Walking the Rite way

Many countries are lavish in their remembrance of their saints’ days, with the whole village enjoying a day of festivity and reverence to a particular saint. The people of Malta take the celebration of the feast of St Paul’s Shipwreck, very seriously. Preparation is year long for this annual feast to their patron saint. It falls on the nearest Sunday to February 10th and there is much anxiety about the weather, for the 17th century wooden statue cannot be carried outside in high winds or heavy rain. I took this photo after the men had spent a couple of hours transferring the statue to its portable beams, had proudly begun the procession, only to be driven back into the safety of the church when the rain fell. It wasn’t only the bearers that shed tears, but many in the crowd acted as if they had suffered a great loss.

This year All Saints Day will be celebrated next Sunday November 2nd (England & Wales only) and I would like to explore how this provides a catechetical opportunity for RCIA catechists and the community.

Saints are so much a part of our life. We read about them, we pray to them in Mass and in a time of need; we feel supported by them and are secure in knowing they are a communion of saints. Our churches are dedicated to them, but so are street names, pubs and businesses. Statues are part of our architectural heritage Even non-christians have heard of St Christopher, and when on holiday how can you ignore the patron saint hanging above the visor of the bus driver in Malta, Crete, Cyprus etc.

From time to time, saints have featured with great predominance in my faith journey. Although, not always obvious at the time, on looking back I have been able to chart a sideways and upwards step, leading me to new exploration and depths as I try to fathom what exactly God has planned for me. While I find it a little puzzling why All Souls is not being commemorated on the 2nd November, I relish the opportunity that this change to the liturgical year offers to RCIA catechists.

• Those involved with the period of inquiry have the chance to share in hearing the richness of saints’ stories when members of the parish participate in group sessions. What an easy way to introduce a relationship with saints when exchanging stories of how St Christopher was invoked on a hazardous journey, or how prayers to St Jude or St Rita helped turn a hopeless situation into a triumph. As for the lost things that St Anthony is asked to find…
• For both inquirers and catechumens, there is the opportunity for exploration and discussion over birth names and what saints they identify with. This may involve hearing about holy people from other cultures, and learning about new saints.
• Hands on experience is possible by bringing statues, icons or pictures to the group. Many art books or museum catalogues will show how saints have been depicted through the ages.
• Use this time of the liturgical year to think ahead to the Easter Vigil to bring alive those named in the Litany of Saints, so that our candidates will be able to sing out ‘pray for us’ with some familiarity of the saints named.

In our parish, everyone has been invited to bring to Sunday Mass a picture or statue, or icon of their favourite saint. I am hoping that those who have adopted England as their second country will bring statues of the saints they have grown up with, and catechumens and all, will see the variety of holy people that have inspired those in our community. It is a time for the neophytes and those who were confirmed to remember their confirmation saint, and together with the parish young confirmed earlier in the year, they could place their saints in a special location in the church.

• For those experiencing mystagogy, here is a chance to explore holiness. Look at popular prayers, or the saints named in the Eucharistic prayers. What is amazing about saints, is that they come from such a diversity of backgrounds and cultures. Anne Gordon in A Book of Saints - True stories of how they touch our lives, offers instances where people today have been influenced by their relationship with a particular saint.

The glory of saints is, that they have lived, and coped with temptation, doubt and what seemed insurmountable obstacles; they have planned their path of faith only to find its progress thwarted, until eventually they have realised God is leading them along another path. But perhaps the most apt is St Martin of Tours, the pagan soldier who tore his cloak in half to give to a freezing beggar, and then in a vision Christ called him to stop being a catechumen, and to be baptised.

In the middle of August, we have this well-known Gospel, which echoes powerfully with us as a parish,  in the ‘holiday season’ trying to maintain contact with our candidates - feeling we are battling against the odds…..  And He made us get into this wretched boat and go on ahead while he dismissed the crowds (yes, dismissed!) and went up into the hills for a nice quiet time by himself!  We quite fancy a nice bit of quiet ourselves.

Well, in this story there is room for both - time for quiet refreshment in the ’sheer silence’ on the hillside (Community Bible translation of ‘gentle breeze’ (in 1 Kngs 19:12) and with the psalmist to ‘hear what the Lord has to say, a voice that speaks of peace’,  and time for battling with our own fears and immaturity as we attempt to move forward with the process of initiation. 

On reflection, perhaps rather than highlighting Peter’s doubt, it is is his courage and faith that is emphasised when he says in the height of the storm on seeing Jesus walking towards them, ’Order (or ‘tell’)me to come to you’ and Jesus says ‘Come’ and he climbs out and gives it a go!

So what have we been ‘giving a go’ this Summer?  The ‘group’ has not been meeting to break the Word, which could be seen as a disapointment.  However, the sponsors have been alongside our candidates these last weeks, sitting with them at Mass, bringing them to parish picnics, prayer vigils for Zimbabwe, and pilgrimages to local shrines, as well as continuing to share on the Sunday Gospels over a coffee, and telling stories of their own experience, for example, of reconciliation, as this sacramental opportunity approaches for the one who is to be received into full communion in September (on the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross - most appropriate for him).  Our neophyte has got married - so that has been a great joy in the whole parish community.  He specifically wanted the recitation of the Creed in the nuptial mass because it has come to mean so much to him.   So on reflection, the community and the candidates have been quietly getting on with the business of helping ‘those who are searching for Christ in the various circumstances of daily life’. (RCIA9)  Perhaps, gradually we are moving towards a more liturgical/mystagogical apprenticeship!

Yesterday in our parish Sunday Mass many will have experienced the first scrutiny - and allowed that gospel encounter of the woman with Jesus at the well to interpret our own lives and inner longings.  As we walk with Christ, our way, our truth, our life, along the lenten pathway towards Easter, we too meet the people he meets -  through wilderness, up and down mountains, thirsty woman, blind man, dead man, welcoming crowd, angry mob - we too enter into that sense of being ‘handed over’, and having to trust God that this is the right path.   And the scrutinies are moments of  self-searching, repentance, enlightenment.  They are described in RCIA 141 as having a spiritual purpose - to uncover and heal all that is weak, and to bring out and strengthen all that is good and strong.  Their aim is to ‘complete’ conversion and deepen our resolve to hold on to Christ.  Their focus is towards salvation and the resulting new life and freedom that brings.   As individuals and community, in reflecting on the experience of the scrutinies, may we become more and more consciously aware of being filled with Christ -  living water, light of the world, resurrection and life.  We are not diminished by the experience.. we are set free.  

So, what was the experience like for you?  In what ways are you ’thirsty’?    What does the encounter tell you about Christ?