Archive for the ‘Neophytes’ Category

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

How’s mystagogy going for you right now? More importantly, how is it going for the neophytes? Some teams think the period of mystagogy ends with Pentecost, but that’s not what the U.S. bishops think. Flip your copy of the RCIA open to the very back and look for the the National Statutes on the Catechumenate. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Do you have any recommendations for “some sort of celebration” at the end of the Easter season that the RCIA mentions in paragraph 249? Our parish has traditionally done a “commissioning,” a blessing prayer over the neophytes by the community at the end of mass on Pentecost. Does it need to be on Pentecost or [...]

You know who they are. They’re the ones who keep coming back week after week long after the Easter Vigil and Pentecost are over. They light up anytime someone mentions the RCIA or the catechumenate or becoming Catholic. They want to be sponsors even before they’ve gotten the Chrism smell off their pillow case. They’re [...]

One of the complaints I sometimes hear from catechumenate teams is that the parish isn’t really the full expression of church that the catechumens-now-neophytes might have come to expect. It is one thing to catechize them fully and correctly about how word, worship, community, and service are fully realized in the Body of Christ as [...]

What do you do after the Easter Vigil? What does the ritual text call us to do and be for the neophytes during the sacred time of mystagogy? The following checklist will give you guidance and suggestions for effective mystagogy. . “Expect” neophytes to gather the week after initiation to share stories and pictures of [...]

What do I wear?! That’s a question I get often when I’m planning liturgies. Whether it’s the confirmation candidate, the newly-ordained, or even the bishop, himself, we have a natural concern over what to wear. The baptismal rite in the RCIA gives us at least one answer: Put on Christ. Therefore we physically clothe the [...]