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Luther and the Small Catechism

Why Preach on Luther’s Small Catechism?

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Preaching on the Catechism is not necessarily the norm in Lutheranism today. However, preaching on the Catechism is strongly encouraged by Luther. In his German Mass, Luther stated the desire for regular catechetical preaching to train the young in the Christian faith. [LW 53, 64-69, 78-80, 86-87]

Luther wrote that preaching the “Catechism is doctrine at its best. Therefore, it ought to be constantly preached.” [Ewald Plass, What Luther Says, Vol. 1 (CPH, 1959), 125.]

Luther also stated the need for preaching the Catechism in the preface to the Large Catechism which is part of the Lutheran Confessions. “However, it is not enough for them simply to learn and repeat these parts [of the Catechism] verbatim. The young people should also attend preaching, especially at the time designated for the Catechism, so that they may hear it explained and may learn the meaning of every part. Then they will also be able to repeat what they have heard, and give a good correct answer when they are questioned, and thus the preaching will not be without benefit and fruit. The reason we take such care to preach on the Catechism frequently is to impress it upon our youth, not in a lofty and learned manner, but briefly, and very simply, so that it may penetrate deeply into their minds and remain fixed in their memories.” [LC, Short Preface, 26 & 27.]

Luther did not just encourage the practice of preaching on the Catechism, he actually did it! He preached catechetical sermons in 1516, 1517, 1522 and 1523. By 1522 Lutherans had established the practice of preaching catechetical sermons four times a year. The catechetical sermons Luther preached in 1528 helped to form the text of the Large Catechism. [Charles Arand, That I May Be His Own: An Overview of Luther’s Catechisms (CPH, 2000), 57-63.] Even before he wrote the Small and Large Catechisms, Luther had written several catechetical works. [F. Bente, Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (CPH, 1921), 76; LW 43, 3-45.] Having discovered this, I decided to engage in regular preaching on the Catechism. My approach took two paths.

The first path was a three-year series. The first year I would preach on the Sacrament of Holy Baptism in the Epiphany season, and the Ten Commandments starting in September when catechetical instruction began again. The second year I would preach on the Office of the Keys and the Apostles’ Creed in the same time frames. And the third year I would preach on the Sacrament of the Altar, and the Lord’s Prayer in those same time frames.

Occasionally I would preach a series of six catechetical sermons, one sermon on each of the Six Chief Parts of the Catechism.

In both of these approaches, the various parts of the Catechism that were being preached on would also be read and confessed by the congregation in the worship service. For instance, when the first part of Holy Baptism was being preached, the congregation would read/confess the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, Part I. Luther’s catechetical hymns should also be sung. Luther’s catechetical hymns helped to sing the Reformation Gospel of Jesus Christ into the hearts and minds of people. In the material that follows, Luther’s hymns are indicated by (ML). I had the selected parts of the Catechism read/confessed either at the beginning or end of the sermon, or at times before or after the creed.

If some of the readers of this blog have also preached on the Catechism, I would be interested in hearing how that was done. I will be happy to answer questions about my approaches to preaching the Catechism. To contact me, send an email to Rhoda@FormingLutherans.org, and she will forward your questions to me.

The desire of regular catechetical reaching is to strengthen the faith of all who hear them, and to help those hearing the sermons to love Christ as their Savior and have the blessings of eternal life.

Subsequent posts in this series will follow the approaches I took to catechetical preaching in the Sunday services (one post for each year of three-year cycle, and a final post on the six-week series on each of the chief parts of the Catechism). Each post will include suggested Scripture readings, sermon texts and titles, portions of the Catechism to be spoken during the worship service, hymn suggestions, and some theological and practical commentary about my lectionary and hymn choices.

If one is not regularly preaching on the Catechism I would encourage a continuous reading/confession of the Catechism in the Sunday morning church services. Such a practice helps people to recognize that the Catechism isn’t a book to lay aside after catechetical training is done. Such a practice helps to mitigate the “confirmation is graduation from the Bible and Catechism” syndrome, and helps the Catechism to be seen as a devotional tool to strengthen faith in Christ. 

