Apostles Anglican Church
Fr. John A. Roop

The Priesthood of the Laity for Women
A presentation for Women of the Word
10 May 2025

The Lord be with you.
And with your spirit.
Let us pray.

Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers, which we offer before you for all members of your holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen (BCP 1979, pp. 256-257).

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

PART ONE: THE PRIESTHOOD OF THE LAITY

SOMETIMES, things that seem simple on their surface turn out to be surprisingly complex. Plumbing is that way for me. A “simple,” five minute job always takes me at least several hours and three trips to Ace Hardware in Rocky Hill. What seems simple — and should be — turns out to be complex, given my very limited knowledge and skill. And, take marriage, as a more substantive example. Two people meet, find they have much in common, experience a physical and emotional attraction to one another that seems to grow with time spent together. What could be more natural then, what could be simpler, than their marriage? To which I want to reply, almost anything else; almost anything else could be simpler than their marriage. Here, I am speaking of Christian marriage; I let non-Christians speak for themselves. Christian marriage is so complex and difficult that it should only be attempted by a man and a woman committed to martyrdom for the sake of Christ, and, in Christ’s name, martyrdom for the sake of one another. Much in the life of each person must die — must be put to death — so that the new life of the one married flesh might be born and flourish. What appears to be simple on the surface turns out to be surprisingly complex.

The same is true for the topic Deacon Michelle and I have been asked to address today: The Priesthood of the Laity for Women. That brief title — a title that seems, on its surface, so simple — poses three questions, all of which turn out to be quite complex.

1. What is the nature of the Christian priesthood? There are follow-up questions attendant to this: (a) What is the purpose and function of the priesthood? (b) How does one enter the priesthood: by calling, through choice, or in some other way? (c) Is priesthood for the few or for the many?

2. What is the relationship between the priesthood and the laity? In the Catechism from the Book of Common Prayer 1979, there is this question and answer:

Q. Who are the ministers of the Church?

A. The ministers of the Church are lay persons, bishops, priests, and deacons.

This seems to imply that there are two general categories of ministers — the laity and the clergy — and that the priesthood belongs to and within the latter category of clergy. So, what is the relationship between the laity and the priesthood as delineated there?

3. What does being a woman have to do with any of this? If we are saying that there is, in some sense, a priesthood proper to the laity, are we also saying that there is within that lay priesthood a unique priesthood proper to women — that lay women are different in their priesthood than are lay men? Gasp! Are we actually saying that men and women are different, after all, and that those differences might affect how each group is called to serve Christ, his Church, and the world?

The Priesthood of the Laity for Women:so, do you see now how complex this seemingly simple topic actually is? It is a theological and sociological minefield. I dare to step into it, to try to weave my way through it, only because I am amongst my family in Christ here, only because we love one another, only because we believe the best about one another, only because we trust one another. As always, I want to engage this topic in conversation with Scripture and with the mind of the Church.

Where to start? Priesthood is a theme running throughout the whole of Scripture. It is relatively common among the current generation of Biblical scholars and theologians to say that the Edenic human vocation — the commission God gave to Adam and Eve and intended for all their offspring — was a threefold ministry: King, Prophet, and Priest. What might that Edenic priesthood have entailed? Primarily, Adam and Eve and their offspring would have led all creation in worship of the Creator. Isaiah gives a tantalizing picture of creation’s worship:

12 “For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands (Isa 55:12, ESV).

The same theme runs through the Psalms, with Psalm 98 being typical:

Let the sea make a noise, and all that is in it,*
the round world, and those that dwell therein.
Let the rivers clap their hands, and let the hills be joyful
together before the Lord,*
for he has come to judge the earth (BCP 2019, p. 85).

Mountains and hills singing, the sea and the trees clapping their hands, creation worshipping as humans (in this passage redeemed Israel) go out in joy and peace leading the procession and the worship. We see the same image in our canticle Benedicite, Omnia Opera Domini (A Song of Creation, BCP 2019, pp. 87-88). It begins with a holistic invocation, the human priests of God calling to all creation: Glorify the Lord, all you works of the Lord. Then the priests address three orders of creation specifically: the cosmic order — spiritual powers and the heavenly aspects of creation; the earth and its creatures; and finally, the people of God, calling all these orders to glorify the Lord — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — and to praise him and highly exalt him for ever.

