The first challenge, at least with regards to the lay movements, is to cultivate a sense of communion and dialogue to ensure the various movements are not in competition with each other. The movements should also work in the parish and diocesan structure to really be at the service of the local parish and diocese. The movements should work closely with the pastoral plan of the bishop and to support him in any way they can.

Another important thing is that lay people develop spirituality in finding God in all things. Spirituality isn’t simply doing “Churchy” things.

In other words, there should be no dichotomy between what you do in Church and what you do outside.

Yes that’s right. You know there is an Irish saying: Paddy Murphy went to Mass, and never missed a Sunday. And Paddy Murphy when to hell for what he did on Monday!

Indeed, lay people need to recognise that if we are to live an authentic spirituality, it will affect our social commitments, our duties towards the poor, how we vote, how we use our leisure time, etc.

When we talk about lay spirituality, how does family and marital spirituality fit in?

Well first of all, the majority of people get married. And as the Second Vatican Council reiterated, marriage is a call to holiness. And I think couples need to recognise it is a genuine path to holiness. And secondly, it is a way of growing in holiness together. And the way to do that is to recognise spouses are, in a sense, salvation for one another. That it is through their relationship that they grow in holiness. So when you think about marital and family spirituality, you have to ask yourself: what are the concrete disciplines and practices we can concretely place to help our family to grow?

One of the things I emphasised over the last few days is that people must find creative ways to pray together. I am convinced prayer rooted in the word of God is important because ignorance of Scriptures is ignorance of Christ. Do something as simple as take the Sunday reading home and, as St John Chrysostom said, “prepare a table of scriptures” and share the Word with your family. I think it’s important also for couples to find a short period everyday to find pray. The examination of conscience would be one example of taking a short moment to pray together.

What are some of the other challenges faced by the families of today?

The challenge of time. People are under tremendous pressure at work. And nowadays, even in the West, people hardly have meals together. When they do, it’s in a rush, everything is instant. I remember a story of a friend of mine who stayed with her sister and her family. And she opened her sister’s cupboard to see what was in there and there were takeaway menus! This is sort of a sign of the pressure people are under. And when you are under this sort of pressure, there is often a lack of communication and married life falls apart and family life falls apart so I think that a real challenge is to do the little things, to find regular time for family meals and to celebrate Sundays in a serious way.

I think another pressure is materialism and consumerism. For example, you might have a little grocery store in your neighbourhood already providing for all your needs, but somehow you gravitate to the supermarket which has supposedly everything. Wanting more puts great pressure on family life, often resulting in both spouses working to pay for what they need. I have a friend who always says “less is more” because if we can learn to simply our lifestyles, I think we could be happy in the end. So often, we even lose touch with nature because we are so caught up in our activities that we lose the dimension of the contemplative because we are not open to the beauty of creation.