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A New Series: Preaching the Catechism

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We are pleased to announce the start of a new series, Preaching on the Catechism. In September, when I attended the Go First! Ministry Conference sponsored by the Minnesota South District, I was curious about the workshop titled “Catechetical Preaching.” After attending the session led by Pastor Armand Boehme, I shared a bit of the content from his presentation with Kent. We both agreed that his work dovetails well with our goals for adult faith formation within congregations. We are delighted that Pastor Boehme has agreed to share with our readers the resources he has developed over his decades of parish ministry. Here’s more about him:

Rev. Dr. Armand J. Boehme serves as Associate Pastor, of Trinity Lutheran, Northfield, MN. He previously served other parishes in Wisconsin and Minnesota. He is a campus contact Pastor, and was a vicarage supervisor, mentor for colloquy and Ethnic Immigrant Institute of Theology students and a District LWML Counselor. He taught at seminaries and Bible schools in Kazakhstan, India, the United States, and Slovakia. He served on the Synod’s Commission on Theology and Church Relations (1992-1998, 2002-2010) and as the President of the St. Timothy Society, an organization which supported missionaries in Kenya.

He is a published author, having contributed essays to Martin Luther: Companion to the Contemporary Christian (CPH, 1982), and The Lutheran Difference: An Explanation & Comparison of Christian Beliefs (CPH, 2010). He and his wife Judy co-authored the 1983 LWML Bible Study, God’s Rescue Mission: The Story of Jonah (CPH, 1983). He also authored The Lutheran Difference: Angels and Demons (CPH, 2006). He currently serves on the board of the Lutheran Heritage Foundation, is involved with Sudanese ministry, and recently celebrated the 50thanniversary of his ordination.

Next week he’ll introduce the topic, followed by four more blog posts in this series. The first three of these four blog posts are one unit—his division of Luther’s Six Chief Parts spread out over a three-year lectionary cycle. He proposes one chief part beginning with the Baptism of our Lord (ending at the beginning of Lent), and the second set of sermons on the next chief part (generally covering more weeks) beginning in the fall. The final blog will outline a different model: A six-week series, with one sermon on each of the Six Chief Parts. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for a complete set of lectionary ideas, hymn selections, and other wisdom.

Luther Rose

Thanksgiving for the Lutheran Reformation

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I’m nostalgic for 2017, a year filled with special commemorations of the 500th anniversary of Luther’s 95 Thesis and the reforms of the church launched by that event. While most people today (October 31) are fixated on costumes for their kids, Halloween candy to give out, or creepy lawn decorations, I’m musing about Luther’s 1520 treatise The Freedom of a Christian (Quotations are from The Annotated Luther Study Edition, edited by Timothy J. Wengert, Fortress, 2016). Luther wrote: “In order to point out an easier way for common folk (for I serve only them), I am proposing two themes concerning the freedom and servitude of the spirit.”

The Christian individual is a completely free lord of all, subject to none.

The Christian individual is a completely dutiful servant of all, subject to all (488).

The remainder of Luther’s treatise shows how these paradoxical statements are both true. As a child and youth growing up in the Lutheran church, I heard a much greater emphasis on the first theme: the Christian is “completely free” and “subject to none” on account of one’s faith in Christ (not on one’s good works), and most of the preaching (that I recall, at least), centered on my future life with God in heaven, guaranteed by that faith in Christ. But having lived my entire adult life as a deaconess, with its emphasis on service, I revel in the interconnection of Luther’s two themes. Joyful service on behalf of others flows from the firm foundation of a person’s complete freedom through faith in Christ. Luther says it with greater eloquence in the second half of the treatise.

Up to now we have spoken about works in general and, at the same time, about those specific things that a Christian must do to train his or her own body. Finally, we will discuss those things done for one’s neighbor…. Thus, it can never happen that in this life a person is idle and without works toward one’s neighbors…. Nevertheless, no one needs even one of these works to attain righteousness and salvation. For this reason, in all of one’s works a person should in this context be shaped by and contemplate this thought alone: to serve and benefit others in everything that may be done, having nothing else in view except the need and advantage of the neighbor…. That is, with joy and love [faith] reveals itself in works of freest servitude, as one person, abundantly filled with the completeness and richness of his or her own faith, serves another freely and willingly (519-21).

