Page 18: Educating Together, continued

The contribution of lay persons to shared formation

30. While invited to deepen their vocation as educators in the Catholic school in communion with consecrated persons, the lay faithful also are called in the common formational journey to give the original and irreplaceable contribution of their full ecclesial subjectivity. This involves, first and foremost, that they discover and live in their "life of a lay person […] a specific "wonderful" vocation within the Church"[31]: the vocation to "seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God’s will"[32]. As educators they are called on to live "in faith a secular vocation in the communitarian structure of the school: with the best possible professional qualifications, with an apostolic intention inspired by faith, for the integral formation of the human person"[33].

31. It should be emphasized that the special contribution that lay educators can bring to the formational journey derives precisely from their secular nature that makes them especially able to grasp "the signs of the times"[34]. In fact, by living their faith in the everyday conditions of their families and society, they can help the entire educational community to distinguish more precisely the evangelical values and the opposite values that these signs contain.

32. With the gradual development of their ecclesial vocation, lay people become increasingly more aware of their participation in the educational mission of the Church. At the same time, they are also driven to carry out an active role in the spiritual animation of the community that they build together with the consecrated persons. "Communion and mutuality in the Church are never one way streets"[35]. If, in fact, in the past it was mostly priests and religious who spiritually nourished and directed the lay faithful, now it is often "the lay faithful themselves [who] can and should help priests and religious in the course of their spiritual and pastoral journey"[36] .

33. In the perspective of formation, by sharing their life of prayer and opportune forms of community life, the lay faithful and consecrated persons will nourish their reflection, their sense of fraternity and generous dedication. In this common catechetical-theological and spiritual formational journey, we can see the face of a Church that presents that of Christ, praying, listening, learning and teaching in fraternal communion.