Universal call to holiness
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"Universal Call to Holiness and Apostolate" is a teaching of the Roman Catholic Church that all human beings are called to be holy. Not only does this term cover the need for all to enter the Roman Catholic Church (like the term "Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus", meaning that there is no salvation outside the Roman Catholic Church which means, according to the Roman Catholic Catechism that all salvation comes from Christ, the head of the mystical body), but also states that all within the church should live holy lives and spread holiness to others. This term is used by theologians primarily to stress that a Roman Catholic cannot think that a different standard applies to those who are "saints", or those in the religious life. It ties in with the theological concept of "perfection", and with the saying of Jesus "Be ye perfect as your heavenly father is perfect" (Template:Bibleverse).
The universal call to holiness in the Roman Catholic Church is rooted in baptism, a sacrament which configures a person to Jesus Christ who is God and man, thus uniting a person with the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, bringing him in communion with intra-trinitarian life.
As John Paul II states in At the Beginning of the New Millennium, his master plan for the new millennium, a "program for all times", holiness is not only a state but a task, whereby Christians should strive for a full Christian life, imitating Christ, the Son of God, who gave his life for God and for his neighbor.
This entails a "training in the art of prayer"
According to the Pope, all pastoral initiatives have to set in relation to holiness, as this has to be the topmost priority of the Church.Template:RC-stub