Thanks be to God for the richness of Luther’s theology, that draws us into relationship with God through the person and work of Jesus and Christ, and then frees us for a life a service on behalf of others. Our world needs this message now, just as it did 500 years ago.

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Photo by Rhoda Schuler, 2024: Narthex floor of a Lutheran church in Colorado

Black Augustine of Hippo

Musings from Augustine of Hippo on Catechizing

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Last week I concluded with words from Ambrose that the goal of the catechumenate is “inebriation” in Christ. Arriving at that inebriation requires a well thought process on the part of the catechist. As William Harmless notes in Augustine and the Catechumenate, Augustine received just such a question from a catechist, Deogratias (what a baptismal name, God-thanking one), around 400 AD. Deogratias question essentially was, how shall I catechize effectively the inquirers, those entering the initial stage of the catechumenate. Apparently at that time in North Africa this stage lasted one session. In particular, Deogratias wanted to know how much of the biblical narrative he should cover. Augustine answered in his treatise, On Catechizing. The treatise has a profound influence on pedagogues and pedagogy in the subsequent eras of church life. However, I want to focus, as Harmless does, on Augustine’s response to Deogratias’ question. There are lots of things that could be done with inquirers, but ultimately the most important thing they should come to know is the story of God in Christ. That is exactly where Augustine points Deogratias.  As Harmless conveys, using Augustine’s words,

“The narrative is complete when the beginner is first catechized from the text, ‘In the beginning God created heaven and earth,’ down to the present period of church history.” This advice, at first sight, seems overwhelming: that the catechist should have to survey the whole of biblical and church history in a single speech. . . . He counselled—obviously tongue-in-cheek— against taking his suggestion too literally: “That does not mean, however, we ought to repeat verbatim the whole” of the Scriptures, even “if we have learned them by heart.” Augustine insisted that the catechist be selective: on the one hand, give a comprehensive survey, and on the other, highlight “certain of the more remarkable facts.” . . . . Augustine offered an analogy: one’s narrative should flow as though it were a valuable parchment being carefully unrolled and spread out to view that the audience might both examine it and admire its beauty. What guided this was a commonsense pedagogy: “In this way not only are the points which we desire to emphasize brought into high relief by keeping other in the background, but also the one whose interest we are anxious to rouse by the narrative (narratio) does not come upon them with a mind already exhausted nor with a memory confused” (Harmless, 126-129; De catechizandus rudibus, 3.6, 4.8).

In other words, “the case for Christianity” for the inquirers was best made by the story itself, and especially by its culmination in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. As Augustine says, “Christ came mainly for this reason: that we might learn how much God loves us, and might learn this to the end that we might begin to glow with  love of him by whom we were first loved, and so might love our neighbors at the bidding  and after the example of him who made himself our neighbor by loving us.” This was, for Augustine, the Christian message in a nutshell.

Inquirers through God’s story in Christ Jesus are inebriated with God’s love. If that is the end result of the period of inquiry, Alleluias will abound.

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Musings from Augustine of Hippo (and Others)

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I (Kent) am preparing to teach a graduate level course entitled, “Baptism and Conversion.” Central to the course’s  deliberation is the process of conversion facilitated by the catechumenate, both ancient and modern. As a lens into the ancient process, we are reading Willaim Harmless, S.J., classic research into the catechumenate of Augustine in Hippo, Augustine and the Catechumenate (The Liturgical Press, 1995). Augustine (and Harmless) still have much to say to us in the 21st Century as we seek to discern a catechumenal plan that is welcoming, formative, and spiritually persuasive. So I am going to let Augustine speak over the next two weeks, gleaning from him stalks of wisdom to feed our catechetical hunger.

As Harmless notes, his work is a case study:

“It will explore in detail what Augustine did with his baptismal candidates, what he said to them, and what his reflections on the experience were. And the approach will be to read the texts with an educator’s eye: to chart the course and rhythms of his catechesis; to note what issues he thought important, what language he used, what feelings he roused, what actions he called for; in other words, to discern how he envisioned conversion and how he nurtured it” (Harmless, 29). Language, action, feelings…definitely all parts of the conversion to the Triune God of the entire human creature. All of that experienced in the catechumenate process. And all of it bringing to reality for the catechumen: belonging, believing and behaving.

