"I want to be faithful to my baptism, to keep my life united to Christ present in all my brothers and sisters"
Formula of the Lay Assumption Commitment
Chapter 6, Way of Life
"I want to be faithful to my baptism..." perhaps these are the words that best define my vocation as a lay person since, through the Sacrament of Baptism, we become part of the Church and members of the Body of Christ.
And as a Church, in intimate union with God, we form one people: “The laity are gathered together in the People of God and make up the Body of Christ under one head. Whoever they are they are called upon, as living members, to expend all their energy for the growth of the Church and its continuous sanctification, since this very energy is a gift of the Creator and a blessing of the Redeemer." (LG IV # 33).
It is in the ordinariness of life that we the laity manifest, from our work, our families and in our daily lives, our belonging to the universal Church, responding to a concrete call in the midst of the people of God.
It is not a matter of "not being a cleric or a religious", but of responding to the call of the Lord Himself, to BE and BEING in the midst of the world, anticipating the Kingdom of God in daily life. "Adorer of the Father and Saviour of humanity, Christ calls us, the lay of the Assumption, to follow Him every day and to commit ourselves to knowing Him and making Him known, loving Him and making Him loved, and thus extending His Kingdom" (Lay Assumption Way of Life). Christ undoubtedly calls us to be a leaven of life in the midst of our society, putting ourselves at the service of His Word and being witnesses of the One Who sends us into the whole world: "Go into all the world and proclaim the Good News to all creation" (Mark 16:15-20).
My vocation as a lay member of the Assumption is born of an encounter with the good and merciful God, Who incarnates Himself in the faces of different men and women, who out of love for the Church, proclaimed the Good News of the Gospel throughout my life, with joy and enthusiasm.
Only after the experience of meeting the Lord incarnate in the other, with a life that is none other than the life of Christ Himself present in our brother and sister, in time and space, in the history in which we live and love, does He continue to meet us and say to us: "Come and follow Me".
This experience of encountering God is of vital importance in my life journey as a believer, since only from the encounter with the Lord can one follow Him, knowing in Whom I have trusted.
Every day that passes I try to live my lay commitment, as our Foundress would say, as fully as possible. Eleven years have passed since that Pentecost, when for the first time, in front of my community, I manifested the first "I want to be faithful to my baptism…”, eleven years of ups and downs, of joys and sorrows, of successes and errors, but without a doubt, eleven years of the presence of the One Who, with a wise and loving hand, leads our way. Eleven years, of a shared life project, since on this path I have always had my wife as a companion. Together we have been able to share, in the day-to-day reality of each one, the experiences that, without a doubt, have been shaping our lives.
And today, together with our son, we put ourselves every day in God's hands to be a testimony of love in the midst of the world.
We live out our commitment in ‘La Asunción del Barrio La Alegría’, trying to give answers to the different needs that arise in these times. From a project of shared mission in which every day we try to make the dream of Saint Marie Eugenie come true, to make Jesus Christ known, to love Him and make Him loved. Accompanying and allowing ourselves to be accompanied by each one of the persons who come to the Assumption Centre each day in search of a word, a gesture and a look that reminds us that He continues to encounter each person, loving his concrete reality.
Each day I thank God for the charism of the Assumption in us, for being able to live out the Kingdom in the manner of Marie Eugenie.
Thank you, Mother, for giving us the heritage of feeling loved by the God of LIFE, and for teaching us to fix our gaze on Him. Thank you for placing at the centre of our lives the One Who loves us infinitely, for making us participants in your great passion for the Kingdom and for announcing the Gospel with simplicity, a sense of family, generosity and enthusiasm. Thank you, Mother Marie Eugenie, for this charism that today extends to the great family of Assumption Together, who wish to live with strength this passion for the Kingdom of God.
Make us capable of being bearers of the Good News of God, of being educators in the midst of humanity and of continuing to transform history by knowing in Whom we have trusted.
Fali Moreno
Laity of the Assumption