Day 125: Vocation of the Laity (2026)
5/5/202620 min
The term "laity" refers to all the faithful, except those in Holy Orders and those who belong to a religious state approved by the Church. We learn about the special vocation lay people have to seek the Kingdom of God as they engage in temporal affairs. They live in the world and bring the Gospel to places priests and religious cannot access. Father Mike explains that in this way, the lay faithful not only participate in the Church but are the Church. The laity participate in Christ's priestly vocation by making every part of their lives an offering to God. Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 897-903.
This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB.
For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy
Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsFather Mike Schmitz· Host0:00
[gentle music] Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to The Catechism in a Year Podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. In three hundred and sixty-five days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity in God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. It is day one hundred and twenty-five. We are reading paragraphs eight ninety-seven to nine hundred and three. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own Catechism in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com/ciy. You can check those days off one by one. And lastly, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Also, just a thank you [chuckles] for all those who have supported and continue to support the production of this podcast. We couldn't do it without you. Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your generosity. Amazing. So good. As I said, it's day one hundred and twenty-five, paragraphs eight ninety-seven to nine hundred and three. Yesterday and the day before, we talked about the episcopacy, right? We talked about the bishops. We talked about the Holy Father. We talked about the sanctifying office of the church, the, uh, of the bishops, the teaching office of the bishops, and the governing office of the bishops. Today, we get to talk about the lay faithful, which is a grace. Today and tomorrow. The third day, we'll talk about consecrated life. But today, we get to talk about the laity. So, what is the laity? Um, paragraph eight ninety-seven says, "The term laity is here understood to mean all the faithful, except those in holy orders,"