I frequently ask seekers to name an experience of the Holy Spirit they had within the last week. I am no longer surprised — but I’m always disappointed — when they tell me they’ve had none. Part of the reason for this is that our culture has lost the capability to recognize the deeper reality
Beauty as a source of catechesis
Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote in her novel, Aurora Leigh, this poem: Earth’s crammed with heaven,And every common bush afire with God;But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries,And daub their natural faces unaware. If “earth’s crammed with heaven,” then our liturgy is jam-packed with it! Yet too
Mystagogy: How to open the eyes and hearts of your seekers
Pope Leo has just given us a treasure chest of wisdom for our ministry. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it’s a really big chest and just getting the lid open is going to be a lot of work. I am talking about the pope’s recent encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas. The document is
The catechumenate in the age of AI
Are you looking for the “perfect” textbook for your catechumenate process? You might be asking the wrong question. In this video, I discuss the seven sources of catechesis identified by the Directory for Catechesis. Discover how to enrich your catechesis by exploring the Word of God (Scripture and Tradition), the Magisterium, the liturgy, and even
Seven sources of catechesis for your formation process
Everything I thought I knew about catechesis was wrong. When I was in my 30s, I began a career in Catholic publishing. I didn’t know anything about publishing, but I knew a lot about liturgy. My foot in the door was to edit a monthly magazine that was all about how to celebrate parish liturgy.
What I got wrong about catechesis
Almost every has one of the most effective resources for catechesis and formation right at their fingertips, but not everyone is using it! Are you one of them? Especially during the summer months when our faith formation gatherings might meet less often, we need some simple ways to keep forming our seekers. Teaching them a
Visio catechesis: A new way of seeing
Right now, I am meeting with two brand new inquirers. They are unbaptized and one grew up as a committed atheist. They are both bubbling over with God’s Spirit, but they don’t recognize or cannot name yet what is happening to them. They just know they are “looking for something.” They both asked me, separately,
Why the best sponsors are the ones who feel unqualified
When a new seeker shows up, do you start stressing over how to find a sponsor for them? Finding sponsors is often one of the most challenging parts of catechumenate ministry. But maybe that’s because we’ve been looking at recruiting in the wrong way. In this video, we explore why you may need to ask
A better way to think about recruiting sponsors
When I was in graduate school, one of my liturgy professors said that the sacrament is not in the book. It is in the community, gathered for worship. What I think he meant by that is that the ritual book is a script or an outline. But it is not the active presence of the
How to plan catechumenate rituals that transform your seekers
The Period of Mystagogy normally lasts from Easter to Pentecost. But our care and concern for the neophytes doesn’t end there. Simply because the initiation process concludes with this last period, the relationships formed between seekers and community still need nurturing—maybe even especially during this fragile time after being reborn in baptism. In this short
How do we support neophytes after the Period of Mystagogy is over?
