When infants are baptized into faith as Priest Prophet and King we talk about removing the stain of Original Sin,  but there is very little said about “actual sin” or the sins we commit. That is because babies are unable to commit actual sins. They can be cranky, colicky, and inconsolable at times but none of this can be attributed to intent or premeditation.

Although our normal practice is to baptize infants, the theological norm is adult baptism. Why?, because baptism implies a choice on the part of the individual.  A choice to turn away from sin and to become a follower of Jesus.

The symbolism of baptism is not so much one of a ritual bath  but one of a ritual drowning, where the old sinful self drowns in the waters of baptism only to arise out of the waters as a new creation.

Baptism ritualizes “Metanoia” or changing one’s mind. That’s why the baptismal promises begin with a renunciation of sin, where we promise to renounce Satan’s hold on us as we pledge our allegiance to Christ.

The problem with being baptized as infants is that we miss the power of making that choice.  One way we as a church try to compensate for that is by regularly renewing our baptismal promises. Every Easter and every time we baptize an infant we renew the promises which our parents made on our behalf  at our own baptism.

Once gain we find ourselves in the season of  Lent. It is the start of  Forty days of preparation for the catechumens as they prepare to celebrate the Easter Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and First Eucharist. For us it is forty days of prayer and fasting on their behalf and our own preparation to renew our baptismal promises.

Lent is not just supposed to be a forty day period of self discipline which ends with Easter. For example “I give up smoking during Lent only to light up again on Easter, I give up fast food, gambling, drinking, pornography, swearing, just to pick it up again when the forty days are finished.” Lent is about metanoia, it’s about changing our minds, our habits, and our choices to leave our sinfulness behind and to pledge allegiance to Jesus who calls us to a better and holy life. Now is the time to prepare for renewing our baptismal promises at Easter and we have the whole season of Lent to get ready.

Blessings,

Dan

The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults is the normal way in which adults become full, active, participating members of the Catholic Church.

Special rites are celebrated during the Sunday liturgies at various times throughout the year. Adults involved in RCIA may be dismissed each week after the homily to go and reflect on the scriptures they have heard.

RCIA involves the whole community – in prayer as the rites are celebrated, in hospitality as new members are welcomed, and in ministries like sponsor, team member, or dismissal leader.

Each person’s journey into the Catholic Church is unique. At some point, the person contacts a Catholic parish or community and begins to meet with other adults who are also inquiring about the Catholic faith. These adults now called “Inquirers” meet with members of the RCIA team, sharing their life stories. The RCIA team helps them to connect their stories with the faith stories found in scripture.
When it becomes clear that the individual has made up their mind to become Catholic they are admitted into the next step through a special ceremony called the Rite of Acceptance into the Order of Catechumens. In this ritual the assembly goes out to greet them and symbolically claims these men and women for Christ by signing all their “senses” with the cross. They are then escorted into the church building by the assembly.

After this rite, the inquirers are called catechumens. This name indicates that they are learning the teachings of the Church and beginning to accept Catholic tradition and practices.

Blessings,

Dan

Below are links to audio MP3 files of presentations given at mass regarding the New Roman Missal. The files contain the written notes of the presentation, in the “lyric” field of each file.

