This meeting of the monastic idea And it was, you know, we have read these things, the laity and all these things, and the religious, but for the majority of the community, maybe time was in the long past, the distant past at times. And it might be good maybe just to, in this whole context, just to refresh our memory about what the Council says. Yesterday it was so clear that we cannot speak about the monk monastic life without speaking about the structure of the whole

[01:03]

life of the people of God. And there, of course, clearly three groups appear. One is the laity, the other one the religious, and then the other one the hierarchy, the holy orders. And there is in the chapter on the laity, in the constitution on the church in chapter four, there's one little paragraph, paragraph 31, where, first of all, the term laity, as it is used in the, in these here, the act, these acts of the councils, In the term laities, you understood to mean all the faithful except those in holy orders and those in a religious state, sanctioned by the church.

[02:12]

See, therefore you have laity, holy orders, and those in a religious state, sanctioned by the church. And in distinguishing then these three states in the same paragraph is said, it is said, is secular quality is proper and special to layman. See, that's the definition in which it is here. taken. And that is in some way is the emphasis, you know, of the Council is on that, you know, and the use of the term laity is secular quality. Now, I would like to, I didn't get the Latin text of it, you know, I mean, this is, this may be the English translation, but so secular quality is proper and special to laity.

[03:16]

continues, it is true that those in holy orders can at times engage in sexual activities and even have a secular profession, but by reason of their particular vocation, that means formality, they are chiefly and professedly ordained to the sacred ministry. So therefore, for concerning the hierarchy, the hierarchical state, the sacred ministry, orders, you know, orders is that action in which they are, to which they are put into this specific group, this status. then it continues similarly by their state in life. So, you see, the hierarchy, the various orders are distinguished by the sacrament.

[04:24]

Orders, ordained, they are ordained. Religions are not ordained, they don't belong to the hierarchy. But what are they? They have a status. Now what is the, of course the foundation of their status is they are giving themselves through vows, and this yesterday came out very clearly, to a religious state. Vows, you know, in another context here, in the context of the Council, it says, you know, that the religious are distinguished from the laity by, now it is said by the by the entire surrender of their entire lives to the practice of the Evangelical Councils.

[05:34]

That will be the vow, the surrender of their entire lives to the practice of the Evangelical Councils. That would then be a status and that is done of course in a rule or according to constitutions sanctioned by the church because nobody can have a status in the church which is not sanctioned by the church and also under the supervision, control of the church. And in this way, statues and I, they give splendid and striking testimony that the world cannot be transfigured and offered to God without the spirit of the Beatitudes, as it's called here. And then continues, but the laity, by their very vocation, so that is a positive vocation, is to the state of the laity considered in this more limited sense in which the Council understands it.

[06:45]

That means that a secular quality is proper and special to the layman. And this special company is a vocation, a positive vocation. Therefore, it's not something that is simply, you know, because they can't quite make a grade, you know, so I kind of left, you know, with the world or something like that. No. It's a positive vocation. They seek the kingdom of God. Therefore, the inquiry is common for all. Seek the kingdom of God. but in a special way how? By engaging in temple 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. They live in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life from which the very web of their existence is woven.

[07:59]

That clearly indicates the distinction that we have always tried to make also in the past. that one distinction is, of course, that the laity, through evocation, have a different pattern of life. The pattern of life, it says here, the very web of their existence is woven by their secular position. While that is, of course, not true for the religious state. through the profession, you know, the religious status, is determined, I would say in this way, the very web and pattern of the existence of the religious is determined by what now the Council calls here the spirit of the Beatitudes.

[09:02]

So that would be the distinguishing mark, it seems. And that is, of course, what then is being tried to be expressed either in rules, where these religious live this web of the spirit of the Beatitudes, this pattern of life. They live it. or in the community, and then you need a rule. But a rule again, of course, approved by the church, in order to make it a status in the church, because that's a public thing, a status. And then the, the, in this, I mean, this whole status of the religious, also of the, that of the priest too.

