Archive for the ‘Easter’ Category

What are your plans for mystagogy this year? There may be several models to choose from.

In the June 2009 issue of This Sunday’s Scripture, Paul Bernier, SSS, writes in his commentary for the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ that the body is the “what” and the blood is the “how”: It might be pointed out that the now common practice of offering the chalice to the faithful [...]

When do you introduce your introduce your inquirers to Scripture? I think for most folks, it’s pretty early on. I try to at least connect the inquirers’ stories with a story from Scripture, even if I don’t pull out a Bible and read the story exactly. Certainly by the time they are showing signs of [...]

QWe have a catechumen who would have been initiated at the Easter Vigil last month, except her husband’s annulment had not come through in time. Now it has come through. She has been in the catechumenate for almost two years now. Can we celebrate initiation outside of the Easter Vigil? What about the Rite of [...]

I recently conducted a catechetical session for a parish that is planning to build a new baptismal font. To begin, I asked those who came—a rather large group of about ninety adults and teenagers—to recall a memorable experience of baptism they either took part in or witnessed. Everybody had one! They shared warm, enthusiastic memories [...]

During the Triduum, the question arises about when to dismiss the Elect and the catechumens. (If you are engaged in a year-round process, you will likely have both.) If parish leaders understand the liturgical role that the unbaptized have in worship, it will be clear that the Elect and the catechumens are dismissed before the [...]

Let’s suppose you want to honor the baptized by celebrating their reception into the Catholic Church at the first Sunday Eucharist after they are ready. How do you deal with the pastoral issue that they will feel like they are missing something in comparison with the Elect who will be baptized at the Great Easter [...]

When should baptized candidates be received into the Catholic Church? Paul Turner in When Other Christians become Catholic, says, “Whenever they are ready” (p. 161). The National Statues for the Catechumenate say, not “at the Easter Vigil lest there be any confusion of such baptized Christians with the candidates for baptism ” (33). We all [...]