1. Introduction

2. What is the Roman Missal and the General Instruction on the Roman Missal(GIRM)

3. Overview of the Mass

4. Introductory Rites

5. Liturgy of the Word

6 Liturgy of the Eucharist I

7. Liturgy of the Eucharist II

8. Liturgy of the Eucharist III

9. Concluding Rite

10. Postures of the Mass

Last week I talked a little bit about the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). This week I want to talk about the role of the sponsor. We are probably more familiar with the role of Godparent at the baptism of infants and we may have been asked to be a sponsor for a high school student making their Confirmation. The role of sponsor in the RCIA has much in common with these two roles but also has some very distinct differences. In all of these cases the sponsor or godparent stands in for the larger Christian community.  Each of these Sacraments is part of the “initiation’ of someone into the larger faith community. That is why these Sacraments usually take place in the midst of the gathered community instead of in private ceremonies. In each of these sacraments the Sponsor or Godparent promises to stand alongside the newly initiated member to be both friend and role model.  In the case of the RCIA, sponsors are considered more as companions on the journey. They are just regular members of the faith community who have actively lived out their Catholic faith over the years. They are not theologians or Bible scholars. They are just regular folks from the pews who are just a little farther down the road on the walk of faith than the catechumens and candidates. Sometimes during the initiation rites, they simply stand alongside the candidates so that they are never alone, at other times they join in the discussions about the faith life but always they are asked to pray for the person that they are sponsoring.  Often by the end of the process, sponsors tell us that even though they might have been reluctant at first to take on the role, that through it all they not only learned a lot about their faith but gained some new friendships as well. If you would like to find out more about becoming a sponsor please call the parish office or talk to one of the parish staff members.

Blessings,

Dan

This is the first in a short series of articles on how adults who are not Catholic can become Catholic. One of the changes instituted by the Second Vatican Council was the revival of the Catechumenate which we know as the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults or RCIA for short. The Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium: explicitly stated:

The catechumenate for adults, comprising several distinct steps, is to be restored and to be taken into use at the discretion of the local ordinary (bishop). By this means the time of the catechumenate, which is intended as a period of suitable instruction, may be sanctified by sacred rites to be celebrated at successive intervals of time.^[ 

This means that becoming a Catholic is much more than simply filling out a registration form and getting envelopes. It is a formation process that can last a year or longer. Currently we have a few adults who have entered into the RCIA process. This process includes some public rites, weekly formation sessions, prayer and service.

If you have been at the 10:00 a.m. Sunday Mass recently then you have seen the dismissal of the catechumens (Ian Jordan and Jode Niblack) immediately following the homily. They go downstairs with their catechist (teacher) and they “Break Open the Word”. They prayer first then discuss the readings that were proclaimed at Mass as well as the homily and talk about how this applies to their daily lives.  After Mass is over they join us for coffee and donuts for a few minutes and then stay for further instruction about the teachings and traditions of the Catholic faith. This is all part of their journey into receiving full initiation in the Catholic Church through the reception of the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist at the Easter Vigil. I’ll share more with you in the weeks to come.

Blessings,

Dan

Last week I talked about the role of Godparents and this week I would like to talk about the role of the parents. We get requests for baptisms all the time. People are often surprised that there is a preparation process and that the church has some expectations of them. Since the infant to be baptized has not yet reached the “age of discernment” (that is an age when they are mature enough to make decisions for themselves) the child’s parents promise on behalf of the child that he or she will be raised in the Catholic faith.

The problem that often presents itself is that neither of the parents is a practicing Catholic, they don’t belong to a parish community and have no intention of joining one. In order to baptize infants, the church must have a well-founded hope that the child will be raised Catholic.  When the parents admit that they don’t practice their faith themselves then it is hard to have that “well-founded hope”.

We simply don’t believe that Baptism, or any other Sacrament is magic. Sacraments are a partnership of God’s grace and human intention and action. Although God’s grace always has effect, for Sacraments to be fully effective we must cooperate with God’s grace.

Therefore we may often delay the baptism of a child in order to provide time for the parents to come to a fuller understanding of their own faith life, their responsibility for the faith life of their child as well as their relationship within the church community.

Sometimes people interpret that message as “The church won’t baptize my baby.”  When what we are really saying is “You don’t seem ready to make that commitment just now, let us help you get ready and then we can celebrate your baby’s baptism as a member of this community of faith.”

(Of course exceptions are always made when a child’s health is in jeopardy.)

Blessings,

Dan

When couples come to us to have their children baptized it is often the first real contact that they have had with the church in a while. Sometimes they are surprised at what the church expects of them before their child can be baptized.

One aspect of baptism that is poorly understood is the role of the godparent.

Godparents play a very important role in a child’s spiritual life. They should serve as role models of the faith. The child should be able to look to their godparent as an example of how the church teaches us to live our Catholic faith. They should support not only the child but the parents as well. During the Rite of Baptism we all accept some responsibility in helping the parents raise their child in our catholic faith, since we are not all going to be intimately involved in the day to day role of raising this child, the godparents in their role represent the larger Church community. 

