118.6月19平信徒的聖召－白孟德神父（Fr. Charles Belmonte Lopez）語錄-譯者:林豪

What is the vocation of the laity? First of all, it is not equivalent to lay ecclesial ministry. To fulfill your vocation as a lay person, you do not have to become a lector or an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion or a catechist for the religious education program. Those are some ways of helping the priest to fulfill his mission in the Church, but they are not typical ways of fulfilling your mission as a lay person in the Church.

平信徒的聖召是什麼？首先，它不等同於平信徒的教會事工。要履行你作為平信徒的使命，你不必成為一位讀經員、或非常務送聖體員、或是教理培訓計畫的傳教員。這些是能夠幫助司鐸，完成他在教會中的使命，其中的一些方法，但它們並不是為了你，作為教會內的平信徒，所要完成使命的典型方式。

Don’t get me wrong; priests often need help with various things around the parish in order to fulfill their mission, and they are tremendously grateful for the assistance that lay people can provide.

不要誤解我的意思；司鐸經常需要幫助，為處理堂區周邊的各種事情，以完成他們的使命，他們非常感謝平信徒可以提供的協助。

But assisting the clergy is not the primary vocation of the laity. The laity have their own mission in the Church and in the world, for which they are better equipped than the clergy or the religious. That mission is to sanctify, evangelize, and Christianize the secular world:

但是，協助神職人員，並不是平信徒的主要聖召。平信徒在教會和世界上有自己的使命，因此，他們比神職人員或修會會士更有能力做到這一點。這個使命就是，將這個世俗的世界：聖化、傳福音和基督宗教化：

“The laity, by their very vocation, seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God. They live in the world, that is, in each and in all of the secular professions and occupations.

「平信徒的本有使命，是要在世俗事務中，照天主的計畫安排，而企求天主之國。他們生活在世俗中，就是說他們從事世界上的各式各樣的職業與工作，

“They live in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life, from which the very web of their existence is woven.

他們的生命和一般的家庭社會環境，交織在一起。

“They are called there by God, that by exercising their proper function and led by the spirit of the Gospel, they may work for the sanctification of the world from within as a leaven.

天主把他們召喚到這種地位上，要他們以福音精神執行自己的職務，好像酵母，從內部聖化世界，

“In this way, they may make Christ known to others, especially by the testimony of a life resplendent in faith, hope, and charity.

以生活的實證，反映出信、望、愛三德，以此方式，將基督昭示給他人。

“Therefore, since they are tightly bound up in all types of temporal affairs, it is their special task to order and to throw light upon these affairs, in such a way that they may come into being and then continually increase according to Christ, to the praise of the Creator and the Redeemer” (Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium 31).

所以，為使一切世俗事務得按基督的意志而進行，並為造物主救世主的光榮而發展存在，就要靠與這些事務密切相連的教友們，去發揚領導。」(梵蒂岡第二屆大公會議文獻，《教會》教義憲章，31)