With the various falls of man — the disobedience in Eden, the murder of Abel, the apostasy and division of the nations at Babel — the Edenic priesthood changed. No longer was priesthood a general human vocation. It was restricted, narrowed down and focused on a single family — the family of Abraham — and the people, Israel, who would come from that family. Within Israel, the priesthood was first exercised by the patriarchs of families and clans. Later, during and following the Exodus, the priesthood was restricted even further, to a particular tribe, Levi, and to a particular family within that tribe, the household of Aaron.

What did this Aaronic priesthood entail? It was a messy business: the slaughtering, butchering, and offering of animal sacrifices for purification. The priests stood between a sinful people and a holy God to protect the people from God, to purify them with blood so that God might live in their midst without his holiness breaking out in destructive force against the people. The priests also led Israel in worship: in feasts and fasts, in processions and festivals, in all the religious rites and rituals mandated by God. The priests proclaimed and taught the people the testimonies and commandments of the Lord. The goal of the priesthood was to make God’s people holy so that God might dwell among them and so that Israel itself might be a light to the nations to reveal the glory of the one, true God, drawing all nations to Him.

But, the priests and the people failed in this mission. As a consequence, the priesthood was once again restricted, narrowed down, and focused not on a single family this time, but upon a single person: Jesus of Nazareth, who came to be both the great High Priest and the great Sacrifice for the purification and redemption not just of Israel, but of the whole world.

Notice how, in successive stages, the priesthood has narrowed down: from all humanity; to a particular people; to a multitude of patriarchs in a multitude of clans within that people; to one specific family within one specific tribe; to one person, Jesus. The priesthood has narrowed to a single point. What next: with Jesus does it then collapse even further and disappear altogether? No; to the contrary, the priesthood opens out again to encompass all the redeemed. Jesus is the great High Priest and all his people derive their priesthood in and through him. Once again, we articulate the praise of all creation and present it to the Lord our God and to Christ the Lamb, as our canticle Dignus Es (A Song to the Lamb, BCP 2019, p. 84) proclaims. Let’s chant this together from the handout.

Splendor and honor and kingly ‘power*
are yours by right, O Lord our ‘God,

For you created everything that is,*
and by your will they were created and have their ‘being;

And yours by right, O Lamb that was ‘slain,*
for with your blood you have redeemed for ‘God,

From every family, language, people, and ‘nation,*
a kingdom of priests to serve our ‘God.

And so, to him who sits upon the ‘throne,*
and to Christ the ‘Lamb,

Be worship and praise, dominion and ‘splendor,*
for ever and for evermore. A’men.

So, yes, there is a Christian priesthood that all those in Christ are called to; we might call it the baptismal priesthood, since it is inherent in one’s new baptismal identity. And that baptismal priesthood recapitulates — it sums up — the Biblical priesthood in all its different forms and stages: it leads all creation in worship and articulates the praise of all creation; it purifies the world by its presence and its redemptive ministry; it serves as a light to those still in darkness, revealing the glory of the one true God manifest in the Lord Jesus Christ.

St. Peter makes this common, baptismal priesthood central to the pastoral theology of his first epistle; the whole letter works out the practical implications of that priesthood, and it is best read whole through that focal lens of priesthood, which, of course, we can’t do today, but which I commend to you. This central image of the baptismal priesthood is introduced in chapter 2, and we will mainly spend our time there, with brief forays into other portions of the text. As you hear these words (1 Peter 2:1-10), notice when and how St. Peter speaks of the priesthood. You might open your Bibles to 1 Peter 2 and follow along.

2:1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture:

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe,

“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,”

8 and

“A stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offense.”

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy (1 Peter 2:1-10).

