text: Gee, St. Ambrose was a catechumen [not even baptized], when the people selected [voted for him] to be their bishop.  Augustine was a layman, when he was selected to be a bishop.
  It was the selection by the COMMUNITY that gave this power and authority to the person selected as the leader of a particular community of people---in a town or a part of a town.
  
  In a time even earlier than that, people selected their own presbyters [presiders] to celebrate the Meal [the Mass as we call it today].  Were they ordained?  NO!  But the people were Christians and they gathered together in Jesus' name to "do this in memory of him".
  
  We are and will be going back to this situation again as there are fewer and fewer priests.  And Jesus will be in the midst of these people as he had been in the early centuries of Christianity----in the deserts and in the catacombs.