We neglect how people feel as part of conversion to our own great peril (and hinder the work of the Spirit in the process). As Rev. Dr. Scott Bruzek says (my paraphrase), “We used to ask people what they thought. Now we ask them what they are feeling.” That’s not meant to disparage what people think. But they go together and in the majority of cases in this current world what people are feeling is THE access point into building a relationship.

Augustine certainly didn’t ignore feelings. Of his own baptism in his Confessions he says:

“We were baptized, and all anxiety over the past melted away for us. The days were all too short, for I was lost in wonder and joy meditating upon your far-reaching providence for the salvation of the human race. The tears flowed from me when I heard your hymns and canticles, for the sweet singing of your Church moved me deeply. The music surged in my ears, truth seeped into my heart, and my feelings of devotion overflowed, so that the tears streamed down. But they were tears of gladness” (Confessions, translated by R.S. Pine-Coffin, New York: Penguin Books, 1961; cited in Harmless, 98).

This is the effect of the Word embedded in catechumenal sacrament and ritual. The Holy Spirit waters the emotions toward streaming tears of gladness. Augustine’s baptismal, emotional stream reflects what Ambrose taught him:

“You are inebriated in spirit . . . . for the one who is inebriated with wine totters and sways; the one who is inebriated with the Holy Spirit is rooted in Christ. And so, glorious is the inebriation which affects sobriety of mind” (Yarnold, The Awe-Inspiring Rites of Initiation, London: SPCK; cited in Harmless, 103).

When did anyone ever say to you that the goal of the catechumenate and of baptism is inebriation. Well, it is. Inebriation in Christ. Thus Augustine experienced his conversion. And so, we pray, might all of the church’s catechumens.

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Professor Schuler in the Library with the Book

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Earlier this week Concordia University, St. Paul hosted a book event to celebrate the publication of Journey to Jesus as a resource for the church. I had the “opportunity to thank publicly a host of people who helped bring this book to birth,” from my co-author, Kent Burreson—who had a vision for conducting research on the adult catechumenate and who invited me to join him in this project—to the student worker, Madi Patrow (now a DCE graduate serving in a congregation in the Twin Cities area) who “transformed my scribbled, chaotic [handwritten] interview notes into pages of order and beauty” (the quotations are from my comments at the event).

In addition to my public thanks to many, I also shared a bit about the book itself and our goals. Here’s what Kent and I submitted as our goal for the grant from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, which funded our initial research: “… to identify, implement and disseminate our findings about successful catechumenate practices in order to reshape and renew congregational life for American Lutherans” (emphasis added). We were a bit more modest in Journey to Jesus, closing chapter 1 with these words:

We make no claims of a magic bullet to save declining congregations,

nor do we offer a step-by-step “program” to implement

an adult catechumenate in congregations.

Instead, our research has led us to be descriptive, not prescriptive;

we narrate stories of individual lives changed

and of congregations with an ethos of outreach

in order to inspire pastors

and other church professionals committed to making disciples

to think in new ways (10).

It is our hope that people who read the book envision how they might structure an adult faith formation process that both “makes disciples” and imbues the entire congregation with a missional ethos, eager to be a winsome witness in the world.

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It was wonderful to have many friends and colleagues attend this event at CSP. And yes, I sold and signed more books!

I spoke briefly, thanking lots of folks.
Book signing for my colleague Dr. Suzanne Hequet!
The Q & A time included many thoughtful questions.
It was a good crowd for a Tuesday afternoon.

Photos by Kristi Bauer, 2025

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Salem Lutheran: Blessings, Belonging, and a Holy Moment

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It started in May 2024 with an email from Pastor Adam Gless, a former student of Kent’s, inviting us “to come and visit Salem,” in order to provide “material for your research and presentation.” Pastors Gless and Martin, who serve at a bilingual congregation, had heard that Kent and I were giving a plenary address at the Multi-Ethnic Symposium at Concordia Seminary. And so, we came; we traveled to Springdale, Arkansas in February 2025, and as I wrote in a previous post, “During our four-day visit we worshipped with the congregation; broke bread with congregational members; attended Bible studies and faith formation gatherings for adults and for youth and their parents; and interviewed a variety of members” and heard from everyone about their wonderful “Festival of Nations” event. We incorporated this rich material into our presentation at the Symposium.

