Initiation into the Church

Initiating one into the Catholic Church is the work of the whole Church through the members’ invitation, prayer, example, support and involvement in the formation and of one wishing to join the Catholic Faith. Unbaptized adults join the Catholic faith community through what is known as the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. Preparatory to that journey is the “Inquiry stage”. During this time the basic teachings and spirit of being Catholic is presented. After that, those wishing to pursue becoming Catholic and have shown effort in living the Catholic Christian life do so through a series of rites. First, they become “catechumens or “those preparing to join the church”. Later, after evidence of growth and insight, they are chosen to be received into the faith community through a ceremony called “The Rite of Election”.

This Rite of Election usually takes place on the first Sunday of Lent at the cathedral with the bishop presiding. During this Lenten season there are special prayers, called the “Scrutinies”, during the Sunday Liturgy asking God’s help that the “Elect” root out all that is evil or not Christ-like in their lives. During this period the "Creed" and the “Our Father” are formally presented and the “elect” may be anointed with the Oil of Catechumens.

A further period of instruction and formation called ”Mystigogia” continues after their reception into the church. Even after the RCIA process is completed, the new member’s faith journey continues, hopefully accompanied and supported by the one’s sponsor and the entire faith community.

Those who were baptized in other than the Catholic faith and wish to become Catholics are welcomed and urged to join the instruction and formation of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adult. Their entrance into the Catholic faith community is through Confirmation and the reception of First Eucharist.

Parents wishing their child baptized are to meet with the pastor by contacting the parish office at 345-0064. Parents are to attend an instruction session so they clearly understand what baptism is and its consequences and duties. (See below: “A Reflection on Baptism, Reasonable Assurance Needed”.) It is encouraged that the preparation be completed before the birth of a child. The name given to a child is not to be foreign to a Christian mentality.

Those who are not members of the parish, and request baptism of their child here at St. Joseph, because their family is living in this area, need letters from their pastor attesting to their participation in parish life and their having been instructed in Baptism as well as his permission for Baptism in another parish.

Baptism of infants should be within a few weeks after birth. Baptism certainly should not be delayed if there are serious health problems. Infant Baptism should be before Lent or delayed until the Easter Vigil.

Children over the age of 6 or 7 who are to be baptized are to go through a simpler version of the Rite of Christians Initiation of Adults (see below). They are to be initiated into the Catholic Church through the Easter Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and First Eucharist on the Easter Vigil.

Since Baptism welcomes one into the faith community, a faith community should always be present at Baptism, which is to take place in the parish church except in extreme cases. Normally, baptisms here at St. Joseph take place when the faith community is gathered for Sunday Liturgy.

Since some form of immersion more clearly signifies and symbolizes the dying and rising with Christ and new birth as coming from the womb, immersion is preferred over the pouring of water. (The Baptismal font may be looked upon as the womb of the Church.)

To better signify having been clothed in Christ through the Waters of baptism, it is appropriate that the child be dressed in the baptismal gown after Baptism

In a sense, the whole faith community becomes sponsors. It has been a long-standing custom that parents select a godmother and/or a godfather to assist them in the raising of their child as an active Catholic and to take over if they, as parents, are hindered in any way. It goes with out saying the godfather and/or godmother are to be model Catholics. They are to be confirmed and be at least sixteen years of age. They, too, are required to be instructed along with the parents.

Only one male or one female or one of each sex is to the sponsors. They are to present a letter from their pastor, indicting their suitability to sponsors by their active living out of their Catholic faith. Parents cannot be sponsors of their children.

Baptism uniquely celebrates our being welcomed as disciple-followers of Jesus and our being rescued from the hopelessness that is original sin and our being turn in a new direction. Yet we must then grow into being full-fledged disciples and community/family members. It takes time to grow in relationship with Jesus - and to be taught and to absorb his mind, heart, and way of life. In fact, the depths and implications of the mind, heart, and way of life of Jesus, for our world today, are still being discovered through study, reflections and prayer by the followers of Jesus.

We will not do that by our own ability and power. We will need the community’s help. The community commits its abiding help and the baptized person opens himself/herself to that abiding help in the celebration of Confirmation. It is in that Sacrament that we celebrate being given the fullness of the gift of the ever-aiding Holy Spirit.

