April Letter 1991
THE PLAN OF GOD FOR THE CATHOLIC LAITY
It is that throughout our lives we shall do His Will. How? By observing His Natural Law, the Mozaic Law, as expressed in the Ten Commandments, and by observing the Higher Law of Jesus Christ as He taught us in Parables, Exhortations and Example. Obedience to these is what we were born and baptized for. They are what we shall be judged by at our last Judgement. For U.S Catholic men, honouring God through Christ and the Holy Spirit within the Holy Mass—learning by the sacred Readings and earnestly reciting the Lord's Prayer after the Elevation of the Host—it is clear to us that these must form the essential basis for what should be our life's preoccupation. Our Lord's instruction, "Let your light so shine before men that they, seeing your good works, will glorify your Father Who is in heaven", makes us realise that these good works must spring from a consciousness of humility. Hence this Plan of God must be for us a serious affair; we repeat to ourselves that this is what we shall be judged by. Of course we try in our various ways to follow the Supernatural Life— rightly, but we keep in mind as laymen, its essential basis (i.e. the Moral Law) for us who live in the world, "cheek by jowl" with people who largely ignore or even ridicule its very existence. Some of us alas are sullied by What then is the Plan of God within the Catholic Church for us Laity? We believe with loving gratitude that Bishops and Clergy mediate and convey Christ to us; while we who listen and receive are thus fortified in belief that our lifelong Duty is to be a ferment among our fellow-men, and examples of virtue in our homes. These we regard as our life-long Duty to God. From this we deduce that we must never regard the Church, and ourselves within it, as an Enclosed Religious Body; we resist any idea that such is God's Plan for us.
The College Clerk
Upper Laxton, Near Corby, Northants NN17 3AZ