Nick Wagner is the cofounder and codirector of Team Initiation.
Imagine this scenario. It is late May, and an e-mail pops up from a seeker asking how to become Catholic. You’re exhausted from a very full “OCIA class” that just wrapped up on Pentecost Sunday. You dash off a quick reply letting them know you’ll be back in touch sometime in the fall when the
What if Jesus said, “Come back later”?
Here we are in September of 2026, and many catechumenate teams still haven’t recovered from the shutdown caused by COVID in 2020. Nobody is getting sick, but everybody is still exhausted. I joined a new parish four years ago and discovered the catechumenate team had disbanded. I volunteered to help rebuild it. It took a
Yesterday I got an e-mail from someone who said she is interested in becoming Catholic. In many parishes, the inquirer might get a reply that gives the date when catechumenate classes start. But that kind of reply deeply misunderstands the purpose of the first stage of the process — the Period of Evangelization and Precatechumenate.
The next team member you need to recruit: Ambassador of Welcome
While traveling recently, I went to Mass at two different parishes. Both liturgies were celebrated by the book. Both had a few genuinely uplifting moments. And yet, taken as a whole, they both felt flat. I spent some time reflecting on why, if nothing was done wrong, the liturgies were uninspiring. The presiding was competent.
Intentional liturgy: Teaching catechumens to fill in the blanks
We have been exploring the many sources of catechesis, and in this article, I would like to focus on the magisterium. Why is the magisterium important as a source of catechesis? The truth about Jesus and about our faith is always the same and unchanged since the moment of creation. However, our human understanding of
Using the magisterium to form catechumens: five documents every team needs to know
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
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
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