Notice that St. Peter refers to these saints as newborn infants (vs 2). What is the sacramental imagery he is invoking there? Baptism: we become newborn infants in Christ in the water of baptism. So, he roots our priesthood in our baptism. Then the apostle encourages them to long for the pure spiritual milk, to taste that the Lord is good, and so to grow up in their salvation. What of tasting the Lord? What is the sacramental imagery there? That is Eucharistic imagery, tasting God. We are born in baptism, and we grow in and through the Eucharist. These Sacraments are the sources of all priesthood, whether lay or ordained: no baptism, no priesthood; no Eucharist, no priesthood.

Now, in discussing the implications of these Sacraments, St. Peter mixes metaphors in an interesting way, as if one way of thinking about it were not enough — and, of course, it’s not. What does he liken us to first in verse 5? We are living stones, laid upon the cornerstone of Jesus himself — a precious and chosen cornerstone — being built into a spiritual house. When you think of a spiritual house in Scripture, what comes to mind? The tabernacle first, then the temple. What is so special about the temple? What is its function? The temple is the place where heaven and earth intersect, the place where God dwells among his people, the place where God is worshipped. And remember — back to the creation account — the temple was not first a building, but a garden. Heaven and earth intersected there; man and God dwelt together there; God was worshipped there. And, Adam and Eve were to expand that paradise to encompass the whole world. What they failed to do, Jesus has done in his incarnation, death, resurrection, ascension, and sending of the Holy Spirit. There is a new temple now, not a garden and not a building but the people of God in whom the Holy Spirit dwells through the sacrament of baptism.

But the temple — be it building or people — needs something else to function properly. An empty temple won’t do. This is where St. Peter changes metaphors: not only are we living stones being built on Christ to be a spiritual house (temple), but we are also the priesthood in/of that temple (vs 5). Notice how St. Peter describes this priesthood in verse 5: holy priesthood. He uses the word άγιος for holy, and that word has a range of meanings and possible translations: purified, set apart for sacred use, saintly. A “holy priesthood” means a people purified by the blood of Christ and set apart for God’s use — no longer common but saintly.

So, here we are, a holy priesthood and a living temple in which God dwells in the Person of the Holy Spirit. Now, what are we to do as priests? According to verse 5, what kind of service does this priesthood render? According to St. Peter, we are “to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” What does that mean? What kind of spiritual sacrifices are we to offer? Here we might turn to the Eucharistic Liturgy for answers; of course, the liturgy simply expresses and presents the truth of God’s word in the context of worship. So, the liturgical answers are the biblical answers. Here is the two-fold answer the Anglican Standard Text gives for our question: What kind of spiritual sacrifices are we to offer?

And we earnestly desire your fatherly goodness mercifully to accept this, our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving (emphasis added); asking you to grant that, by the merits and death of your Son Jesus Christ, and through faith in his Blood, we and your whole Church may obtain forgiveness of our sins, and all other benefits of his passion (BCP 2019, p. 117).

A primary sacrifice of our baptismal priesthood is the Eucharist itself, which is a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. This sacrifice is unique to the Church; no other priesthood does or can offer the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the pinnacle of our praise and thanksgiving, but every other act of praise and thanksgiving is a sacrificial act flowing from it. Every expression of praise we offer, every moment of thanksgiving is in partial fulfillment of our priestly duties. And that raises the question: How can we incorporate praise and thanksgiving into our lives? What are some practical, tangible, and daily disciplines of praise and thanksgiving we can incorporate?

Our liturgy provides another answer to the question: What kind of spiritual sacrifices are we to offer?

And here we offer and present to you, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice (emphasis added). We humbly pray that all who partake of this Holy Communion may worthily receive the most precious Body and Blood of your Son Jesus Christ, be filled with your grace and heavenly benediction, and be made one body with him, that he may dwell in us, and we in him (ibid).

