We must reject the mistaken view that ordinary faithful should limit themselves to helping the clergy in ecclesiastical apostolates. There is no reason for the laity’s apostolate to be always a simple participation in the apostolate of the hierarchy. The laity, and especially the children of God in his Work, have a duty to do apostolate because they have a divine call as members of the people of God. And this is so, not because they have received a canonical mission, but because they are part of the Church. They carry out this mission, I repeat, through their profession, their job, their family, their colleagues, their friends.

Ordinary faithful

Most people, however, fail to see the apostolic effectiveness of what the laity do when, as normal faithful, they simply dedicate themselves to their ordinary work and thus set an example with their lives and use every opportunity to give doctrine. Those who think this way fall short in their vision and, I would add, even shorter in our case. It is thanks to our complete dedication and our correspondence – ecce ego quia vocasti me¹³ – to the divine call which we have received from the Lord, that we will achieve all this effectiveness, which they can barely glimpse.