Two weeks ago, we returned to Salem Lutheran congregation, and wearing the hats of “church consultants,” we reported to various groups in the congregation about their strengths and areas for growth: to the congregational leaders and Anglo people we had interviewed; to the Sunday morning Bible class; and to Hispanic congregational members (with Pastor Brandon serving as translator). Because only the summary of our full report was translated into Spanish, we asked Pastor Brandon to translate the conclusion from the report. Here’s what he read:

 Each interview closed with the question, “Is there anything else you’d like us to know?” One woman responded, “Thank you for coming and helping us to be a better church.” We are confident that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Salem congregation can become “a better church,” by building on the solid foundation you currently have. A long-time member who has served in a leadership role in the last decade said of past challenges, “We prayed our way through it all; God has blessed us.” And like Abraham, who was blessed by God to be a blessing to “all the families of the earth” (Gen 12:3), Salem congregation is a blessing to the strangers and sojourners in your community. This excerpt from Pastor Martin’s sermon from November 17, 2024, testifies to the blessing you are to your Hispanic members.

Since the election, I have met with many of our Hispanic members.  And you should know, many of these brothers and sisters in Christ are struggling!  Some are overwhelmed with fear. Others live with a heavy anxiety about the increased hatred in our nation. Our president-elect has vowed to deport them, or their hard-working family members, on his first day in office. His rhetoric implies most immigrants are criminals and incites suspicion and hatred toward them. This has only increased the fear, anxiety, and suffering of our own church members.

But one couple told me this: “When we are tempted to believe that all North Americans hate us, and when fear begins to overwhelm us . . . we remember our church.  Here is our family of faith!  Here are people that love us, even though we don’t speak English that well.  Here is a place we belong, where we feel welcome and safe.  Here we are given new strength to trust in Jesus.  We don’t know what the future holds for our family, but we know we can get through it with the support of our church.”

What a blessing Salem congregation is for all its members! Your generous spirit, your faith in Christ, your desire to serve others and be a witness of God’s love shines through in every person we interviewed. 

As Pastor Martin translated his own words from the November 2024 sermon he had preached in English to the Anglo members of Salem, tears welled up in the eyes of two women in the front row; their children, who had been playing quietly in another part of the room, suddenly appeared at their mother’s side, hearing the words and sensing their mothers’ emotional response. After he finished translating, the adults spoke in Spanish to Brandon. When asked by us to translate, he said these or similar words, “They are saying that they had no idea I shared their fears and anxiety with the Anglo members of the congregation; they are grateful that I have done so. To hear the words from this sermon is another way that Salem is for them a place where they feel welcomed and safe.” What a holy moment we shared with these faithful followers of Christ and their beloved pastor! Thanks be to God!

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On Sunday afternoon Kent and I enjoyed the food, fellowship, and festive dancing by a Colombian woman and a couple from Chile at the Festival of Nations. Here, too, we experienced holy moments as people from a myriad of cultures shared with all gathered that day culinary delights from their homelands. Gloria, one of the woman who had attended at the presentation to the Hispanic congregation the previous day, made sure Kent and I each left with a sample of her pupusas.

Photos by Rhoda Schuler, September 2025

To see more photos from the weekend, click here.

Facade of Notre Dame Paris

A Catechumenal Vision for Compact Congregations: Financing a Joint Catechumenate

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Following Rhoda’s post two weeks ago on joint rituals and last week’s aside celebrating Rhoda’s book signing event at St. John, Wheaton, IL, this week we turn to the most mundane, and potentially disruptive of topics: Money or Financing a Joint Catechumenate. I believe it helpful to preface this topic with Jesus’ words from Luke 16:13: “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” Organizers of a joint catechumenate should embrace our Lord’s admonition: Too much anxiety over money could completely derail efforts toward a joint catechumenate. Whatever finances are committed to the joint catechumenate are committed for the sake of the kingdom of God. A congregation can’t serve two masters and love its financial resources, whatever they might be, more than the kingdom of the Lord.