Therefore, being a godparent is not only an honor, it is a tremendous responsibility.  Parents should give a lot of thought to whom they choose as godparents. In recognizing the importance of the godparent and their duties, the Church has provided guidelines to help parents choose the best possible godparents for their children. Sometimes parents ask friends or family members who are not practicing members of the church or who have converted from the Catholic faith to serve as their child’s godparents and they are upset when we tell them that they cannot serve in this capacity. This is not a judgment about a person’s goodness or about the content of their character, it is simply that being a Godparent is a religious role and the church has some expectations about who can serve in this role.

Canon Law requires that every child to be baptized must have one practicing Roman Catholic godparent in good standing with the Church. This Catholic godparent must be at least 16 years old, Confirmed, actively practicing the faith and living a life consistent with faith and morals as taught by the Roman Catholic Church. 

A non-Catholic, baptized Christian may be chosen as a “Christian Witness”, as long as one godparent is Catholic.

We’ll be looking at some of the other aspects of Baptism as well as the other Sacraments in future articles.

 Blessings,

 Dan

1. Introduction

2. What is the Roman Missal and the General Instruction on the Roman Missal (GIRM)

3. Overview of the Mass

4. Introductory Rites

5. Liturgy of the Word

6. Liturgy of the Eucharist I

7. Liturgy of the Eucharist II

8. Liturgy of the Eucharist III

9.  Concluding Rite

10. Postures of the Mass

A number of years back I was enrolled in studies toward a Masters in Business Administration. During that time I came across a theory called The Pareto principle or more commonly known as the 80/20 rule. It was developed by Business consultant Joseph M. Juran, who suggested the principle and named it after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, he observed in 1906 that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population; he developed the principle by observing that 20% of the pea pods in his garden contained 80% of the peas. 

It is a common rule of thumb in business that, “80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients” or when applied to parishes, 80% of your budget comes from 20% of your donors or that 80% of the work is done by 20% of your volunteers. 

This is where you come in. Which part of that equation do you think you fall in? Are you part of the 20% of the parish that does 80% of the work or are you part of the 80% that does 20% of the work or are you part of that percentage of people who do 0% of the giving or volunteering? 

Let’s stop for a moment, because this article is not meant to be a “guilt trip” for anyone. It is only meant to make you stop and think about how you might be able to contribute to the life of our community here at St. James.

If you do not contribute to the collection right now, perhaps you can make an effort to contribute a little each week. If you do not volunteer perhaps you might decide that now is the time to start. There are several ways to get involved, some big and some small. We need ushers , eucharistic ministers, servers, lectors and singers at mass. We need people to help with snow removal and lawn cutting as well as folding worship aids and stuffing bulletins. We are always looking for people to be part of committees or to volunteer for hospitality etc, etc, etc…

Let’s turn Pareto 80/20 rule into the St. James’ 100%  rule. That means that we have become a community where 100% of the people are involved in something that adds life to this community. Call the parish office if you’re looking for ways to get involved. 

Blessings, 

Dan

Last week we buried Tien Nguyen. Tien and his family are members of our St. James parish family. He was an immigrant from Vietnam who made a life for his family here in the United States. Although Fr. Bernie, Kevin Bourassa and I were part of the funeral process, Fr. Kheit Ngyuen,  a Vietnamese priest, came all the way from Tulsa Oklahoma to preside at the funeral. It was a very moving experience. I must admit that we had some problems communicating because the mass was all in Vietnamese, but the liturgy and the emotions were all very familiar. Any discomfort I may have experienced because of my lack of knowledge of the language or of the culture simply served to remind me of the experience that immigrants to our country must deal with every day.

Today we celebrate the Feast of Epiphany and it is all about strangers and immigrants. First the Magi come from “afar” looking for the Christ child and then the Holy Family become refugees themselves in a foreign country after fleeing oppression from their own government.

The Bishops of the United States have designated this week National Migration Week and they are asking us to do some real thinking about immigration in our land. It is not always comfortable and we don’t always understand everything, but instead of listening to the pundits who sound the alarm of fear, the Bishops want us to use the Gospel  as a starting place for our thinking.

Everyone believes that our nation should be able to control its border and regulate immigration, but the Bishops  insist that any reform of our immigration policy should be based on the values of justice and human dignity. After all, we are all  brothers and sisters in Christ.

Blessings,

Dan