Institute founded to prepare lay Catholics for the apostolate to the world

The Catherine of Siena Institute was begun by the Western Dominican Province to provide programs that will enable parishes to become centers of formation for the laity, enabling lay Catholics to discern and live their individual vocations and to be creative and effective apostles in the world. The Institute takes its name from Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), a lay Dominican who was a remarkably effective evangelist and champion of the poor. She was called in to arbitrate feuds between cities, counseled heads of state, convinced Pope Gregory XI to return to Rome, and worked ceaselessly for the healing of schism in the Church. Catherine is the only lay person to have been declared a Doctor of the Church and is a wonderful patroness for an institute dedicated to the apostolate of the laity.

The Siena Institute develops parish-based programs that provide lay Catholics with the formation that they need in order to be effective apostles. Parishes have traditionally provided catechesis to prepare people to receive the sacraments. But lay Catholics are called not only to receive Christ, but to bring Christ to the world. Such a critical and challenging mission requires a deeper preparation than catechesis; it requires formation.

The purpose of formation is larger than personal enrichment or even personal sanctification. In the Catholic tradition, formation is always directed toward a life of apostolic engagement. As the Holy Father has written, "the fundamental objective of the formation of the lay faithful is an ever-clearer discovery of one’s

vocation and the ever-greater willingness to live it so as to fulfill one’s mission" (Christifideles Laici, 58). Lay apostles need a spiritual, intellectual, and personal preparation that enables them to integrate faith and life and that is equal to their mission: to be the presence of Christ in all the neighborhoods of the world.

Thirty years after the Second Vatican Council, there is still no widely available formation for lay men and women. There are particular programs and institutes for lay men and women, but they are usually expensive and inaccessible to most. Local parishes are the centers of spiritual life and Christian education for the overwhelming majority of lay Catholics. For formation to be generally offered to the laity, it will have to be made available through the parishes in which the laity normally gather to worship.

Our parishes can become centers of formation for the lay apostolate. The Western Dominican Province has itself embraced this vision for the parishes it administers – a vision that is consonant with the new evangelization to which the Holy Father is calling the whole Church. The resources necessary to turn our parishes into evangelizing communities and to deliver the formation that effective lay evangelists require are already available, in the lay men and women of our parishes. There the Holy Spirit has given us wonderful charisms of evangelizing, teaching, encouragement, administration, and leadership.

In order to make a comprehensive formation widely available in a short period of time, the Institute’s strategy is to provide two-day workshops taught by Institute staff while at the same time packaging the materials for parish implementation. Three programs are currently available as workshops – the Catholic Spiritual Gifts Discernment Program (in two parts, the Called & Gifted Weekend and the Extended Discernment Program), Being a Lay Catholic: the Call and the Challenge, and Discerning on Your Feet: Navigating Life’s Moral Complexity. The packaged version of the Called & Gifted Weekend will be available in late spring, 1998.

The Catholic Spiritual Gifts Discernment Program

The Spiritual Gifts Discernment Program is designed to help Catholics discern the charisms of the Holy Spirit that they have been given, and it helps them to begin to learn how to use those charisms to serve God and other people. There are many gifts discernment tools available to Protestants, but the Catholic Spiritual Gifts Inventory (a tool developed for use in the Gifts Program) is the only such tool designed to draw on both the rich magisterial teaching and tradition of the Church and the real, lived experiences of lay Catholics. The Gifts Program is usually introduced to a parish through the Called & Gifted Weekend, a Friday-night, all-day- Saturday workshop designed to introduce participants to the role of the laity in the Church and to begin a discernment of the charisms that each participant possesses.

Being a Lay Catholic:
the Call and the Challenge

By virtue of Baptism and Confirmation, lay Catholics share in Christ’s threefold mission as priest, prophet, and king. Being a Lay Catholic asks what this means on a practical level in the everyday lives of the laity. How are our jobs and professions linked to the Catholic faith? How do we integrate life "in the world" with our call to follow Christ? How does the role of the lay Catholic complement the role of the ordained Catholic?

Discerning on Your Feet: Navigating Life’s Moral Complexity

Most of our decisions are made "on the fly." When we have a decision to make, what questions should we ask? How do we prioritize our thinking? How can we be sure to do what is best? This workshop offers a practical guide for thinking and acting with Christ in our work and in our relationships.