Faithful attraction.

Two good friends of mine recently joined the same lay movement I belong to, the Teresians, an international association committed to the development of the full potential of human beings through education and culture. At the commitment celebration we had a good experience of faith and community, with the Eucharist, food, and fellowship. We felt renewed and energized. The following day they went back to their jobs--one as a writer, the other a doctor--at the usual time, with the same coworkers, as if nothing had changed. One of them told me that his commitment to God, to his wife, and to his baptismal promises seemed the same, only somehow confirmed, renewed, and strengthened. His life was the same and at the same time it was different.

Why then did he join? Why did any of us? St. Pedro Poveda, the Teresians' founder, said, "Your presence and mission is one of attracting people to the gospel; therefore, you must be attractive." My friend said he was drawn by a sense of community and faith, of hospitality and welcome. "What attracted me was finding a place where I can live an adult faith in a joyful way and deeply rooted in the Incarnation of Christ," he explained.

That is probably what attracted most of the 4,000 members of the association worldwide--and that is likely what attracts most people who join the lay movements in the church. And the attraction seems to be growing, as Renee M. LaReau reports in this month's cover story, SuperCatholics? Sizing up the new lay movements (pages 12-17).

Although there are concerns about some of the more controversial lay movements such as Opus Dei and Regnum Christi, most do offer everyday Catholics a way not just to feel warm and fuzzy in our own cocoon of community but to be salt of the earth in a mission of witnessing and human development. Members of the Teresian Association, for example, help provide drinkable water in rural communities in the Philippines, work to prevent domestic violence and abuse in Venezuela, and educate working street children in Colombia.

What attracts those of us in lay movements is knowing that God happens in the midst of whatever we are doing. That may perhaps look the same, but it will be totally different. We accept the challenge to be salt--perhaps hidden and maybe even unnoticed, yet making the flavor of life and of faith different. We accept the challenge to, in some measure, change the lives of other people, knowing that we do all this not by ourselves but by being rooted in a community that supports and sends us.