Diana Macalintal is the cofounder and codirector of Team Initiation.
When we prepare to celebrate the major rites of the catechumenate, we often feel a heavy burden to ensure everyone in the pews knows exactly what is happening and why. This good intention often leads to the first major mistake: over-explaining. When we fill the sacred silence with verbal instructions and “institutional shorthand,” we inadvertently
The three most common mistakes catechumenate teams make in the rites
No matter how long you’ve been doing this ministry, all of us have been there—that moment you realize you have to plan your first rite. Where do you start? How do you know what to do? Especially if you’re brand new to catechumenate ministry, this moment can feel overwhelming. But there’s help! And you can
Best practices for preparing your first rite
They may or may not tell you directly. Yet you can feel it when your assembly is merely enduring the rites instead of praying them. Especially during Lent and leading up to Easter, there can be a kind of ritual fatigue. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We can learn something from the
Pray the rites, don’t endure them
It’s not something we often think about. But if we’ve been dismissing catechumens from Mass throughout their catechumenate on a regular basis, shouldn’t we also dismiss them during the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday? There are many reasons we might immediately dismiss this dismissal during the Triduum, such as, not having enough
Should we dismiss catechumens on Holy Thursday?
Before you start siphoning out the water from your font, covering it, or filling it up with anything else for the season of Lent, let’s talk about whether or not that’s a good idea. In this short video, Diana looks at what the Church teaches about the season of Lent and the liturgical guidelines we
Should we remove holy water from the font during Lent?
In this video, Nick and Diana cover one of the most common questions in catechumenate ministry: “How long is the catechumenate supposed to be?” Instead of locking initiation into a calendar or doctrinal checklist, the initiation process focuses on conversion to Jesus Christ. Using examples from their recent travels, they show how the catechumenate mirrors the
How long is the catechumenate supposed to take?
In this thought-provoking video, Nick Wagner and Diana Macalintal explore what medieval churches get both right and wrong about baptism and why their message still matters today. It is easy to walk into some of these massive structures and misunderstand that baptism is just a promise about the future, that holiness is something we have to earn,
What medieval cathedrals can (and can’t) teach your catechumens about baptism
Your catechumens are having epiphanies every day, but they may not know it. Or they may not know how to talk about it. In this video, Nick and Diana discuss how you can help your catechumens find and share their personal epiphanies. “Epiphany” is about more than just the three kings showing up to bring
Help your catechumens find their epiphany
What does it mean when we say, “The Word became flesh”? In this video, Nick and Diana talk about a unique nativity scene they saw at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris that caused them to reflect more deeply on the meaning of “word.” The word of God includes scripture but cannot be confined
What “Word became flesh” means
Diana and I are continuing our pilgrimage. This week, we are in Rome, waiting for a papal audience with Pope Leo. Why did we choose to come here? And why did thousands of other people from about the world make the same choice? Watch this video to discover what makes a place meaningful. Learn how