In the weekly Sunday liturgies we are nourished and take on more fully the mind, heart and way of life of Jesus.

Forgiveness and healing are offered us in the Sacraments of Penance and the Anointing of the Sick. Our call to reach out to others and to share in the work of evangelization is celebrated especially in the Sacraments of Matrimony and Holy Orders.

Baptism is incomplete in itself and only opens us to the possibility of growth and being saved in, with, and through the faith community. Therefore, there needs to be reasonable hope and assurance the child will be raised so as to become an active member in the faith community.

If, then, parents, or those responsible to raise a child are not involved in the life of the faith community, or are not living its way of life, the baptism of their child is to be delayed until such time as they return to the necessary involvement in parish life and live again the Catholic Christian way.

In the concrete this means parents are to be registered and be active member in the parish. They need to show their good faith before the baptism of a child by correcting any marriage situation that is not according to the laws of the church to the extent it is possible.

Limbo

The hypothesis of limbo was an attempt to balance God’ love and the necessity of Baptism. The hypotheses always presented difficulties and today has been abandoned. We have come to realize more fully that the loving God would not deny His eternal presence to those who, through no fault of their own, had not been welcomed into His family by Baptism. At the same time, our appreciation of the necessity of infant Baptism has not been lessened. Jesus works through the community of his disciple/followers to bring people to the fullness of salvation.

Confirmation and Eucharist complete one’s initiation into the Catholic Church.

Baptism is the first step in the threefold initiation into the Catholic Church. Complete entry into the church community requires Confirmation and initiation into Eucharist, in addition to Baptism. So important is Confirmation that dying infants or children are to be confirmed.

In the Diocese of Gaylord, children are confirmed in the Mass in which they receive their First Holy Communion. Here in the parish that is at the end of the second grade. Those older who are not confirmed are to meet with the pastor.

It is desirable that the godparent or sponsor at Baptism be the sponsor at Confirmation. Sponsors are to be practicing Catholics (lead a life in harmony with the faith which includes regular participation at Sunday Eucharist), confirmed and sixteen years of age. Parents cannot be sponsors of their children. Sponsors are to present a letter from their pastor indicating their suitability to be a sponsor evidenced by their actively living out of their Catholic faith. Those to be confirmed, their parents, and sponsors are to have taken part in the instructional/formational program for the Sacrament of Confirmation.

First Eucharist

The third Sacrament of Initiation is First Eucharist. First Eucharist along with Confirmation is celebrated usually at the end of the second grade here in the parish.

(See Sacramental Preparation Program on our Faith Formation web page and below “A Further Reflection on the Sacraments of Initiation”.)

A Further Reflection on the Sacraments of Initiation

There is a long tradition within the church to celebrate confirmation before First Eucharist. It is only in this century that Eucharist began to be received before Confirmation; that accidental switch in events (Eucharist before Confirmation) occurred in the early 1900’s, when Pope Pius X decided that children should receive Eucharist at an earlier age.

In the Eastern Rite of the Catholic Church, Baptism, Confirmation and First Eucharist are celebrated at infancy at the same time. Our Church law for our Roman Rite says that Confirmation and First Eucharist are to be celebrated at the age of reason (about age 7) outside the danger of death.

To begin to explore the place of Confirmation earlier in life, we need to look into relationships with each other and with God.

We are not really humanly alive if we are not in relationships. In fact we can say: To be humanly alive is to be in relationships. What would life be like if we were not in relationship with anyone else? How lonely! How isolated! It wouldn’t even be worth being in existence without being in relationship.

We define ourselves by our relationships. We are mother/father/son/daughter because of relationships. Our family name results from relationships.

The very essence of God is relationships. God is the relationships of Father, Word and Spirit. “Made in God’s likeness as human beings” means our essence is to be in loving and caring relationships with others.

God and we are in relationship – God is our creator, we are God’s creatures, but that is not enough. God wishes to be parent to us and wants us to be sons and daughters. Heaven is being in a loving and caring relationship with God and others for all eternity. Religion is the living out of our relationship with God and all others and is concerned with the quality of these relationships.

