← [[session-01-asp|Who Is Called to Be a Secular Carmelite?]] | [[aspirancy-handbook|Table of Contents]] | [[session-03-asp|Introduction to the Main Legislative Documents]] → # Understanding the Vocation to Carmel as a Lay Person understanding the terms “laity” and “secular” Required Reading: Lumen Gentium, Chap. IV, The Laity – 31-41 (Appendix A); Constitutions References, footnote 1. Additional Reading: Lumen Gentium, Chap. V, The Universal Call to Holiness in the Church – 39; (Appendix B). Side Note: Our focus is our own understanding of what a vocation truly IS and how an OCDS Community is not a book study group or prayer group. It shouldn’t have a club mentality. Formation in Carmel is not a check list that tracks each book read and each class attended. Rather, it is a way of life that is lived 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to be embraced in our careers, our family life and our relationship with the Church. Essential points to discuss: • “The term “laity” is here understood to mean all the faithful except those in holy orders and those who belong to a religious state sanctioned by the Church” (LG 31, CCC 897). • The universal call to holiness. “All the faithful of Christ of whatever rank or status, are called to the fullness of Christian life” (LG 40). “The classes and duties of life are many, but holiness is one” (LG 41). • “The lay Apostolate is a participation in the salvific mission of the Church itself” (LG 33). 7 --- **Source:** Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites, *Aspirancy Handbook: A Journey in Carmel* (US National Formation Program, 2024).