At the Great Easter Vigil, we welcomed home, through Baptism and Full Communion, forty-four men, women and children, a record number, into our faith and into our parish family.  Easter marked the culmination of twenty-eight weeks of OCIA formation for these new Catholics.  Their initiation into the Church was not a graduation, but a commencement, a new beginning.  Now, during the seven weeks between Easter and Pentecost, the neophytes (the moniker given to those coming into the Church during their first year) continue their spiritual growth in the period of “Mystogogy”.  It is a special period when the neophytes begin living and experiencing the Sacraments, and dive deeper into living their faith instead of just learning “about” their faith.  It can be a precarious, “make-it-or-break-it” period, marked by joyful continuing transformation, or being left to flounder in confusion.  

What is often overlooked is that Eastertide isn’t just a time for transformation for neophytes.  No matter how long we’ve been Catholic, nor how devout we are, each of us is still on our individual, spiritual, lifelong journey of ongoing conversion of growing closer to, and following in the ways of, our Lord.  Mystogogy is not just for neophytes, it is for each of us.

How Will You Live Eastertide, this period of celebration between Easter Sunday and Pentecost Sunday?What will you do over the next six weeks?  My hope is that you will give thanks for the blessings God has bestowed upon you, especially the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ; take time to pray and grow closer to Jesus; and that you will intentionally seek ways to live the Christ life through charity and love of your neighbor.  I’d like to suggest a desperately needed and mutually beneficial way to love your neighbor and live that Christ life -accompany a neophyte!

Across our great country, the Church has experienced a record number of initiations this year.  Your parish probably had a few, as well.  If so, the neophytes need you! They need to be shown how to live their faith interiorly through prayer and fervent participation in the Sacraments, especially Mass and Reconciliation.  They need to see how their faith can be lived exteriorly by serving within and outside of our Catholic community.  They need friendship, people who will nurture them and show them the way.  They need reinforcement that they made the right choice.  They need personal invitations to become engaged in the life of the parish, not just given an overall directive from their catechists to “get involved”.  Without your accompaniment, these neophytes are left to believe that they just “graduated” and may get confused about  what exactly they should do next.  Rather, they’ve just begun a new journey into a much more beautiful and joyful life.  Won’t you seek them out and help them find that joy and beauty they need to help sustain their new-found faith through your friendship?

“My loving and all generous Lord, thank You for sending the Holy Spirit into our community and inspiring so many to desire to become brothers and sisters in Communion with You!  Thank You for allowing me to be a part of their transformation as an OCIA catechist.  Now, Lord, please place it on the hearts of their new communities to accompany them, and to help them continue to find and experience Your love in all aspects of their lives.  Amen.”

(Mystogogy – It’s Not Just for Neophytes was first published on the blog Reflections of a Lay Catholic)

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