This goes right back to Jesus who was/is our great High Priest. What sacrifice did he offer? Himself, his soul and body, as a reasonably, holy, and living sacrifice. And, he asks us to do the same: first, to offer ourselves fully to him, but then to offer ourselves to one another — note the emphasis on being made one body — and even to the world (though that emphasis is not present until The Dismissal: “Let us go forth into the world, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit.”).

Let’s keep going with this idea of our baptismal priesthood of self-sacrifice. What does that look like with flesh on? In what concrete ways do we sacrifice ourselves, our souls and bodies, to the Lord? That’s the question St. Peter explores throughout the remainder of his epistle; we will simply skim it for now and note some high points, some bullet points.

Abstain from passions of the flesh (2:11).

Be subject to authority, even if the authority is not always just (2:13-25).

Wives, be subject to your husbands, i.e., respectful and of pure conduct (3:1-6).

Husbands, be understanding and gentle toward your wives (3:7).

Have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind toward one another (3:8).

Do not curse, but bless one another (3:9); be an advocate and not an accuser.

Suffer for the sake of Christ as Christ suffered for us (4:1, 12-16).

Love one another earnestly, show hospitality, and share the gifts you have been given (4:8-10).

These are all sacrificial acts because they all cost us something, not least our pride and our autonomy (having our own way). And that kind of sacrifice is inherent in our baptismal priesthood. Priests are those who sacrifice, who first and foremost sacrifice themselves.

But, there is more to priesthood than sacrifice. Verse 9 gives another function of our priesthood. What else — other than sacrifice — are we to do as priests? In St. Peter’s own words, we are to “proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” Proclamation, along with sacrifice, is an essential part of our priesthood. Think how this plays out on a liturgical level, in our common worship. An Anglican service is comprised of two parts which we call Word and Table. That is sacrifice and proclamation. We gather to hear the Word of God proclaimed: through our readings, in the Psalms and hymns we sing, in the preaching, in the Creed. We proclaim to one another — because we all take some part in this — the excellencies of God. Then we meet at the Table to participate in the sacrifice of Christ and to offer ourselves as living sacrifices. Every Eucharist is an exercise of our baptismal priesthood and is forming us in the two essential elements of it, proclamation and sacrifice, and strengthening us to exercise our priesthood in the world.

At the end of each Eucharist we are sent out into the world to love and serve the Lord, to do the work he has given us to do, to be the priests he has called us to be, because our priesthood is ultimately for the sake of the world. We have explored what sacrifice looks like in the world, but what about proclamation. What does proclamation look like in the world?

Let me suggest another aspect of proclamation that we would rather not embrace. A bit further on in his first epistle, St. Peter encourages the saints who are facing suffering.

14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil (1 Peter 3:14-17).

There is something subtle in this text, but really important for our priestly proclamation. All people are called to suffer sooner or later. In addition to the human suffering common to all of us, Christians may now and then and here and there experience a unique kind of suffering specific to the sake of Christ, peculiar to our priestly vocation. That is what St. Peter envisions. I would go so far as to say that all faithful Christians experience that kind of suffering simply because we are called to live differently than others. We are called to forgive and to turn the other cheek in a way that others are not. And forgiving is often painful, a real kind of suffering. We are called to pray for our enemies and to take upon ourselves the burdens of others in prayer and service. These actions are often painful. We are called to submit our will to the will of God and sometimes to submit to the will of those in rightful authority over us. Any loss of autonomy is a form of suffering. And so on. It is no exaggeration to say that if you have not suffered for the sake of Christ, it is not the full Christian life that you are living. Christ instructed us to take the cross daily and follow him; that is a life of suffering and martyrdom.

But notice that St. Peter’s emphasis is not on the suffering; that is simply the assumed backdrop of the Christian life. What is St. Peter’s emphasis for the Christian in the midst of suffering?

You will be blessed.

You need not fear.

You need not be troubled.

You will honor Christ.

