meeting of the idea, monastic idea, and it was, you know, maybe have read these things, the laity and all these things, and the religious, but for the majority of the community, maybe time was, you know, a long past, a 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 life of the people of God and there of course clearly three groups appear one is the laity and the other one the religious and then the other one the hierarchy the

[01:26]

in 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 these acts of the council And the term laity is here understood to mean all the faithful except those in holy orders and those in a religious state sanctioned by the church. 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, a secular quality is proper and special to laymen.

[02:44]

That's the definition in which it is here. Taken, and that is in some ways the emphasis of the council is on that, and the use of the term laity. A secular quality, now I would like to, I didn't get the Latin text of it, this is the English translation, but so a secular quality is proper and special to laymen. 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.

[03:45]

So therefore, for concerning the hierarchy, the hierarchical state, the sanctity orders, orders is that action in which they are to which they are put into this specific group, this status. Then it continues as similarly by their state in life. You see, the hierarchy, the various orders are distinguished by the sacrament. Orders, ordained. They are ordained. The religions are not ordained. They don't belong to the hierarchy. But what are they? They have a status. And what is the... Of course, the foundation of their status is they are giving themselves through vows, which yesterday came out very clearly, to a religious state, vows.

[05:02]

In another context here, in the text of the Council, it says that the religious... are distinguished from the laity by, now it is said, by the entire surrender of their entire lives to the practice of the evangelical councils. 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.

[06:06]

And in this way, status in line, they give splendid and striking testimony. that the world cannot be transfigured and offered to God without the spirit of the Beatitudes, that it is called here. And then, but the laity by their very vocation, so that is a positive vocation, this to the state of the laity considered in this a more limited sense in which the Council understands it. That means that a secular quality is proper and special to the labour. And this special quality is a vocation, a positive vocation. Therefore, it's not something that is simply, they can't quite make a grade, you know, so are kind of left with the world or something like that.

[07:09]

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, 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. That clearly indicates the distinction that we have always try to make, also in the past, that one distinction is, of course, that the laity, the revocation, have a different pattern of life.

[08:18]

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, 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. 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.

[09:28]

They live it now in the community, and then you need a rule. But it ruled 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 in this, I mean, this whole status of the religious, also of the priests too. That doesn't exclude, you know, that 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, you know, this whole idea, for example, of education.

[10:33]

And again, of course, as soon as you come into the field of education, then the difficulties arise. And 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 and the difficulties arise, you know, how this is compatible. For example, if somebody is a teacher now, can the very rib 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 framework, the very rib, you know, the pattern of the sexual life.

[12:00]

Death is also, for example, I think was one of the difficulties in concerning the worker-priests. Of course, it is that if a worker-priest, to say, identifies himself with the working class, now to what degree can he identify himself as far as the, what is said here, the laity, the very web of his existence? is concerned. And that is, of course, on the part of the working class always. Yes, he is kind of, he works here in the family, but I mean, after all, he has no children and he has no wife and 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.

[13:01]

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 in the council text on the religious life where then the religious life in distinction to the lay life is kind of defined in this way that the religious at the moment here if you look at the religious life in number six where the religious then are defined in this way those who profess profess the evangelical councils love and seek before else that God who took the initiative in loving us

[14:32]

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. It's those who profess the evangelical counsels 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. I mean, where does the whole, let's not say, the whole root, you see, of their life, where is the root of all, the common root, is of course that love in which God takes the initiative in loving us.

[15:45]

It's evident. Baptism is the sign of God taking the initiative with us. Otherwise, the very entrance into the realm of Christianity, to 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 will reflect. 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. It doesn't make any difference. That's the common root of all asceticism.

[16:46]

And because Christian life is rooted in this love with what God loves us first, and that means through the death of the Lord and his resurrection, continued in our existence through the sacraments, and 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 way of existence, that means the very pattern of his life, is not formed by this. But it's very often fought, for example, by the exigencies of, let's say, of politics. We often fought, for example, take the soldier's life, the soldier's life, fought by politics. Or he is, you know, by business, and therefore the very existence of his life is fought, one can say, by competition.

[17:55]

And the necessity of not only survival, but the necessity of gain, you know, material gain. 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, you know, but by the love with which husband and wife 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 decisive factor. While in the religious life, in the realm of the evangelical councils, the agape is the only decisive factor and determines the varying weight of our existence. And, of course, For us, for the monks, 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 also for 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

[20:08]

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