[10:04]

That doesn't exclude. Now it's of course said of the priest first of all that there couldn't be also some secular occupation. Now in the case of the religious that's a different thing. There comes this This whole idea, for example, of education. Of course, as soon as you come into the field of education, then the difficulties arise. how far because education in that way is of course in one has a religious aspect but it definitely also has a secular aspect and is for example in our days say in its pattern very much determined not by the church anymore but by the state so that of course they are already in the occupation of education

[11:08]

And the difficulties arise, you know, how this is compatible. For example, if somebody is a teacher, now can the value live? of his existence, so to speak, be woven by his profession. I mean, there we get into border cases, you know, and what we call, sometimes we call it maybe the mixed life in another little different sense, you know, where the religious goes into a sexual occupation and then, of course, has to accept somehow the Now the framework, the very web, you know, the pattern of the sexual life tests also, for example, I think was one of the difficulties in concerning the worker priest, you know, and of course still is, you know, that if a worker priest, let us say, identifies himself with the working class,

[12:18]

now to what degree can he identify himself as far as the, what is said here, the lady, the very web of his existence is concerned. And that is of course on the part of the working class always. This chef, he is kind of, he works here in the family, but I mean after all he has no children and he has a wife and he He doesn't have, therefore, to work for a living. I mean, if he gets sick or he gets in old age, I mean, the church takes care of him. So he really isn't, the working worker would say, he really isn't of our very web, of our existence. So, I mean, there are these difficulties, but It seems, you know, that there is an important thing. It's also, I wanted to call your attention to another sentence here which concerns the religious life in the council text on the religious life, where then the religious life in distinction to the lay life is

[13:42]

is kind of defined in this way, that the religious, here, if you look at the religious life in number six, where the religious then are defined. This is why those who profess the evangelical councils love and seek before else that God who took the initiative in loving us. In every circumstance, they aim to develop a life, you know, in this way, hidden with God. Now, there are many other aspects which are, I think, important.

[14:49]

Those who profess the evangelical councils love and seek before all else that God who took the initiative in loving us. And then is the explicit quotation is given in the first epistle of St. John, the first chapter, the tenth verse. Now that is of course, in one way of course, the laity as well as the religious and the priest, you know, I mean, Where does the whole, let us say, the whole root, you see, of their love, where is the root of all, the common root, is of course that love in which God takes the initiative in loving us. It's evident. Baptism is the sign of God taking the initiative with us.

[15:50]

Otherwise, the very entrance into the realm of Christianity, into the kingdom of God, would not be through a sacrament. If it were not in the initiative of God, you know, who loves us first? That is what the sacrament really reflects. But of course the, you know, the status sometimes the Council says of consciousness of this, you know, are different, you know, in the various states. I would say that the divine agape, as such the love that seeketh not her own, is the root of all ascetical life in Christianity. Lay or religious or priestly, doesn't make any difference. That's the common root of all asceticism. And because Christian life is rooted in this love with what God

[16:52]

loves us first, and that means through the death of the Lord and his resurrection, continued in our existence through the sacraments, applied to us through the sacraments, that's the root of the ascetic life. But you see then, while for the lay Christian, the very web of existence, that means the very pattern of his life, is not formed by this. But it's very often formed, for example, by the exigencies of, let us say, of politics. It's very often formed, for example, take the soldier's life, the soldier's life, formed by politics. Or he is, you know, by business, and therefore the very existence of his life is formed, one can say, by competition and the necessity of not only survival, but the necessity of gain, material gain.

[18:04]

or in the family, you see, his very, very pattern of his life is formed, you know, not only by the love with which God loves us, but by the love with which husband and wife who love one another. This love, of course, can be and will be and should be consecrated by the agape, but the agape is not the only and decisive factor. While in the religious life, in the realm of the evangelical councils, the agape is the only decisive factor. and determines the very way of our existence. And of course, for us, you know, for the monks, you know, one mark certainly is that our life simply is patterned by our rule in such a way that the very order of our life I would say again, the very pattern of our life is clearly distinguished as given, consecrated to the glorification of God.

[19:17]

Out of the, of course, as our response to the divine agape, to that love with which God loves us first, because that's the root of our prayer. And that therefore, for example, the whole order of our life, at least up to now, the church has to try and try to express that, or the monastic life, try to express that through the canonical hours. That is a pattern in which then the entire life is put explicitly and deliberately and one can say even technically in its very pattern under the rule of the Holy Spirit. In that way, the public life of the church and the

[20:10]

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