Movements

At St. Paul’s National Seminary, we have eight apostolate movements namely; St. Egidio, Uganda Martyrs Guild, Focolare Movement, The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (Apostleship of Prayer), YCS (Young Christian Students) and Pioneer Total Abstinence. However, the number may increase when the spiritual department deems it necessary to introduce new apostolate movements.

THE RELEVANCE OF LAY APOSTOLATE MOVEMENTS

Spirituality and Experiences in Faith

The various groups and movements are held together by their interest in spirituality. The primary concern is not actions and programs, efficiency and strategy, but rather a renewal of human thinking and willing according to the spirit of the gospel. This spirituality is often based on great ideals and masters of spiritual life and uses often traditional but also new techniques and practices of meditation and prayer. The Lay Apostolate Movements also seem to have in common an impetus toward experiences in faith. They are not content with getting to know phrases and concepts externally, but - to say it in the classical tradition - they want to experience God from within.

Finally, in such intense Christian groups, a feeling grows for the necessity and for the gift of spiritual vocations. From the various movements already numerous young people have decided for official service in the Church as priests and religious men and women. “The lay associations and movements which are a sign and confirmation of the vitality which the Spirit guarantees to the Church can and should contribute also to the formation of candidates for the priesthood”

(Pastores Dabo Vobis, March 25, 1992, Art. 68).

New Relations of Laity and Office Holders

The Lay Apostolate Movements are largely maintained by the laity, even though many priests do hold or have held pioneer functions within them. The function of those in responsibility is to exercise guidance of the charism rather than to perform an office. Frequently we find coordination in the movements by a leadership team. Undoubtedly, in the spiritual movements, a certain renewal of the lay apostolate is taking place. However, beyond this fact, the spiritual movements are making a new relationship possible between the laity and the hierarchy. They do not stand in opposition to each other as different “classes”. They meet each other first of all on the basis of the commonly lived Christian faith. The common priesthood of all believers creates a basic community of brothers and sisters, which self-evidently allow for different duties and functions, and indeed downright demands and acknowledges them. The often fruitless opposition of institution and charisms, of hierarchy and laity, becomes more relaxed because, in the lived Christian life there is a presumption which comprises all opposites and tensions and thus, at least, alleviates them.

A New Form of Ecclesial life

The spiritual movements have always sought contact with the official Church. Being faithful to the local church is an important element for them. It is certainly also a sign of the Catholicity and breadth of the Church that the new spiritual communities and lay movements consciously continue within the Church and are recognized by it (Apostolicam Actuositateem, Art 21 and Christifideles Laici, 1988, Art. 30).

Fill the vacuum left by the priests and religious: There is a rapid growth of secularism and often times priests and religious are not sought or else are inaccessible in many societies. In this kind of situation, the lay movements in Christian communities help in carrying out the duty of pastoring to the people. Lay apostolate movements are avenues and platforms of practical catechesis and in so doing, church doctrines are taken up to grass-root levels of Christian community

Ensure spiritual nourishment

Since the laity, like the clergy and the religious are very much called to a life of sanctity according to his or her specific call and duty (LG, no.39-40); the lay apostolate movements are the rightful channels to this motive of the church.

The rights and duties of the lay faithful in the church are ensured

By virtue of baptism, the church’s members have the right and duty to participate in the mission of the church which generically is ‘apostolate’. These rights and duties are to ensure that the divine message of salvation may be known and accepted by all people throughout the world (Cf. Cans. 224-225). Within these movements, the individuals discern personal vocations, how God is calling each one of them to serve Him and the neighbor and carry out the redemptive work of Christ. They have the opportunity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to His will.

Evangelization and Catechesis

The Lay Apostolate Movements attach importance to the realization of the mission of preaching the Gospel, especially in areas where the Church can become “the salt of the earth” only through the apostolic testimonies of the laity. They are a participation in the salvific mission of the Church itself. The laity in their different Lay movements have a noble duty of working to extend the divine plan of salvation to all men and women of each epoch and in every land. Therefore, Church ministers should give them every opportunity so that according to their abilities and the needs of the times, they may zealously participate in the saving work of the Church (LG, 1964, Art. 33). In addition to this, Barbara Dent (The Gift of Lay Ministry, 1989) urges that the laity don't need to be professors of scripture or theology in order to fulfill Christ’s mandate of spreading his gospel. According to her, this is ensured by the laity: first, having personal relationship with and faith in Jesus and openness to the holy spirit; secondly, them having sound basic knowledge of the doctrine as interpreted to them; thirdly, them having love, knowledge and personal application of scripture especially the New Testament in their daily lives and fourthly, by them engaging in religious dialogue, not polemics while respecting other peoples’ beliefs and consciences.

Fellowship and Fraternity

Characteristic of the Lay Apostolate Movements is also the conviction of being believers on the way together. For some communities, the passage in the Sacred Scriptures, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt 18:20) has become their primary text; only through Christ and in Him is a true community and mutual fraternal like-mindedness possible. The experience of community life in the name of Jesus, however, is not an end in itself. It is from the beginning open to others.

Such a life in spiritual community is, therefore, stamped with a different sense of brother-sister fraternalism. This, by necessity, has a broad spectrum. It has the security and closeness of a small group, it also has the solidarity of larger communities; particularly in the Church, this means all-embracing Catholicism and internationality. That is why many apostolate movements also go out “onto the streets and to the edges”, the fringes and marginal areas of our lives. Brother-sister fraternalism becomes a ministry to others. The way to God leads through the brother and the sister.

Tasks in the World and Mission

As has already been pointed out, this brother-sister fraternalism is not only within the group but extends itself to all men. However, the Church’s mission in the world first turns to persons, who need help, and only secondarily do social and political structures become the center of interest. This is particularly obvious in the tasks of ministry. It is a characteristic of lay apostolate movements that their openness towards the world cannot be separated from their spirituality. Even if the world is the place of spirituality stamped with faith, hope, and charity, it still remains next to the last. So, the mission to the world of the new spiritual communities and movements also somehow always remains a sort of counter-project, an alternative, which certainly links them with some tendencies in certain groups of today’s subcultures. This, for example, is true of the search for alternate forms of life. But these are also being influenced by the spiritual impulse, which, for example, can be recognized by the often-practiced exercise of “days in the desert”. The sincere involvement in the world goes along with an eschatologically oriented renunciation. Here there are points of contact with the classic orders and with the secular institutes (VC, 62).

Social and material support

 The lay apostolate movements in our ecclesial communities have always been sources of assistance to individuals or groups of persons especially in moments of crisis. Such crises are precipitated specific traumatic happenings like the death of dear ones, sickness, accumulation of sufferings, intense loneliness, family challenges and many others. These put a person in the state of despair to the point that he or she loses hope and so unable to experience God’s infinite, merciful love; such a person also loses trust and faith in the Divine solution to his or her anguish.

Lay apostolate movements are not only concerned with spiritual but also the corporal works of mercy. The members pray with or for those in need of support, give them counsel, collect items in kind for the needy. By so doing, what is manifested is oneness in the body around Christ united by the bond of charity which he willed as a sign of his messianic mission, cf. Mt. 11:4-5 (AA, no.8).