My dearest Consolata Lay Missionaries,
"You go too. The call is a concern not only of Pastors, clergy, and men and women religious. The call is addressed to everyone: lay people as well are personally called by the Lord, from whom they receive a mission on behalf of the Church and the world." (Christifideles laici, 2).
The Missions need you. The Call/Invitation to the Missions is the vocation of every baptized person in every Christian community. "The lay faithful, precisely because they are members of the Church, have the vocation and mission of proclaiming the Gospel: they are prepared for this work by the sacraments of Christian initiation and by the gifts of the Holy Spirit" (CL 33). Your Baptism gives you the "right and the duty" to commit yourselves "to making the proclamation of salvation known and accepted by all people throughout the world" (Redemptoris Missio, 71).
In spite of a long tradition of working with lay people that dates from the very beginning of our Institute we recognize that recent developments in the lay missionary movement and your own insistence constitute a sign of the times to which we must pay heed. Otherwise - as the XCG tells us - "we would neglect a genuine service to the missions and deprive the missions of potentially precious assistance" (XCG, 60). The Institute recognizes and joyfully accepts your lay missionary vocation; it is certain that your presence will "raise the value of witness, strengthen our ability to work together and to live out the mission in communion and complementarity" (XCG, 60).
Our common commitment to the missio ad gentes constitutes a first and fundamental bond between the Institute and you. This bond is strengthened by your desire to share directly in the charism, spirituality and heritage bequeathed to us by Blessed Joseph Allamano.
We see in this desire another gift of the Spirit which helps unfold the riches of our charism in complementary life-styles and in an understanding of the Church as communion.
In recent years reflection and discussion of these realities have become more intense. We have sought out better ways and methods to live our mission with the same spirit.
We believe the time has finally come for the Institute and the Consolata Lay Missionaries (CLM) to adopt concrete guidelines to launch our common mission apostolate and our sharing in the charism and spirituality of Blessed Allamano.
The General Secretariat of the Missions has carefully supervised the various editorial stages through which this document has passed. It is by no means a set of bylaws or statutes in the juridical sense of the world, but rather an outline, a point of departure. It contains:
- elements that have emerged in our recent discussions that are to be preserved and promoted; we think these elements are indispensable if we are to speak of "Consolata" lay missionaries.
- guidelines and suggestions offered purely as examples to assist you in the determining responsibly your own organization and mission commitment in the context of the real-world situation and the social-cultural environment in which you live.
On this basis we assure you of the Institute's commitment to welcoming you, guiding you, helping you grow, supporting you in every way possible, working together so that the good seed you represent will grow into a fruitful harvest for the sake of the missions and of the world.