Bulletin Article L05-C

 Baptistry mosaic of Christ, St. John's/Florence

  One of my greatest privileges as a priest and pastor has been to welcome people into Full Communion with the Catholic Church. Invariably, as I listen to the stories of people who have grown up in another faith or in no faith at all, when they speak of their encounters with the Church and its people, their family members who are Catholic, experiences of the Church through the media, such as EWTN, or by observing epochal events such as the election of Pope Francis or the festivities of a World Youth Day, I am moved by the way the Holy Spirit continues to draw people into this One Faith, One Baptism, and the One Lord of All.

  Lent is a time that is first and foremost a period of purification and prayer for those who are coming into the Church at Easter. In the early Church, participation by all the faithful in the penitential practices of the catechumens was a way that even ‘old timers’ and ‘cradle Catholics’ could re-live the excitement and beauty of their own baptisms, perhaps many years before. As the Church became stabilized in society, the numbers of adult converts decreased, and as the vast majority of Catholics would be baptized early in life, Lent lost some of its pre-baptismal focus and character. An effort has been underway in recent decades to reclaim that more authentic understanding of Lent, and to engage the faithful in fervent prayer and sacrifice, not only for their own good, but for the good of those who are embracing the death and resurrection of Christ through participation in the Easter Sacraments.  This process in most parishes is called the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, or RCIA for short.

   The RCIA is an adaptation of the ancient rites of initiation for our own times. Up to the 1960's and 1970's, the Roman Ritual provided for an extensive initiation rite, which was often shortened or dispensed with, which included elements that are brought out into the open and expanded over several weeks of ritual moments.  Most notably, the three pre-baptismal exorcisms (or scrutinies as they are called today) and anointings with the Oil of Catechumens are now adapted to public observance--even at Mass--in the weeks just before Easter Sunday.  While the catechumens are the subject of the rites, the public celebration is intended remind each of us of our continuing need for conversion toward God's light and life.  The Church offers the iconic images of the water drawn by the woman at the well, the light seen by the man born blind, and the new life of a raised and restored Lazarus to inspire that greater introspection and conversion on part of all the faithful.

  Take the time this Lent to actually pray and make sacrifices for those who are coming into the Church... make your Lent an offering for their continued conversion and peace over the monumental decision to become Catholic!  We look forward to Easter in just two short weeks, and look forward when, in God's grace, the unity of the Body of Christ will be made ever more manifest in the grafting of new members into the life of the Church.