The Claretian Volunteer

We, "Lay Claretians", are a lay movement initiated in the Chruch by St. Anthony Mary Claret in 1847. We are already present in 21 countries of Asia, Africa, America and Europe, committed to extend the Kingdom of God through the announcement of the Good News and the transformation of the temporal realities in which we live inserted.

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We will get in touch with you soon. If you wish, you may call or visit us in the General Mission Procure or in any of our branches closer to you. (see)

Who are The Lay Claretian Volunteers?

We, Lay Claretians, are Christians who seriously try to make our own the mission of Jesus in the Church a service of evangelization according to the charism and spirit of St. Anthony Mary Claret, always within our lay identity. We have St. Anthony Ma. Claret as our inspiration and father, and, together with the institutes founded by him, form the Claretian Family.

We, the Lay Claretians, are believers in Jesus, for whose cause -the Reign of God- we want to live and to fight as evangelizers and with full responsibility in the Church.

We share in the same charism lived by Claret and we find in his lifestyle and his mission the best expression of our own way of following Jesus. We live in communion with other followers of Jesus who have Claret as their inspiration, and form together with them the Claretian family.

Mission

We, Lay Claretians, are organized in small lay communities. With in the framework of our "lay Claretian Source book", every group or community freely organizes its own life and its evangelizing action.

The principal options that inspire our ecclesial commitment and that, as permanent attitudes, give direction to all our actions are the following:

full insertion in the world.

professional competence, that gives quality to our service to others.

commitment for the cause of the poor and action on behalf of justice.

incarnation in the local Church, and collaboration so that it may be born and grow inculturated.

promotion of a model of Church which is more communitarian and participative and in which all the faithful may be able to totally develop the responsibilities and demands of theirs personal ecclesial mission.

determination to multiply agents of evangelization.

missionary evangelization that keeps us always attentive and available to whatever is more urgent timely and effective in our service to the cause of the Reign of God.

We, Lay Claretians, carry out our evangelizing mission mainly in two different ways:

through Christian "animation" and thought action aiming at transforming the temporal realities.

and, specifically as lay, through our cooperation to the building of the local Church as community of faith, hope, charity.

Spirituality

Ours is a lay spirituality, and therefore:

The management of the temporal affairs, realized in accordance with the divine will, is for us a place of encounter with God and of identification with his plans.

We carry out our temporal tasks and our struggles for the transformation of the world in communion with Christ and impelled b the strength of the Spirit.

The Word of God, the Eucharist, prayer and the other expressions of our spirituality are strongly shaped by the situations, problems, struggles and aspirations of our people and lead us to our effective solidarity with them.

Our state of life and the professional service we render characterize also our spirituality.
The poor are for us sacrament of God's presence and our unequivocal place to encounter him.

The Sprit, who makes dynamic the historical processes of the oppressed peoples, impels us to a communion with them and with theirs struggle for liberation.

"God wants lay people to be fully involved in the work of evangelization" - Claret