Once upon a time, if someone said the word “mystagogy,” people would be bewildered. Not anymore. For more and more Catholics, the term has come into its own. I have been teaching a course on the history of the sacraments for coordinators of religious education at the Archdiocese of New York. In our first class,

Fiona and George were putting away the coffee pot and folding up the chairs after their mystagogical reflection session on the Easter Vigil. As they switched off the lights, Fiona said, “I wonder where Carmen was. She told me she would be here.” Carmen, one of the neophytes, didn’t come to that session or any