What is a Lay Person?

I’m Baptized Christian, specifically a Catholic Christian, and as I am not a priest that means I am a LAY PERSON. Even monks, friars, sisters and nuns are LAY PEOPLE, unless the monk or friar is also a priest.  A Lay person is any baptized Christian who has not received Holy Orders.  That is pretty much every Christian out there.  We are all called to be Saints.

What does it mean to be a Christian and to become a saint?

To be a Christian is nothing less than turning our lives around and living the gospels.  It is all encompassing. No portion of our life should be lived apart from a conscious connection to God.

To be a saint is to live as a Christian so well that we will go to heaven when we die.  God gives everyone free will. Free will is the right and obligation to make our own decisions.  This means that we can decide to stop being a Christian simply by freely choosing to live a way that is not Christian. It also means we can freely choose to go God’s way.

Challenging isn’t it?

Fortunately for us God likes to help us be Christians.  We call God’s help GRACE.  This is given to us as a gift because, well, we humans have a tendency to do wrong and God’s grace helps us overcome that tendency.  Without God’s help there might not be any saints at all!

So, here I am, a baptized Christian, a lay person with the free will to decide to go God’s way and let God’s grace make that possible or not.  If I decide to go with God’s grace and choose to live as a Christian then I am choosing to become a saint.

How do I do that? Well, we all have vocations to help us become saints.

Next up: Lay Vocation