So where might financial resources be needed for a joint catechumenate? At least three areas come to mind (with a potential fourth): Meals; Resources for the Catechumenate; and Paid Positions. Eating together, whether full meals or snacks, should be at the center of every catechumenal gathering. At what time of day the gathering is taking place will determine what kind of eating occurs: breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a snack. Who should bear the cost of those meals? Presumably the congregations in some way. Is it catered or prepared by members? Resources will be needed for the formation of the catechumens. These could vary from printed handouts to study booklets to gifts for the catechumens (such as Bibles or hymnals or catechisms or crosses) to baptismal robes. Who will pay for those? The individual congregations? The congregations jointly? Would the sponsors/mentors be asked to consider contributing to the gifts for their individual catechumens? Is the joint catechumenate going to consider any paid positions? While a called church worker, such as a DCE, might be possible, it is unlikely in many of the contexts we outlined at the beginning of this series: rural, urban, and small town. Paid lay positions would be a more likely possibility. A paid part-time lay director of the catechumenate? A financial manager for the catechumenate? Paid lay catechists? Paid primary musician for the catechumenate services? Pastoral staff from one of the congregations paid for their primary oversight of the catechumenate? There are many possibilities. The congregations would need to decide jointly what positions they need in their context to organize a competently and efficiently executed catechumenate. And they would need to decide what financial resources they could commit to these financial commitments. (A fourth area could be travel expenses between the congregations, either for a called or lay worker or for the pastors?)

These financial commitments ask the congregations to consider how they will all contribute to these commitments. Will each congregation support the costs in relationship to their catechumens with the costs coordinated on a yearly basis. Or will the congregations organize a common budget for the catechumenate, a budget external to all the individual congregations? The latter might be the least complicated and unwieldy. If the latter, how much will the congregations contribute toward that budget? Will it be the same every year regardless of how many catechumens each congregation has? Will all congregations commit uniformly to the budget, regardless of congregational size? If this is truly a joint catechumenate then it seems all the congregations need to share the financial burden equally. There needs to be trust between the pastors and congregations that this joint effort is an expression of fellowship in Christ across the congregations.  Any points of conflict need to be handled through confession and absolution.

All of these mundane matters need to be addressed clearly and with shared governance by the congregations before the start of the joint catechumenate. Only in that way will the financial resources of a joint catechumenate serve the one Master and His kingdom.

We’d love to hear your ideas by contacting us at Kent@FormingLutherans.org or Rhoda@FormingLutherans.org.

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Photo by Kent Burreson
Entrance Facade at Notre Dame Cathedral of Paris

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With Gratitude to St. John Lutheran Church, Wheaton, Illinois

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St. John Lutheran Church is one of the four congregations that we researched for our book Journey to Jesus; chapter 2 features the story of the adult catechumenate at St. John. One couple I interviewed described the weekly catechumenal sessions as “Ted Talks for Lutherans,” their way of emphasizing the vast knowledge and polished delivery of the catechetical teachings by Pastor Scott Bruzek (pictured with me in the banner photo). On Holy Cross Day the people of St. John welcomed me as I promoted Journey to Jesus in their gathering space all Sunday morning.

As I signed books that members had purchased, I chatted briefly with each person; many spoke of the special ethos of St. John. In Pastor Bruzek’s words, “The primary virtue is love” at this congregation. I was delighted when one member purchased two copies, one for herself and another for her son, who is a pastor. To have the book in the hands of pastors (and other church professionals) is our goal.

But I was also thrilled (and amazed) when a young man, a student at Wheaton College, came to the table with cash in hand to purchase a copy. We had a brief conversation about the trend of his generation: discovering the beauty and grace of the historic liturgy and the powerful way it can communicate the Gospel message.

St. John Lutheran Church
Altar area of St. John
Book signing
Pastor Nelson chatting with members
The people of God in the Divine Service
Conversing with member of St. John
Pastor Bruzek chatting with members

Thanks to be God for the people of St. John, their faithful pastoral staff, and their witness to the love of Christ in their community.

