You Probably Know Someone Interested in Becoming Catholic
I often say that EVERYONE knows at least one person who is interested in becoming Catholic OR completing the sacraments of First Communion and/or Confirmation.
That means YOU! I am really trying to plant some seeds in all of you. Please take some time to think about someone you know who may be in one of the following categories:
• Has never been Baptized
• Was Baptized in another Christian denomination such as Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, a Community Church, etc… and are interested in becoming
Catholic
• Was Baptized Catholic but never received First Communion
• Was Baptized Catholic and received First Communion but did not receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.
Please trust me that YOUR encouragement and invitation is as powerful, if not more so, than mine or any one of our staff. Encourage someone to attend the initial sessions, just to get more ACCURATE information about Catholicism.
Every Catholic Church in the world offers a process for adults in the above categories to complete their initiation into the Catholic faith. Here at Holy Family we call the process Footsteps in Faith. This follows the oldest form of teaching in all of Christianity called the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA).
It is a beautiful educational, prayerful and formational process that exemplifies the best of adult learning. We have a dedicated team of volunteers and staff that guide the process. It begins each September and reaches its peak at the Easter Vigil in the spring. It is educational because it is built around presentations on all of the important aspects and teachings of our Catholic faith. It is formational because it includes discussion and sharing of the group’s life experiences. It is prayerful because it includes beautiful, simple rituals along the way during Mass so that our larger community sees and prays with those seeking to be more fully invested in the mission of our parish and our larger Church.
Please know that there is no pressure to join the Church immediately. Again, Footsteps in Faith offers the best of adult learning because it gives those interested plenty of opportunities to learn more about Catholicism so that as the process continues, they can make a very informed, truly prayerful decision to be fully received into the Catholic Church.
Perhaps you yourself are interested and would benefit from Footsteps in Faith. Our first inquiry session is:
MONDAY,AUGUST 26 at 7:00 pm here at Holy Family.
Contact Mary Whiteside, our Director of Adult Faith at mwhiteside@holyfamilyparish.org or by calling her at our office.
More Bread of Life
We hear the next in a series of the Bread of Life discourse this weekend from the Gospel of John. Our first Old Testament reading gives a great foundation for further reflection on this discourse. Elijah the prophet was so tired that he wanted to die. He rested beneath a tree and, miraculously, an angel provided him simple food to give him strength, not only to complete his journey but to empower others to join his mission of faith.
In the Gospel Jesus meets strong resistance from people because he has made statements that they cannot understand. He names the source, wisdom and power of his message – and that is God, the same God who fed their hungry and tired ancestors in the desert. Jesus is bread, from heaven, from God, that is living and eternal. He is giving himself to them for spiritual sustenance just as He gives himself to us EVERY TIME we celebrate the Eucharist.
Jesus challenges those listening who are moored to their identity as pilgrims and immigrants, who journeyed to a land of promise guided by God’s covenant with them. “Your ancestors ate manna in the desert, but they died.” He then says and whoever is fed by the bread that is Christ will never die.
This is why the words that Jesus spoke at the Last Supper when instituting the wine as His blood are so important for us to embrace in the ongoing miracle of the Eucharist – “Take this all of you and drink from it. This is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant.”
It is in the sacredness of the Eucharist that our eternal covenant with God is renewed again and again. Let us all trust in the eternal bread that is Christ in our midst. Then let us make it living by sharing it. And we share it most powerfully in the Eucharist. And what does sharing it mean? It means gathering and receiving the real gift that is Christ, sent by God.