Day 125: Vocation of the Laity

"By reason of their special vocation it belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God's will.... It pertains to them in a special way so to illuminate and order all temporal things with which they are closely associated that these may always be effected and grow according to Christ and maybe to the glory of the Creator and Redeemer." CCC 898

Today's reading in the Catechism concerns the great bulk of the Church other than the clergy and Religious, that is the laity. Through our Baptism, we are part of the People of God. We are, therefore, "made sharers in [our]  particular way in the priestly, prophetic, and kingly office of Christ" (CCC 897). We participate in the priestly office of Christ as the Catechism Compendium summarizes:

They participate in it especially in the Eucharist by offering as a spiritual sacrifice “acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5) their own lives with all of their works, their prayers, their apostolic undertakings, their family life, their daily work and hardships borne with patience and even their consolations of spirit and body. In this way, even the laity, dedicated to Christ and consecrated by the Holy Spirit, offer to God the world itself. (#189)

The laity are, as Pope Venerable Pius XII said, "in the front line of Church life" united together with the bishops and all the clergy in living out our lives for God, spreading the Gospel, and becoming a saint (CCC 899). The Catechism Companion, Vol II elaborates on this:

We were given a mission when we were baptized and confirmed. There are places where priests do not have access. As the saying goes, your life may be the only Bible someone else reads. Every aspect of your life can be offered and can become a sacrifice. Every moment in your life can be united to the Eucharist and offered to God. Laypeople's lives are meant to be lives of evangelization and mission. (p. 14)