Archive for March, 2009

Rehearse on the Saturday before Palm Sunday (not on Holy Saturday) Catechumens and candidates are not at rehearsal; their sponsors are and godparents are The pastor and the Vigil presider (if it is not the pastor) do not need to lead the rehearsal, but they need to be there Rehearse with the lectors—a lot Create [...]

To see how you might use one of these points in your catechesis, read “How to lead a 90-minute catechetical session.” The Way of Faith Explain that our faith is often tested by the trials of this world. In the news New claims for unemployment benefits last week rose to a seasonally adjusted 652,000 from [...]

We have a new pastor, and he told us that we are not supposed to be confirming adult Catholics at the Easter Vigil. If confirmation is an initiation sacrament, what’s wrong with celebrating it at the Vigil? Your question raises a larger issue of who should be celebrating sacraments at the Easter Vigil. I’ve seen [...]

  To see how you might use one of these points in your catechesis, read “How to lead a 90-minute catechetical session.”       The Way of Faith Explain that the tenth commandment forbids greed. In the news Obama administration officials and Republicans alike were nearly universal in condemning the $165 million in bonuses [...]

For some RCIA teams, the period of postbaptismal catechesis, or mystagogy, seems to be the most difficult part of the catechumenate to implement. I commonly hear complaints that “they don’t come back” for mystagogy, and I get requests for “a good resource” to use during the mystagogy sessions. To me, those kind of comments reflect [...]

In our Diocese of San Jose, we have dancing books for the Rite of Election. Now hold on before you start groaning as you imagine young waifs in tights and leotards flitting about the altar. Our Scriptural tradition has many stories of dancing—but the kind of dancing that comes out of ordinary, everyday people. David [...]

To see how you might use one of these points in your catechesis, read “How to lead a 90-minute catechetical session.” The Way of Faith Explain that, despite what is often reinforced in popular culture and even at times in the church, women have a primary role in carrying out the mission of the church. [...]

St. Augustine saw it as his duty to pass on four essential “sacraments” to the elect. These were the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the font, and the table. He would teach them about the table after their initiation; he would explore the meaning of the font with them on Holy Saturday, before the Vigil. And [...]

People keep usurping the word evangelization, and therefore make it more difficult for us to accomplish the primary mission of the RCIA—go and baptize. First it was the evangelicals, who used the word to identify a denomination of Christianity quite distinct from Catholicism. On the face of it, there’s nothing wrong with a denomination defining [...]

“Why can’t we use Year B readings this year for the Scrutinies?” “The assembly is missing out on hearing the readings for Year C. How come we always have to do Year A at the Scrutinies?” “We’ve written new scrutiny rites for the Year B readings. Can we use those?” I hear those questions every [...]