Archive for the ‘Lent’ Category

One practice that has become somewhat popular is to remove the water from the font or cover the font completely during the Lenten season. While this may be a dramatic sign of thirsting and dryness, this practice does not in fact support one of the main themes of Lent: Lent is marked by two themes, [...]

As we approach Lent, it might be helpful to review some information about fasting and abstinence. There are many kinds of fasts, and several reasons to fast. As Catholics, we tend to think of fasting as either reducing our food intake or giving up a treasured treat. The New Dictionary of Sacramental Worship lists four [...]

Joe Paprocki has some serious concerns about Catholics celebrating a Seder Meal that I think are worth reading. His first point is the strongest: First and foremost, the Seder Meal is a sacred Jewish ritual. For Catholics to re-enact this sacred ritual is disrespectful of the Jewish tradition. (Imagine Jewish or Muslim children re-enacting a [...]

Rehearsal outline: Scrutiny RCIA 150-156, 164-170, 171-177 6:30 Before everyone arrives Turn on lights and put out microphones. Put the lectionary on the ambo. Put the presider’s script or ritual book on his chair. Put the catechumenate director’s script on her chair or pew. Place name tags in the pews where you want the elect [...]

The adaptation of the scrutiny rites for child catechumens is confusing (RCIA 291). Instead of clearly labeling the rites as scrutinies, they are called “Penitential Rites (Scutinies).” And even though the title is plural, only one text is given with an instruction to write your own for a second, using the given text as a [...]

We all know that we always use the readings from the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sundays of Lent, Year A, for the scrutinies, right? But do you know what Mass prayers to use? They are not the Mass prayers from those Sundays. Instead, whenever the scrutinies are celebrated, we use the Mass prayers for “Christian [...]

A number of years ago, I wrote a little book about election (On the Rite of Election, LTP, 1994) for the Forum Essays series. I felt that divine election was an important concept to grapple with, and that—for a variety of reasons—our liturgical celebrations of election were missing the boat. The main problem at that [...]

Rehearsal outline: Sending of the Catechumens for Election RCIA 106-117 6:30 Before everyone arrives Turn on lights and put out microphones. Put stand or table for the Book of the Elect in place. Place the book and a substantial pen on it. Put the lectionary on the ambo. Put presider’s script or ritual book on [...]

Lent comes early in 2008—February 6. That means that you only have a few weeks to decide who among your catechumens will celebrate the rite of election. Unless you have a year-round process, you’ve probably already made the decision. In most parishes, anyone who celebrated the Rite of Acceptance this past fall (or even this [...]

The Elect are about to join the royal priesthood, and it is time to start getting them used to their royal status. Here are 9 ways to help the Elect enter more fully into their preparation for baptism and Eucharist. Chauffeur them. At a recent Election Rite, a candidate was late for the liturgy because [...]