a link to the video on the home page of www.catholicireland.net. Those featured in the video include people who have just completed a run together, people who have swum together, a couple of rock climbers reaching a summit, a young couple moving home just before their child is born, an elderly father embracing his son, a young mother holding her child, two brothers – one with Down Syndrome – laughing together, a little girl hugging a tree and a farming couple at the end of a day’s labour.
“Lay people are on the front line of the life of the Church,” begins the Pope’s message. “We need their testimony regarding the truth of the Gospel and their example of expressing their faith by practising solidarity.
“Let us give thanks for the lay people who take risks, who are not afraid and who offer reasons for hope to the poorest, to the excluded, to the marginalised.
“Let us pray together this month that the lay faithful may fulfil their specific mission, the mission that they received in Baptism, putting their creativity at the service of the challenges of today’s world.”
Pope Francis’ choice for this month’s intention isn’t a real surprise given that the role of the laity has been an important theme of his papacy. His most recent apostolic exhortation, Gaudete et Exsultate – On the Call to Holiness in Today’s World, “reproposes the call to holiness in a practical way for our own time”.
One of the most practical ways to do this is to love and care for one another.
