Last week, I was meeting with a new inquirer in the Sr. Thea Bowman Room at our parish. Somehow, we started talking about the Christmas season. I quickly realized we were talking about two very different things. I meant the time between December 25 and January 6. She meant the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas […]
Why the liturgical year is your seekers’ best teacher
As we enter into the last part of the liturgical year, this is a good time for catechumenate ministers to think about how to help catechumens, candidates, and all the faithful understand time in a new way. Because as Christians, we encounter “God’s time” in a different way than we do with our everyday activities.
How Catholics think about time
We just finished our webinar on finding and preparing sponsors and godparents (Team Initiation members can view the recording here), and I’ve been reflecting on the experience. We can do all the planning, preparing, training, and strategizing we want—but at the end of the day, the Holy Spirit is running things. Right now, our parish
Finding the “perfect” sponsor: A Holy Spirit story
One of Pope Francis’s last official acts was to inaugurate a year of jubilee. We are still in that year (2025), which has been designated a Holy Year of Hope. Pope Francis invited all of us to live this year as “Pilgrims of Hope.” What does it mean to be a pilgrim of hope? So
Living as pilgrims of hope in the jubilee year
Yesterday, I asked Betty, our parish secretary, if she would consider sponsoring one of our inquirers. Most people feel honored when asked to serve as a sponsor, even if they eventually say no. Not Betty. She seemed a little perturbed—but didn’t say no. I tried to explain the role of a catechumenate sponsor over the
The roles of sponsors and godparents in the catechumenate
Catechumenate ministers often ask us what the best resource is for teaching catechumens and candidates. And the answer we give might be surprising! The best and perhaps least utilized resource for teaching our faith is the liturgical year. And this year, we have two great, unique opportunities to encounter Christ in the cross and the
How the liturgical year teaches us about the cross and the font
You can reflect questions for every Sunday of the year by clicking here. Twenty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time Background: There are two kinds of people that Jesus has problems with: first, the religiously self-righteous as we saw last Sunday when he criticizes the Pharisees for their status-seeking; and, second, those who are not wholehearted
Reflection Questions for RCIA Seekers: Year C – The 23rd-26th Sundays in Ordinary Time
What if I told you that baptism is NOT the real goal of adult initiation? Surprised? That’s the insight of Hendrik Manders, a Redemptorist priest and sacramental theologian who, along with others, shaped the renewed understanding of the catechumenate process after Vatican II. Manders’ goal was to prevent the not-yet-developed catechumenate process from becoming a
Growing committed disciples through the catechumenate
After Mass on Holy Trinity Sunday, an inquirer asked me to explain the Trinity. Standing on my left was a cradle Catholic parishioner, a pillar of our community, and on my right, a neophyte, recently baptized in the name of the Trinity. I first turned to the neophyte, asking if she’d like to share her
In a previous article, we explored the blueprint Pope Leo XIV laid out just days after his election. One of the six priorities he identified was that, as a church, we have to focus on loving care for the least and the rejected among us. This priority echoes Pope Francis and reaches back to Pope
Embracing the margins: What Pope Leo expects of our teams