And then there is this: be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Now, let’s put all of this together. How would you describe the state of the world right now — both the external world and people’s interior worlds? In the midst of chaos, conflict, confusion, distrust, the crumbling of the established order, the questioning of fundamental truths — in the midst of all of this, we, as part of our baptismal priesthood, are called to live without fear, without turmoil. We are to live as those who are blessed. We are to honor Christ. In short, we are to live with hope. Living that way is itself proclamation. St. Francis of Assisi is quoted as saying, “It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.” The way we walk, the way we live our lives, is a proclamation of something; St. Peter says it should be a proclamation of Christ.

But, when we proclaim Christ by the hope that is within us, it may — it should — prompt questions from those around us: how can you maintain hope in the midst of this…whatever trouble or disaster or suffering is current at the moment? Then we have the opportunity to present, in words, a defense for our hope; we have the chance to proclaim the Gospel with both our lips and our lives.

One more note before leaving this text from St. Peter. In verse 5, he calls us a holy priesthood: purified, set apart for God’s purposes. How does he describe the priesthood in verse 9? He characterizes it as a royal priesthood. Now, for a “trick” question: who were the royal priests in Israel, i.e., what Jewish priests were also kings? There were none; the two offices were separate. From David’s reign onward, the kings of Judah were from the tribe of Judah, but the priests, from the time of the Exodus, were always from the tribe of Levi. So, in Israel, royal priest is an oxymoron, a contradiction. Now, for a tricky question: where must we go in Scripture to find a royal priest? One notable royal priest was Melchizedek, who is described in Genesis 14 as the king of Salem and as a priest of God Most High. The writer of Hebrews makes much of this (cf Heb 5, 7, 8), that Jesus is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. Since Jesus is also the ruler of all creation, he is the great royal High Priest. Our baptismal priesthood is both holy and royal because it inheres in Jesus’ priesthood.

But, let’s keep following this trail. There was a royal priest before Melchizedek, two in fact. Can you name them? Adam and Eve were royal priests. We have spoken earlier of their priesthood, of representing God to creation and creation to God, of leading all creation in worship, and of articulating the praises of creation. But Adam and Eve were also royal in the sense of being given dominion over and care for all creation. This means that being royal priests was always part of the human vocation and calling. That calling was “derailed” temporarily by sin and death. But those have been vanquished by Jesus — whom Paul describes as the new Adam — so that humans, in Christ, can once again assume the vocation of the holy, royal priesthood.

We have gone some way in answering two of our three questions: (1) What is the nature of the Christian priesthood? and (2) What is the relationship between that priesthood and the laity? The remaining question is perhaps the one most interesting to this group: What does being a woman have to do with any of this? Is there some unique female priesthood within the baptismal priesthood of the laity? It is to that question that we will now turn our attention. But I think a brief time for Q&A followed by a break might be in order first.

PART TWO: THE BAPTISMAL PRIESTHOOD FOR WOMEN

The Lord be with you.
And with your spirit.
Let us pray.

We give thanks to you, O Lord our God, for all your servants and witnesses of time past: for Abraham, the father of believers, and Sarah his wife; for Moses, the lawgiver, and Aaron, the priest; for Miriam and Joshua, Deborah and Gideon, and Samuel with Hannah his mother; for David, King over Israel; for Isaiah and all the prophets; for Mary, the mother of our Lord; for Peter and Paul and all the apostles; for Mary and Martha, and Mary Magdalene; for Stephen, the first martyr, and all the martyrs and saints in every age and in every land. In your mercy, O Lord our God, give us, as you gave to them, the hope of salvation and the promise of eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, the first-born of many from the dead. Amen.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

So, the question before us in this session is this: What does being a woman have to do with this baptismal priesthood we have been discussing?

