The document discusses the vocation and mission of lay faithful. It covers topics like the call to holiness and mission, being partners in mission by avoiding false distinctions between the sacred and secular. It describes Pauline Cooperators as full sharers in the Pauline mission and their primary responsibility for transforming the world. It discusses the purposes of formation programs which include deepening understanding of one's baptismal call and specifying that call with a Pauline dimension. The document emphasizes experiencing God's love through faith in Christ and contemplating his face, which reveals the Father's face.

1. Vocation
and
Mission
of the Lay
Faithful

2. In the prayers he offered
every morning to the
Lord at the offering of
the chalice, his first
thought was of the
branch of Cooperators.

3. “So that this world can
be transformed with
the spirit of the
Beatitudes.”

4. Today there is the desire of individuals and of
groups to participate in the spirituality and
specific mission of Institutes of Consecrated
Life as one of the many complements of
vocations.

5. OUR CALL TO HOLINESS
AND MISSION
We are invited to see
ourselves in terms of who
and what we are, not in
terms of what we lack.

6. PARTNERS IN MISSION
To help us embrace the
call to go into the world,
we need to avoid a false
distinction between the
sacred and the secular.

7. Pauline
Cooperators
are
recognized
as full
sharers in
the
responsibility
for the
Pauline
mission.

8. Christfideles Laici
says that the lay
faithful have the
primary
responsibility for the
transformation of
the world their
specific vocation…

9. "A proper understanding
[of the mission and
responsibility of lay
Christians in the
Church and in the
world] can only be
found in the living
context of the Church
as communion.”
Christifideles Laici, # 18

10. Formation has a number of purposes
Initial Formation Program
• Deepens the person’s understanding of their
Baptismal call to proclaim the Gospel as an
apostle of Jesus Christ
• Refines that call by giving it purpose and
direction
• Specifies the call by spelling out its Pauline
dimension

11. Ongoing Formation Program
• Deepens the apostle's awareness of being
Church
• Focuses the sense of communion that leads to
mission
• Enlightens the apostle's life of prayer
• Imparts apostolic insights and skills
• Increases understanding of the Church's life and
teaching
• Creates a Pauline context or style to apostolic
work
• Offers support, encouragement and affirmation in
apostolic work
• Favors personal and collective growth
• Provides opportunities for apostolate

12. pauline cooperators
“Enrollment in the
cooperators is
preceded by suitable
instruction about the
identity and mission
of the Pauline
Family, and by an
adequate period of
experience in the
spiritual and
apostolic life.”
Statutes 10.1

13. Period of Inquiry
Session 1: Encountering Christ With Paul
Session 2: To Love is To Fulfill the Law
Session 3: “Be Persevering in Your Prayers”
Session 4: Collaboration With the Pauline Family
Session 5: Evangelization With the Media of
Communication
Session 6: The Pauline Charism

14. Time of Preparation
Session 1 Purpose of the Pauline Life
Session 2 Pauline Prayer Life
Session 3 Pauline Evangelization
Session 4 Pauline Charism
Session 5 “That Through the Church the Manifold
Wisdom of God be Made Known”
Session 6 The Mission of the Laity
Session 7 “That Christ May Live in Me.”
Session 8 Mary, Queen of the First Apostles and the
Apostles of all Times
Session 9 St. Paul the Apostle, Preacher of Truth
Session 10 The Word of God and the Eucharist
Session 11 “That They May be One.”
Session 12 Organization of the Pauline Cooperators

15. Initial requirements to attend the Period of Inquiry
• To be of good moral standing
• A well balanced personality, spiritually & psychologically
• Active participation in a church
• A spirit of hope and optimism
• A desire for personal spiritual and apostolic growth
• The desire and capacity to imbibe the Pauline Charism

16. The
distance
formation
program

17. Heavenly Father,
grant me the grace to fulfill my calling
By following your way of incarnate love
That I might make you known
To those I seek to serve in your name
Let me copy you, Jesus – Let me take from the
Church, the saints,
Theology, literature, journalism,
as bread is taken from a baker,
but convert it into my flesh and blood and give it to
those I serve
And share with them your food for the journey
So that they will come to you.

18. Let me absorb your life Jesus – let me live you
So that others may live you.
Holy Spirit, transform me, make me way, truth and
life
For my brothers and sisters. (Cf. Alberione, Jesus:
Way, Truth and Life, 159)
“Prepare our hearts, Mary, and obtain for us the
Holy Spirit.” Alberione
Holy Spirit, you who guarantee of human and
spiritual growth, be with us and guide us; water
the seed of the Charism planted in our lives.
Transform us, so that it is no longer we who live
but Christ who lives in us.

19. Spirituality is founded on
becoming “new creatures
in baptism and on being
one in the Body of Christ.
We express with our life
the holiness, communion
and mission of the
Church (VC 31).

20. Communion of
life becomes
a “sign for the
world and an
attractive
force that
leads to belief
in Christ.”

21. We take the
attitude of
witness with a
fixed direction
for journey to
the Father.

22. A mystic in the Pauline
sense is one who has
experienced the mystery.
Immersed, as in baptism.

23. The mystic is integrated and realizes
the journey in charity - the passage
to the interior to live the dynamic gift
of self donation - transformed by
charity - the Eucharist.

24. Knowing the mystery - taking on the
obligation of our baptism. We can be
sacramentallized but not evangelized.
Evangelize - life, culture, mind, will, heart,
mission, place of mission etc.
Come and see - John 8: Who are you?
Leave all and go on a journey. Leave all
your securities. Come - See - Believe.

25. “One who saw and his testimony is true.”
“That which we have seen, touched, heard...”

26. The common root of all the People of God is the
baptism that calls all to holiness, communion
and mission according to our state in life.
(VC 41.46; 30-31; MR 4-5)

27. To evangelize in the various situations in
which we find ourselves means finding the
strength to maintain alive and clear the
awareness of our Christian identity and
remembering that the power of God is
manifest in the weakness of the cross.
By Carla Romano, Pauline Cooperator - Italy

28. “The gift of his Spirit
and his love – are
meant for each
and every people
and culture, in
order to bring
them all into unity
after the example
of the perfect unity
existing in the
Triune God.
Pope John Paul II

29. Just as it is not Paul who does everything for
everyone –
it is Christ who became everything for
everyone -
so we as apostles can only announce this.

30. We are called upon to
experience God’s love
through the faith in the
risen Christ and the
contemplation of his
face, which reveals the
face of the Father.

31. Pope John Paul, in his address to the
Society of St. Paul repeated Blessed
Alberione's most famous words:
"If St. Paul was alive, he would continue to
burn with a double flame: zeal for God and
Christ, as well as for men of all countries.
And for them to be able to hear him, he
would climb the highest pulpits and multiply
his words with the means of present
progress: press, cinema, radio, television."

32. Come
to me,
all of
you.