Courses Archive - Page 4 of 4 - Lay Mission Project

Dec 02 2016

Scripture I

Introduction

Welcome to your first course in the rich tradition of reading Scripture.

This course will take a different approach than do many academic courses or Bible studies. Within the broader framework of Lay Mission Project, our primary aim is to develop a relationship with Scripture that allows us to know our Lord ever more deeply.

As you will see, this approach will draw from the full range of resources that can aid us. That means that we may rely upon tools of historical analysis, literary criticism and theological exegesis, but most importantly, our interpretations will first and foremost be rooted in prayer.

Required Reading

To lead us through this course, we are privileged to have with us renown Scripture scholar and professor, Fr. Francis Moloney, SDB.

To accompany the online component of the course, you will need a copy of the following:

The Bible
Fr. Moloney’s book, Reading the New Testament in the Church: A Primer for Pastors, Religious Educators, and Believers.

PLEASE NOTE:

In order to accommodate your calendar,
lessons are made available earlier than needed.
Here is a list of the lessons covered at each discussion:

Discussion 1: Lessons 1 & 2
Discussion 2: Lessons 3 & 4
Discussion 3: Lessons 5 & 6
Discussion 4: Lesson 7

Jun 28 2016

Spiritual Practices for “Ordinary” Christians

Introduction

Welcome to “Spiritual Practices for ‘Ordinary’ Christians,” a free course offered by the Lay Mission Project specifically for the busy layperson. The goal of this course is to introduce certain habits which any person can easily integrate into daily life to strengthen his or her relationship with our Lord. Although geared toward the laity, the spiritual practices offered are useful for clergy and consecrated religious, as well, especially those who have more of an active lifestyle and who are engaged in secular affairs.

Many people regard prayer as petition: asking things of God. Rather, properly speaking, all prayer seeks union with God, and for the Christian, it seeks intimacy with our Lord. The intimacy we seek is powerfully revealed in John’s Gospel when Jesus speaks of it in terms of the vine and the branches:

“Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. … If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love.” (John 15:4, 7-9)

We see that it is intimacy with Jesus that the Father desires, and it precisely this relationship that enables us to ask things of Him.

This course offers practical ways of nurturing your relationship with God through regular spiritual practices that can be integrated into your daily and/or weekly routine. The first two practices are the core spiritual practices recommended by the Lay Mission Project, and participants in the formation curriculum ought to try them out regularly for at least a month before evaluating their impact on their lives (additional practices will be added over time). After watching the video below, reinforce your understanding of the material by completing the course review that follows. You may take the review as many times as you would like. Once you feel that you have a good grasp of the material, continue to the lessons listed below the review in the “Course Content” section.

Review

When finished with the course review, feel free to move on to learn more about the spiritual practices included in this course. Although you may take the lessons in any order, the first two are the practices which the Lay Mission Project considers core to its formation curriculum. Therefore, when considering whether Lay Mission Project is a good fit for you, be sure to have a look at these.

Apr 22 2016

Test Course

Mar 14 2016

The Lay Vocation

Introduction

To be a lay person is not merely the “default” position in the Church. A lay person is a member of the Church who in baptism is called upon to participate in the salvific work of the Church in the secular realm; in a special way, the laity are commissioned to make the Church present and operative in those places and circumstances of daily life where only through them can the Church become the salt of the earth. Distinguished from the ordained clergy – whose fundamental calling is the care of the baptized – the calling of the lay person is to transform secular society through living the faith in all aspects of life: in the family, socially and recreationally, in one’s occupation, etc.

We will emphasize what is meant by “vocation,” particularly using St. John Paul’s apostolic exhortation, Christifideles Laici: to be a lay person is to be a member of the People of God and is to be called by God to participate as a member of that People in the redemptive mission of Jesus. We will show how the realization of one’s personal vocation is always manifested in the light of the vocation of the whole People. We will therefore consider:

the apostolic commission that each of us receives and to which we are called and appointed by God himself;
that we are therefore invited to understand the concrete circumstances of our lives in the light of what Jesus means for us to see and to accomplish as those who he calls, commissions and sends, meditating upon the real difference that this makes in our relationships and commitments;
the manner in which we participate in the priesthood of Christ – the royal priesthood – and the priestly, prophetic and kingly dignity of the lay person;
how the laity are possessed of “a secular character” and how the whole temporal order is entrusted, most particularly, to the laity;
how the realm of the “secular” was first conceived, what it meant and has come to mean;
how we can more deeply understand our present “secular” culture (making use of the “social imaginaries” of Charles Taylor) and how we are called to baptize the imaginations of our contemporaries;
the manner of our dependence upon each other in the particular work to which we are called, given our common vocation;
how we can accompany others in the light of Jesus’ instruction to us in the Beatitudes.

We will invite prayerful reflection and conversation around each of these topics, supplemented with brief readings taken from magisterial documents (especially Lumen Gentium, Gaudium et Spes, Christifideles Laici) and excerpts of works by Yves Congar, OP.