Thank You, God, for wanting to have a relationship with us and for giving us companions in faith.

Living a Relationship Means Communicating

Marriage relationships and all relationships break apart when there is little or no communication or sharing. The deeper the sharing, the closer the relationship.

We might look at “sharing or communicating” under the idea of “feeding” and “eating and drinking.” In a very real sense when we share something of and about ourselves, we feed the other. We allow the other to take some idea, some value, some insight, skill,... that we’ve shared and to eat it or drink it in, digest it and allow it, in some form, to become the other person’s idea, value, insight skill…. We use phrases like “I have not digested that idea yet,” and “to drink it in”.

Living a relationship (being married, being parent…) is “sharing, listening, communicating, eating and drinking of each other.” As we share something of ourselves, we feed the other and allow the other to eat, digest and grow. At the same time the relationships between us grows.

Without that ongoing mutual feeding, that mutual eating and drinking that takes place in sharing, there is no relationship.

There is something about physical feeding, eating and drinking together that fosters and serves as a catalyst for spiritual feeding, eating and drinking. Since human life is to be in relationship, and the essence of relationship is this ongoing mutual feeding, eating and drinking (mutual sharing), then “to be alive is to eat.” When we stop feeding, eating and drinking we are no longer alive.

Thank You, God, for the many ways You share Yourself and communicate with us. Thank You, too, for the faith community that also has shared itself with us.

What is a Sacrament?

A sacrament is language (verbal, sign, action) that accomplishes, intensifies, or brings about what it is saying. An expression of love, whether it be an action or a statement such as “I love you”, has power within itself to increase the love between persons. On the other hand, a negative statement, such as “I hate you”, in its very statement of the reality intensifies the animosity.

The greatest sacrament of course is Jesus. Jesus is “The Sacrament!” Jesus is God the Father’s statement of His love for us; he has the power to bring about a loving response from us. Jesus is God’s statement of His forgiveness. Jesus states it and makes it a reality at the same time. The Church is Jesus’ statement of his love, acceptance and forgiveness in the world today as the Church carries on the work of Jesus. Therefore, the church is also called a Sacrament.

Jesus “The Sacrament” and his Church “a Sacrament.” are the Father’s and Jesus’ gift – their statements that not only speak of the Father’s and Jesus’ relationship with us, but also makes it a reality.

In a sense, all of Jesus’ actions were/are Sacraments. His healing, his teachings, his acts of forgiveness, his dying and rising were expression of his great love for us. They not only tell of his love but also make that love more of a reality for us. Because of these actions of Jesus, we experience God’s love, acceptance, and forgiveness and our relationship with our God, as well as with others, becomes a reality and grows.

In the same sense, the actions of the Church are sacraments. When the faith community reaches out to teach, to heal or to forgive, it tells of God’s and Jesus’ love for people. Through these actions people experience God’s love and forgiveness. Their relationship with God, as well as with others, becomes a reality or grows. Of all the possible “sacraments” we single out seven key actions of the church and call them the “Seven Sacraments.”

Dear Father, thank You for the gift of Jesus - The Sacrament – who is Your Word telling us about and letting us experience Your love.

Thank You, for the gift of the Church, also a sacrament of Your love telling us about and letting us experience Your love.

Relationships are what really are important. For a personal relationship to exist three things are absolutely necessary. Someone has to accept the relationship, be committed to make the relationship work and then live out the relationship.

There will not be much of a parent-child relationship if a parent does not accept the child as his/her son or daughter, is not committed to make that relationship work, or makes no or little effort to live that relationship.

When a couple gets married they accept the relationship – “I take you to be my wife/husband.” They commit themselves to make the relationship work –“ I will be true to you in good times and in bad… until death do us part.” They then begin to live together as husband and wife.

These three absolutely necessary aspects of every relationship (acceptance, a commitment to make the relationship work and the relationship has to be live) are also necessary for the relationship between God and ourselves and the faith community and its members.

In Baptism the faith community formally accepts a person as a member and as a brother and sister forever. In Baptism God, through the action of the Church, the Body of Christ, formally acknowledges a person as His son or daughter.

