ABINGDON – When Amber Conley was growing up, she always admired the way her best friend practiced her Catholic faith. Her friend took her religious beliefs seriously, prayed regularly and attended Mass – with Conley sometimes joining her at liturgies.
“It always stuck with me through the years,” remembered Conley, who always had it in the back of her mind that she might one day become Catholic herself.
Conley took the leap of faith at the Easter Vigil this year, March 30, when she was baptized, received her first holy Communion and was confirmed during a bilingual Mass at St. Francis de Sales in Abingdon. She was among 19 catechumens and candidates, including many Spanish-speaking people, who were received into full communion with the Catholic Church at the parish.
Candidates, who had been previously baptized, received the sacraments of Communion and/or confirmation. Catechumens received all three sacraments of initiation – baptism, Communion and confirmation.
“It feels amazing,” Conley said at the end of the lengthy liturgy. “It’s a beautiful feeling to be able to do it and participate in the Mass, receive Communion and grow in my faith.”
Throughout the Archdiocese of Baltimore, 663 candidates and catechumens who had participated in the Rite of Election and the Call to Continuing Conversion at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in February, entered the Catholic Church this Easter. There were more catechumens and candidates who came into full communion this Easter Vigil from parishes not represented at the February cathedral liturgy.
The number of people received into the church was up substantially from last year, when 437 people were welcomed into the faith in the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
In his homily at the March 30 Easter Vigil Mass at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, Archbishop William E. Lori encouraged the congregation to “love and embrace” those coming into the church.
“And let those of us who have been Catholic Christians our whole life long rejoice,” he said, “rejoice as new members are incorporated into the Body of Christ, rejoice as we are renewed in our own baptism, rejoice as we promise anew to life as children of the light, rejoice as we share the banquet of Christ’s sacrifice with the newly initiated.”
In Abingdon, Father John Martinez, pastor, said he was inspired to see a large number of people come into the church.
“To me, it’s a blessing,” he said.
It is the call of the faithful to be good examples of the Christian faith, he said, to help others establish personal relationships with the Lord.
“That becomes hope for the church because they spread that out as well,” Father Martinez said.
Luis Castrillon, a seminarian at St. Mary’s Seminary in Roland Park preparing for the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, assisted at the Abingdon Easter Vigil. He called Easter the “greatest day for Catholics and the greatest day for humanity.”
“It’s the greatest day for our faith because we remember the resurrection of Christ,” he said. “He has victory against death, against sin, against the devil. The gates of heaven are officially open by Christ through his resurrection.”
Kevin J. Parks and George Matysek Jr. contributed to this story.
For more photographs from this event, click through the slide show below:
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