Talk to any of the nearly 700 catechumens and candidates who filled the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Homeland Feb. 18 for the Rite of Election and the Call to Continuing Conversion who will enter the Catholic Church this Easter, and you won’t hear them reflect about a sense of adventure on a new journey.
Rather, they will likely tell you that they’ve finally come home.
The archdiocese reported that 244 catechumens – those who have not been baptized – and 425 candidates – those who are baptized but have not received one or more of the sacraments of initiation – participated in the bilingual liturgy.
They represented 61 parishes and pastorates. The largest group, 63, was from the Pastorate of St. Mary and St. John Neumann in Annapolis. There are more catechumens and candidates coming into full Communion from parishes not represented at the cathedral liturgy.
For the Rite of Election, catechumens and their sponsors stood before Archbishop William E. Lori as he signed the Book of the Elect. Catechumens will receive all the sacraments of initiation – baptism, confirmation and Eucharist – at the Easter Vigil.
During the Call to Continuing Conversion, candidates stood before the bishop to be affirmed for full communion.
As always, no two faith journeys are identical.
Jessica Prisco, a candidate from St. John the Evangelist Parish in Hydes, told the Catholic Review, “My brother and I are the lone non-Catholics in our family, having been baptized Episcopalian. Despite this, my husband and I have raised our kids in the Catholic faith. However, I’ve often felt like an outsider.
“Joining the Catholic Church feels right to me, as I believe it will bring me closer to God and will reinforce the faith I would like to instill in my children. Despite recent scandals, I see the church’s core teachings as separate from the actions of a few.
“Embracing Catholicism feels essential in a world where many are abandoning organized religion,” she said.
Prisco, who will be traveling on Easter, will receive her first holy Communion on Pentecost Sunday. She credited supportive parish members for enabling her to “feel a true sense of belonging.”
Shae’erica “Shay” Parker, a catechumen at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore, grew up in a non-denominational church but attended Catholic schools in Baltimore, including St. Katharine, which closed in 2010.
“It was the religion most familiar to me,” she said. “I felt the connections.”
A particular attraction was the strong sense of tradition and continuity. She also was interested in church teaching on angels, something that has always fascinated her but that she did not find in other denominations,
Parker credited the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults instruction at her parish, and said her sponsors “made sure I blend into the church really well.”
Teresa Foreman, another candidate from St. John the Evangelist in Hydes, grew up Methodist, but “since I was a child, I always had an admiration for the Catholic Church.” Like Parker, she mentioned teaching about the existence of angels as well as “understanding (eucharistic) adoration and stuff like that.”
“I went through a period of doubt and random spiritual stuff” before finding family inspiration from a grandmother, she said.
Foreman also credited Barbara Anderson, director of adult faith formation at St. John. “Any question I’ve ever asked, she was happy to answer. I’d ask her something like ‘What is the purpose of this?’ She answered all of it.”
In his homily, Archbishop Lori acknowledged the new Catholics’ sense of exploration.
“Somewhere deep down, amid our joys and frustrations, we are longing for God,” he said. “Our soul is thirsting, our body is pining – not for more of what the world offers – but for a love that is infinite and pure, a love fills us with strength and joy, a love that satisfies our desire to belong, our desire to be loved, a love that corresponds to who are as human beings created in the image of God.
“We are here because we want to belong to God, and belonging to God, we desire to belong to one another,” the archbishop said.
“It’s not that we get up every morning and say, ‘I long for God! My soul is thirsting! It’s not that we have some thought-out philosophy that led us to that conclusion.
“Maybe none of those things … but somewhere deep within we long for God.”
Archbishop Lori said, “That persistent longing for God – for his truth, his love, his presence in our lives – this has led you here today as you prepare for baptism and reception into the church.
“For even as you seek for God amid the busyness and distractions of life, so too the Lord and his Spirit want nothing more than that Christ be formed in you, and that you be incorporated fully into his holy people,” he said.
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