In Confirmation the faith community formally commits itself to make forever the brother/sister relationship work. In Confirmation God, through the action of the Church, formally pledges Himself to stand by His son or daughter for all eternity through the gift of the Holy Spirit.

In Eucharist the family relationship of the faith community and the family of God are lived out.

All three - Baptism, Confirmation and not just first Eucharist, but ongoing Eucharist - are necessary if one is to truly be a member of the Church and the family of God.

Father, thank You for all those persons who accept us, are committed to us and are willing to share themselves with us.

Thank You, Father, for a Church, which has accepted us as brothers/sisters, is committed to us as brothers/sisters in Your family, and hares all it is and has with us in Eucharist.

Thank You, Father, for Your acceptance of us, Your commitment to us and Your walking life with us.

In helping us to appreciate and understand the seven sacraments, it can be of great help to make comparisons with our everyday lives. The sacraments celebrate and make more real aspects of relationships just as do other human actions

Basic to every relationship is the acknowledgment or acceptance of that relationship – “You are my son/daughter.” “You are my friend.” We need to know where we stand with others, who we are and who they are and what connects us. Therefore it is necessary to make our relationship clear if there is ever to be a relationship.

In our everyday human lives we might express that acknowledgement or acceptance by a hug, an embrace, taking a newborn into our arms, a handshake, a legal adoption or a ceremony like a wedding, “I take you to be my husband/wife.”

In our faith life by the rite of Baptism, God make clear that one is His son/daughter (St. Paul calls it an adoption.) and Jesus accepts one as brother/sister. The faith community of the Church accepts the one baptized as brother/sister, a new member of the faith community.

There is always a dying and rising when a relationship is acknowledged or accepted. We die to a past way of life (without the relationship) and rise to a new way of life resulting from the new relationship.

One’s way of life is dramatically changed with the birth of a child. The faith community’s way of life is also dramatically changed with the baptism (birth) of a new member, a new brother/sister. In welcoming that new member out of love for Jesus this dying and rising is sharing in the paschal mystery of Christ’s dying and rising to a new life.

From the watery womb of the mother a child comes forth to a whole new way of life. The child is immersed now in the life of the family. From the watery womb of Mother Church (the waters of baptism) one comes forth to a whole new way of life, the baptized is immersed now in the life of the faith community, freed for original sin, the old life, a life not center on God – to a whole new life, relating to God in a whole new way, now as son/daughter; God sharing His all with us.

More on Eucharist

To make those relationships of God-parent/child and brother/sister complete, they must be lived out by the actual sharing of one’s self to the fullest extent possible.

While it shocked people when Jesus told them to “eat of my flesh and drink of my blood,” we do in a sense “eat and drink” of one another. We are more than flesh and blood. We are also made up of our values, insights, motives, skills, thoughts…..

Others share with us (and we with others) their knowledge, their values, and their dreams. We take them in, digest them, rework them and they become our knowledge, our values, our dreams. If others fail to share with us, we cannot eat and drink, and there is no growth. This mutual sharing, this mutual eating and drinking of each other is the essence of human relationships.

In the Mass Jesus shares all that He is with us as our food and drink. He shares something of Himself through the very persons gathered in His name as they share the attitudes of Jesus they have taken on. Jesus places Himself before us, as our food, as he reveals his thoughts, values and motives in the proclamation of the Scriptures and the homily. Jesus, present under the appearance of bread and wine, brings us into direct personal contact with himself. That presence is a very clear statement to us that He is our food and drink and that we need to eat and drink of him if we desire life.

It is in the Mass, just by being gathered together and sharing the Scriptures and the homily, that the faith community shares its attitudes, its values and its very self. It is through this sharing week after week that the relationship with Jesus and the faith community are sustained and grow. Sharing is the essence of relationships and without ongoing mutual sharing relationships die.

We might accept another as our friend, our child, our spouse. We might be committed to stand by the other, to make the relationship work, to share everything we are and have. But unless we actually do so there is no relationship. Without the actual sharing of ourselves, our thoughts, values, dreams, the relationship dies. Without participation week after week in Eucharist, without the on going eating and drinking of the Lord, our relationship with Jesus, with the Father and our companion brothers and sisters in faith deteriorates.

Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We need to be in relationship with him; we need to be formed in His image and likeness. Unless we are continually eating and drinking of him, that is, continually growing in his image, we will not have eternal life.

Thank You, Father, for the gift of Jesus who shares all he is and has with us so that we can be formed in his image and likeness and so we like him can have eternal life.

What do our children and young adults need to know about Confirmation before they celebrate this sacrament? Or more importantly what attitudes do they need?

Very simple: to be confirmed our children should know that through His family in Baptism, God has formally accepted them as His sons and daughters and the faith community has accepted them as sister and brother forever. In Confirmation God and the faith community will formally give them their word that they (God and the faith community) will always be there for them and will do everything in their power to make these God-child, brother-sister relations grow. They will share everything they have with them. They will never abandon them. As a guarantee of their commitment they will give them the fullness of the abiding gift of the Holy Spirit.

In return, God and the faith community ask that they, in proportion to their maturity, accept being a child of God and a member of the faith community. And that they be resolved to do their part to live the relationship as a child of God and as a member of the faith community, sharing, eating and drinking of each other and the Lord.

Those making their First Holy Communion need to have some understanding that Jesus, who is committed to them as his brothers and sisters, shares with them himself and everything he knows and believes in. He does this at Eucharist, through the Scriptures, and as He comes to us under the appearances of bread and wine. He shares of Himself so we can become like Him and be happy as He is happy with God the Father and all human beings.

As for the Sacrament of Penance – even at the age of six and seven children have an understanding of the need to ask and be thankful for forgiveness.

Neither First Holy Communion nor Confirmation is a graduation and certainly should not be the end of religious instruction. Rather they are celebrations of the beginning of life-long relationships that will continually need to grow and develop through prayer, life-long instruction and reflection and faith sharing.

Family Aids for Sacrament Preparation

The word “sacrament” originally meant an oath – the oath of allegiance that a Roman soldier made to the emperor. While an oath does not make something true, it does make it more believable and in that sense more true, more effective. When I tell someone I love him/her, my statement expresses the reality of my love and increases the love between us.

The Sacrament of Baptism celebrates our becoming/being a son/daughter of God, brother/sister in the faith community. We can view it as God’s and the faith community’s oath that the baptized is a son/daughter of God, our brother/sister. It celebrates not so much our “becoming” a child of God and member of the faith community as the fact that we “are” son/daughter, brother/sister – a celebration recognizing one as son/daughter of God, brother/sister and making it more of a reality for the person and us.

The Sacrament of Confirmation again celebrates not so much that the gift of the Holy Spirit is being given to us then and there but can be viewed as an oath that the Holy Spirit has been given to us and so is made more real to us by that Sacrament.

The Sacrament of the Eucharist celebrates God revealing of Himself so we can be in an intimate relationship with him. Again we can see the Eucharist as God’s oath of his sharing of himself with us.

While it celebrates God revealing Himself and His love through Jesus, especially through his death and resurrection, the Eucharist makes that revelation of God more real for us as Jesus, right then and there, shares himself with us. He does so through the gathered community, the presiding priest, the scriptures proclaimed and especially in a special way under the appearances of bread and wine.

The same is true with the Sacrament of Penance. If we have the proper dispositions, we may well have been forgiven by God and therefore by the faith community before we celebrate this sacrament. But again the sacrament can be viewed as an oath that we have been forgiven and therefore the sacrament makes forgiveness more of a reality for us. Our celebration of the Sacrament of Penance is also our publicly confessing God is a forgiving God.

From the watery depths of my mother’s womb From the flowing water of Christ’s womb

“You are ours; you we’ll never abandon.” “You are ours; you we’ll never abandon.”

Not life alone, but life in family. Not life alone, but we one family now in him.

Teaching, correcting, supporting, empowering. Teaching, correcting, supporting empowering.

Slowly, I learn to walk and talk, run and jump, Slowly, I learn to live Christ’s way,

That together we can truly family be. That together we can truly God’s family be.

There is an intimate and important connection between the feeding and eating that takes place in communicate and physical eating and drinking, as well as between our family gatherings and our gatherings as the family of God at Eucharist (Mass)

Adults Wishing to Join the Catholic Faith