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Photos by Mark and Rhoda Schuler

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A Catechumenal Vision for Compact Congregations: How and Where to Celebrate the Rituals

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Many congregations with an adult catechumenate include rituals that mark the transitions from one stage of the catechumenate to the next. Our regular readers know that Kent and I are strong proponents of ritual for a variety of reasons. These are suggestions for how and where the traditional rituals might be celebrated throughout a catechumenal process conducted jointly by several congregations. Titles for rites and quotations are from Welcome to Christ: Lutheran Rites for the Catechumenate (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1997).

Rite of Welcome of Inquirers to the Catechumenate

The opening rubric states “This welcome of those inquiring into the Christian faith and life may be used whenever there are people who desire to begin a more public relationship with a Christian congregation” (9). We suggest that this ritual could be included in a jointly sponsored Reformation service that involves all the congregations in the catechumenal process; this is a fitting date, since fall is also the preferred time to begin the process. The core ritual moment is “Signing with the Cross” on various parts of the body: forehead, ears, eyes, lips, heart, shoulders, hands, and feet. Each has a specific blessing spoken as the signing is done (11). Here are two examples.

Receive the cross on your ears,
that you may hear the gospel of Christ, the word of life.

Receive the cross on your heart,
that God may dwell there by faith.

The action of signing will make a deeper impression on the recipient than a plethora of words spoken without gesture and touch would.

Rite of Enrollment of Candidates for Baptism

This rite can also be adapted for a rite of remembrance and renewal for those already baptized but who are seeking to reconnect to the church or those preparing for confirmation in the Lutheran church. It marks the transition from an inquirer to one who is has heard God’s call to follow Christ in a life of discipleship; the weekly gatherings can take on a more intense time of instruction and faith formation. The recommended day for this ritual is the First Sunday of Lent (19). We recommend that this ritual take place in the congregation where the “inquirers” will become formal members. Thus, participating pastors will need to have individual conversations with participants to determine which congregation each will join. Such decisions might be easily made. For example, if a person has friends or relatives in a congregation; or in a rural area, the closest congregation to the person would be the logical choice; or if the person was drawn into the catechumenate because of a relationship with one of the pastors who provided pastoral care in a major crisis, this would be the obvious choice.

Vigil of Easter

If one participating congregation has a tradition of celebrating the Vigil of Easter, it would be appropriate to hold the service at that congregation and encourage members of all the participating congregations to attend as well. If no congregation has this tradition, we suggest starting a tradition of a joint Vigil of Easter. To encourage participation among the membership of the congregations, good musicians from the various congregations could be recruited to chant the opening Service of Light; strong lay readers could be recruited for the Service of Readings; all the pastors could participate in the Service of Holy Baptism (which would include the Rite of Confirmation, if appropriate). The rite in Welcome to Christ includes a thanksgiving for baptism (45) full of rich biblical imagery of water as source of death (the flood) and life (deliverance at the Red Sea), and language from Romans 6; the whole assembly participates in the renunciations and confession of faith. For those baptized and/or confirmed, this is also their first partaking of Holy Communion; what rich meaning would be conveyed as those participating for the first time would do so with people of faith from several congregations!

Affirmation of the Vocation of the Baptized in the World

This ritual marks the end of the post-baptism teaching, called mystagogy in the early church, because it included teachings about the “mysteries,” that is, the sacraments of baptism and Eucharist, which the neophytes had experienced for the first time at the Vigil. Ideally, this ritual would take place on or near the Feast of Pentecost, the end of the Easter Season. We suggest a potluck meal hosted by one participating congregation, at which the ritual could be done prior to the meal in the church sanctuary as part of brief service of preaching and prayer. The ritual also marks the end of the catechumenal process of weekly gatherings.

Has this series piqued your interest in exploring a joint catechumenal process? Do you still have questions about next steps to implement such a venture? We would love to hear from you! Scroll to the bottom of the web page for our contact information.

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Photo: Baptismal font, St. John’s Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota
Photo by Rhoda Schuler

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