I have exciting news to share. Pope Leo XIV has just issued a powerful, timely new resource to help us in our ministry. It is a letter (technically an “apostolic exhortation”) titled: Dilexi te (“I have loved you”). In the same spirit of Dilexi te, I wrote two letters, one to seekers and the other to
How to use Pope Leo’s first apostolic exhortation in your catechumenate
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
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
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
In the Catholic tradition, we call the Eucharist “food for the journey.” But there is another food that feeds us just as powerfully and richly. At the beginning of a catechumen’s journey of faith, we are reminded that the Word of God is a rich fare upon which we all feast. Hearing the Word is how we
Food for the journey of catechumens
