Contact details:

Fr. David Wallace

St. Bartholomew’s, Castlemilk

0141 634 2051

fr.david@btconnect.com

www.sacramentaltheology.weebly.com

Progress of Module:

Wednesday 29th January: Thinking Sacraments

Wednesday 5th February: 'Sacramental Theology‘

Wednesday 12th February: Making Christians

Wednesday 19th February: Catechesis (Ellen McBride)

Wednesday 26th February: No Class

Wednesday 5th March: Source and summit

Wednesday 19th March: The need for healing

Saturday 22nd March: Commissioned for service

Kelly, Liam Sacraments Revisited: What do they mean

today?, Darton, Longmann & Todd, London, 1998.

Martos, Joseph Doors to the Sacred: A Historical

Introduction to Sacraments in the Catholic Church, Liguori,

Missouri, 1991.

Noll, Ray R., Sacraments: A new understanding for a

new generation, Twenty-Third Publications, Mystic, 1999.

Healing

Service

Initiation

Sacraments

Confirmation Eucharist

Baptism

Initiation

Anointing

Of the

Sick

Healing

Reconciliation

Ordination

Service

Marriage

RCIA

Inquiry Formation Enlightenment Mystagogia

•Jesus has whispered your name and you answer his call

•Lead by the Holy Spirit

•A time to tell your stories

•A time to ask questions

•Making new friends with similar needs and inquiries at this point in time

Inquiry (or Pre-Catechumenate):

In this rite you seek and gain the acceptance of the

worshipping community. You are a step closer to God

and the Christian community.

The Rite of acceptance

•Sharing traditions

•Sharing customs

•Sharing practices

•Exploring prayer

•Scripture

•Worship

•And the apostolic life

The Catechumenate

The Rite of Election

You are “sent” as the apostles are sent to

be received by the bishop and the

worshipping community.

Today you are “elected” to receive the

Easter sacraments.

Lent

Our call to repentance and conversion

A time of retreat

A time to “scrutinise” our lives

A time for fasting, almsgiving and prayer.

Easter Vigil: Sacraments of

Initiation

The waters of baptism

The anointing with oil and the gifts of the

Holy Spirit through confirmation

The Eucharistic meal

The body and blood of Jesus Christ our

Lord

Sent on mission to love and serve our

Lord

Mystagogy

Celebrate!

We immerse ourselves into the work and

mission of Jesus Christ.

We are sent!

Pre-catechumenate

Sensitivity to personal situations

How long does this period last?

What happens during this time?

“During this period, priests and deacons, catechists and other lay persons are to give the candidates a suitable explanation of the Gospel” (RCIA 38)

FIRST STEP:

Acceptance into the order of

Catechumens

“The rite that is called the rite of acceptance into the order of catechumens is of the utmost importance. Assembling publicly for the first time, the candidates who have completed the period of the pre-catechumenate declare their intention to the Church and the Church in turn, carrying out its apostolic mission, accepts them as persons who intend to become its members.”

Elements of rite of acceptance

Receiving the candidates

Candidates’ first acceptance of the Gospel

Affirmation by the Sponsors and the assembly

Signing with the sign of the Cross

Invitation to the celebration of God’s word

LITURGY OF THE WORD

Presentation of a bible(?)

Intercessions for the Catechumens

Prayer over the catechumens

Dismissal of catechumens?

Rites belonging to the period of

catechumenate

Celebrations of the Word of God

Learning to keep Sunday as a holy day

Minor exorcisms -optional (which draw

attention to the Christian life)

Blessings of catechumens

Anointing of catechumens- optional

SECOND STEP:

“Rite of election”

Parish celebration for sending catechumens for

election and candidates for recognition by the

bishop (optional)

“Celebration of the Rite of election of

catechumens and of the call to continuing

conversion of candidates who are preparing for

Confirmation and/ or Eucharist or reception into

the full communion of the Catholic Church”

Period of Purification and

enlightenment

Scrutinies (“solemnly celebrated on Sundays”

128)

Sundays 3,4 &5 during Lent

Presentation of the Creed (“during the week

after the first scrutiny, should preferably be

celebrated in the presence of a community of the

faithful, within Mass, after the homily”).

Presentation of the Lord’s prayer (week after

third scrutiny…as above).

Holy Saturday

“…the elect should refrain from their usual activities, spend their time in prayer and reflection, and, as far as they can, observe a fast”.

