This week I am beginning an ongoing exploration of the rites of faith formation. In order to explore the rites that can be used as a central experience of faith formation, I need to outline the structural process of the catechumenate. So, for those for whom this may be an elementary review, my apologies. As […]
It’s back. My neighbors have decorated their yards and porches for the “high holy day” of Halloween: Huge spiderwebs with big, scary spiders, orange strings of lights on porches, and ghosts fluttering in tree branches abound. As I observe these decorations on my morning walks during this brisk fall weather, those who encounter me see […]
Shortly after I started work on my masters in liturgical studies at St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota, Father Godfrey Diekmann, who had served as a Peritus (theological adviser) at the Second Vatican Council, spoke at a School of Theology convocation. I remember vividly this statement: “At Vatican II we rediscovered Christ”—words that warmed my heart […]
I remember well arriving Sunday after Sunday at my new “home church”—where the pastor was my husband—thus I was arriving alone. Many people would greet me, but few made an effort to engage me in meaningful conversation or draw me into the orbit of their family or friends mingling in the narthex. Feeling lonely and […]
Written at the request of a deacon from Carthage, Augustine “undertakes the task of teaching the art of catechizing …” in this treatise of thirty-some pages in the print edition (quotation from introduction of the Benedictine edition, quoted in the Schaff edition). As catechetical teaching resumes in parishes, whether for children, youth, or adults, some […]
Cyril of Jerusalem (ca. 315-ca. 387)Students of early church liturgy and sacraments appreciate the catechetical lectures (sermons) of Cyril for the wealth of information he provides on the shape of the catechumenate in 4th century Jerusalem and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre built by Emperor Constantine. Preached to “the Enlightened,” those who had been […]
In the last two chapters of Your Parish is the Curriculum Diana Macalintal explores the shape of teaching or catechesis in faith formation. At its essence the catechesis is all about the experience of being with Christ Jesus through Word and Sacraments in the Christian community and reflection upon that experience. It is catechesis that […]
Throughout her book Your Parish is the Curriculum Diana Macalintal has emphasized that formation of the catechumens through the catechumenate happens in the life of the parish. In chapter 3 she discussed the ways that the assembly is involved in the rites of the catechumenate. In chapters 4 and 5 she turns toward the “The […]