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Baptism and Social Mission: 6 Not-so-Easy Reflection Questions to Ask Yourself About Baptism and Social Mission:

Inspired by Sacraments and Social Mission: Living the Gospel, Being Disciples–United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Franciscan Mission Service presents a blog series about the connection between our faith and our actions.

Sacraments and Social Mission focuses on the fulfillment of each sacrament as a call to mission.

1. In Baptism, the “one Spirit” makes us members of the Body of Christ and of “one another” (Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC], no. 1267).

Today, have you considered other people, including strangers or even rivals, as equal members in the Body of Christ?

2. Participation in the Communion of Saints requires a commitment to communion with Christ and “a life of charity” in “this world and in the next” (Christifideles Laici, nos. 17, 19).

How have your actions demonstrated your faith to the world today?

3. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church reminds us, “By Baptism, the laity are incorporated into Christ and are made participants in his life and mission” (no. 541).

The last time you made a mistake or did something you regret, did you respond in the spirit of conversion?

Mural from Cochabamba

4. Pope John Paul II writes, “Because of the one dignity flowing from Baptism,” every baptized person “shares a responsibility for the Church’s mission” (Christifideles Laici, no. 15).

Lately, what responsibilities for the Church’s mission have you assumed?

5. Christians believe that “Baptism does not take [the baptized] from the world at all.” Instead, the world becomes the “place” and “means” for the lay faithful to “fulfill their Christian vocation” (Christifideles Laici, no. 15).

This week, how have you fulfilled your Christian vocation?

6. Being “present and active in the world” is a “theological and ecclesiological reality”(Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, no. 543).

Has your presence to others today been a ministry?

Doorway in Franciscan Missioners’ residence in Bolivia

Posted On: January 8, 2014/Archive, Mission and Service

Tagged in:

baptism, , reflection questions, catholic church, communion of saints, pope john paul II, vocation

Franciscan Mission Service

We prepare and support lay Catholics for two-year international, one-year domestic and 1-2 week short-term mission service opportunities in solidarity with impoverished and marginalized communities across the globe.

The blog is maintained by the communications staff.