We who live today in a notably hierarchical church do not always find it easy to appreciate the important role of lay people in the early church, especially of women, even though we have heard about it repeatedly in the readings at Mass on Sundays. When I notice people wavering about the importance of the laity in the church, I encourage them to read about Priscilla and Aquila. In the letter to the Romans Paul states that all the Gentile communities are indebted to this married couple (Romans 16:4). It is hard to find higher praise than that. These two great Christians appear on four occasions in the New Testament: in the Letter to the Romans (16:3), the First Letter to the Corinthians (16:19), in the 18th chapter of Acts (vss. 2, 18 and 26) and at the end of the Second Letter to Timothy (4:19). Today, inspired by documents like Evangelii Nuntiandi and Christifideles Laici (1988), lay men and women exercise a very wide variety of ministries, serving as heads of local church communities, both small and large, as catechists, teachers, directors of prayer, leaders of services of the Word of God, ministers to the sick in their homes and in hospitals, and as servants of the poor. The Catholic layperson of the 21st century should be capable of cooperating with other members of the church, standing at their side, promoting their gifts, generating group energy, encouraging young people to join forces in the service of the most abandoned.