To print, download this activity as a Word document.
Download the Activity Sheet as a Word document.
Before this activity :
You might want to read the church document Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, for background.
You'll need:
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These quotes from Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. You may want to make a handout with them, put them on posters, or simply write them on the chalk/white board when they are needed in this activity:
"It is the special vocation of the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God's will."
"[Lay people] are called by God to contribute to the sanctification of the world from within, like leaven, in the spirit of the gospel, by fulfilling their own particular duties. Thus, especially by the witness of their life, resplendent in faith, hope and charity, they manifest Christ."
- A dictionary
- Copies of the handout "It's Your Call" for each participant.
Step-by-step
- Go around the group and invite each person to talk a bit about what he or she wants to do with his or her life, what he or she wants to be after graduation and perhaps college, what he or she understands to be the purpose of his or her life at this point in time.
- Point out that our understanding of all this changes over time, and that's OK.
- Discuss: How do you know that this is what you want to do with your life? Brainstorm a list of ways of knowing on the chalk/white board or easel pad.
- Point out that God speaks to us through the ordinary events of our lives. So, for example, if you want to be a veterinarian after college, if may simply be because you have an innate love of animals. You may not have ever thought of it before, as it seemed something you were born with and like something that comes naturally to you. But this could be one way that God is telling you about your calling, your vocation.
- Discuss: Why is it important that human beings have a sense of calling in our lives? Besides efficiently guiding us to chose our major in college, what does having a sense of calling or vocation do for the quality of our lives?
- Pass out copies of the handout, "It's Your Call."
- Discuss: What are two possible different meanings of this title? (Hint: In every day speech, what does that phrase mean? If you put the emphasis on the word "Your" and understand the word "Call" here to mean "vocation," what's the meaning then?)
- Read the sheet together.
- Discuss: Why does every person have a vocation of one kind or another?
- Discuss: What are the three major categories of vocation within the church? Is any one of three a "higher calling" than the others? Why or why not?
- Post/pass out/write out the quotes from Lumen Gentium.
- Read and discuss the quotes, looking up in the dictionary any words that people do not understand.
- Discuss: What is leaven and how does it work? So then, what does it mean that we baptized lay people are called by God to live as leaven in the world? Leaven for what?
- Decide on which of the following projects you'd like to undertake as a group as follow-up activities and for further reflection on our vocations:
