Priests and lay persons are co-workers in the Lord’s vineyard. Each of us was first of all baptised as a lay Christian.

As priests we should never forget that our roots are in an ecclesial community. Our vocation is the fruit of the nourishment of many lay persons: our parents and family members, our teachers, those who we encountered in our search for deeper faith.

Our priesthood was generated, in that sense, from within the community of the faith of lay persons. As priests we are called to minister to lay persons but we should never forget that we still learn much of the essence of the Christian message from the Christian lives of those to whom we minister.