I start with this: it would be a theological and pastoral error to say that there is a unique female baptismal priesthood, to say that the common priesthood isn’t common after all, but rather is divided by gender. But I think it is both theologically and pastorally faithful to say that there are charisms characteristic of women — spiritual gifts — that make their exercise of the common baptismal priesthood different in character than that of men. In saying that, I’m saying nothing more than what Genesis says: that men and women are human in distinctive ways, that the genders are not interchangeable, and that each brings something unique and precious to the vocation of the common baptismal priesthood. I know this is a heretical position in a culture that says that gender is fluid, independent of biology, and solely a matter of choice. But the position I’m taking is mere Christian orthodoxy, and I assume I don’t have to give an apology for it here. Men and women are different, and not just biologically. To be clear, most of these differences are not absolute, but are a matter of degree: not always “either-or,” but instead “more or less.” Generally speaking — that is, on average —women are smaller than men and are not as strong physically as men. That being said, there are women who are both large and incredibly strong and men who are small and relatively weak. These exceptions are just that — exceptions to the general case. So, we have to keep this spectrum in mind as we talk, but present in the back of our minds. We allow for the spectrum, for the exceptions; but we don’t allow them to derail the general discussion. Men and women are different; thanks be to God.

Now a word about language. Having said that there is no unique female baptismal priesthood, for ease of communication I will nevertheless use the phrase “female priesthood” as a shorthand to mean “the common baptismal priesthood exercised by women and enriched by the distinctive charisms women offer.” You see why we need that shorthand!

Recall what we said in the first session about the fundamental nature of the priesthood: priests offer sacrifices — not least by offering themselves sacrificially — and they proclaim the Gospel, not only with their lips, but in their lives, by giving up themselves to the Lord’s service and by walking before him in holiness and righteousness all their days. There is more to the priesthood than just those two functions; there is mediation between God and man and man and God. There is leadership in worship that enables all creation to praise the Lord. We include all this and more under the general description of sacrifice and proclamation.

As we move into this second session I would like us to engage directly with Scripture and in discussion with one another, both small group and whole group. I want to begin with a question for the whole group — not rhetorical; I would like us to discuss this: What unique gifts/characteristics do you think women bring to the exercise of the baptismal priesthood? Remember that this may be a matter of degree and not of kind: not either-or but more or less. These gifts are not necessarily exclusive to women; men may share some of these gifts, but typically to a lesser degree than women. So, what do women especially bring to the baptismal priesthood?

[Allow time for discussion.]

Now, having thought about some of the gifts with which God blesses and equips the baptismal priesthood particularly through women, I would like us to consider how those and others, are manifested in Scripture, in the lives of particular women. We are moving from the general and abstract to the specific and actual. How did these women, in particular, exercise a priestly role? What can they tell us about doing so? Let’s break up — as you will — into smaller groups for this discussion. You will not be able to consider all the women on the list; I suggest perhaps three in the time we have (30-45 minutes). Please agree on someone to speak for your group when we gather again for a general discussion. In addition to this, I’d like you to consider a woman in your life who has exercised the baptismal priesthood particularly well and tell her story to your small group. Time permitting, we will share some of those with the whole group.

Mary (Luke 1:26-38; 2:22-35; John 2:1-5)

Anna (Luke 2:36-38)

Mary and Martha of Bethany (Luke 10:38-42; John 11:1-28)

Photini, the Samaritan Woman (John 4)

Myrrh-Bearing Women (Mark 16:1-8)

Dorcas/Tabitha (Acts 9:36-43)

Lydia (Acts 16:11-15)

Priscilla (Acts 18:1-4, 24-28)

“Romans” Women (Romans 16:1-16)

Conclusion

In these two sessions we have moved from theology to example. There is still one important step to take: incarnation, personal application and engagement. How can you — how will you — enflesh your unique spiritual gifts — your loves, your abilities, your opportunities, your life experience, your calling — to exercise the baptismal priesthood? Of course, each of you is already doing so. But, from time to time, a prayerful reflection on one’s life and ministry is warranted and helpful. What does the Lord want you to do now, in this stage of life? Who is he calling you to be? How would he have you fulfill your baptismal priesthood in this moment? These are good questions. Ask him. He will direct you. Toward that end, I would like to close with this Collect for Guidance:

The Lord be with you.
And with your spirit.
Let us pray.

Go before us, O Lord, in all our doings with your most gracious favor, and further us with your continual help; that in all our works begun, continued, and ended in you, we may glorify your holy Name, and finally, through your mercy, obtain everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.