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Book: Full-Time Christians: The Real Challenge from Vatican II Author: William Droel Twenty-Third Publications, Mystic, Connecticut, 2002, pp.119 Excerpt from Jacket: Are we Christians only when we are in church, when we pray, or when we specifically do good works? Author William Droel here posits a spirituality that is integral to the message of Vatican II, showing that it is in our everyday lives as Christians that the gospel message of Christ is fully realized. While Droel acknowledges the ministerial work that lay people do within the church as lectors, pastoral councillors, catechists, and the like, he believes that it is in the day-to-day interactions with our families, friends, community, and business associates that the essential nature of ministry truly comes to light. He examines a spirituality of work through the lens of home, workplace, and neighborhood, and states that the gospel message of Christ must be evident in our activity within each of these areas. Full-Time Christians is a work that will intrigue, challenge, and engage the reader with thoughtful analysis, cogent criticism, and insightful suggestions for adapting a lifestyle fully focused on a gospel way of life. It is a book for all people who love and cherish the Christian faith and seek a way to more fully live the good news of Christ in this world. Excerpt from book: In the last analysis, the church speaks to and acts upon the world through her laity. Without a dynamic laity conscious of its personal ministry to the world, the church, in effect does not speak or act. No amount of social action by priests and religious can ever be an adequate substitute for enhancing lay responsibility. The absence of lay initiative can only take us down the road to clericalism. We are deeply concerned that so little energy is devoted to encouraging and arousing lay responsibility for the world. The church must constantly be reformed, but we fear that the almost obsessive preoccupation with the church's structures and processes has diverted attention from the essential question: reform for what purpose? It would be one of the great ironies of history if the era of Vatican II which opened the windows of the church to the world were to close with a church turned in upon itself. |