Morning Prayer?

Recitation of the Creed; Ephphetha Rite; Choosing a baptismal name; Anointing with the oil of catechumens; Blessing and dismissal.

Celebration of

Sacraments of

Christian Initiation

Baptism Confirmation Eucharist

Mystagogia

(Post-baptismal catechesis)

To strengthen the neophytes as they begin to walk in newness of life, the community of the faithful, their godparents, and their parish priests should give them thoughtful and friendly help.

How do we celebrate and continue to accompany the neophytes as a parish community?

Pentecost: celebration!

RCIA: A MODEL OF CHURCH

A process that involves the whole of the Christian community

Patience & understanding

Celebration (all year round)

Prayer of the Faithful

Common journey

A few assumptions… “Sacraments are not for the unconscious, the

asleep or the dead. They are for the awake and

aware, the living and growing. Sacraments are

signs, and they function as symbols: they

resonate in the thoughts and feelings of those

who perceive them. Sacraments are actions,

and they function as rituals: they repeat gestures

and words that are meaningful to those who

perceive them. Sacraments are not merely

symbolic rituals, but they are at least that, and

they must be understood as such.” (Joseph Martos, The Catholic Sacraments, 17)

“Sacraments are not just for individuals. In fact, there is not one of them that can be performed alone. Sacraments are group actions, and under normal conditions they involve a number of persons in

dramatic interaction with one another.” (Martos, 49)

“The Sacraments did not fall from heaven, fully formed.” (86)

“Jesus did not ‘institute the sacraments’ by initiating certain religious rituals himself. Instead, he gave to the entirety of human experience a new significance, because he lived and died and rose into new life under the constant impact of God’s intimate presence”.

(Sacraments & Sacramentality, 66)

“Some parishes are dead, lifeless; others have spirit. The difference is tangible. You can feel the difference when you talk to parishioners, read the Sunday bulletin, you can tell it at Mass by the way people say responses, sing, etc. by the way they hang around after mass for a blether or rush quietly to their cars….”

(Martos, 183)

•What is your experience of sacraments?

•What do they do?

•How would you define a sacrament?

“A symbol is a concrete sign, or a concrete gesture or action: first, that man receives from his cultural environment and appropriates in a more or less active way or even creative manner; second, that serves him in all reference systems; third, in which he expresses himself and in which he recognises, explicitly or implicitly, an essential part of his personal, cultural, familial, social and eventually religious identity; and, fourth, that links him with some group that shares his identity.”

(David Power, Unsearchable Riches: the Symbolic Nature of Liturgy, 61-62)

A sign tends to affect us

simply, and we tend to

respond simply...

...a symbol tends to affect

us complexly, and we tend

to respond complexly.

•Defining Sacrament:

A Sacrament is an outward sign of inward grace, ordained by Jesus Christ,

by which grace is given to our souls.

(A Catechism of Christian Doctrine)

A sacrament is a sacred sign by which we worship God, his love is revealed to us and his

saving work accomplished in us. In the sacraments, God shows us what he does and

does what he shows us.

(The Teaching of the Catholic Church- A new Catechism of Christian Doctrine, Herbert McCabe OP)

The Sacraments of the New Testament were instituted by Christ the Lord and entrusted to

the Church. As actions of Christ and of the Church, they are signs and means by which faith is strengthened, worship is offered to God and our sanctification is brought about. Thus they

contribute in the most effective manner to establishing, strengthening and manifesting

ecclesiastical communion. Accordingly, in the celebration of the sacraments both the sacred ministers and all the other members of Christ’s

faithful must show due reverence and great care.

(Code of Canon Law, 840)

A sacrament is a worldly reality which reveals the sacrament of

salvation, because it is its realisation.

(How to Understand the Sacraments, Philippe Beguerie, Claude

Duchesneau)

The sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church,

by which divine life is dispensed to us. The visible rites by which the sacraments are

celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each to each sacrament. They bear

fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions.

(Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1131)

A Sacrament

Is a festive action

In which Christians assemble

To celebrate their lived experience

And to call to heart their common story.

The action is a symbol

Of God’s care for us in Christ.

Enacting the symbol

Brings us closer to one another in the Church

To the Lord

Who is there for us.

(Tad Guzie, Book of Sacramental Basics)