Mystagogy

Do you like to travel? I love to travel and do you know what I like best? Looking at the pictures! The pictures of the places and the people help me to remember the trip and point out how the journey amazed me, challenged me and changed me.

Our newly initiated members are spending the Easter season reflecting on their faith journey, in particular, on the celebrations of Holy Week and the experience of the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist. They are remembering the images, the words, and the symbols they experienced. This process of reflection, officially called mystagogy, is a way of helping them to deepen their understanding of their experience. In the ancient Church, it was a way of teaching not only the newly initiated, but the whole community about the mysteries of faith.

Mystagogy isn’t only for the newly initiated. It is a powerful tool for everyone that can help one understand one’s faith in new ways. Take some time in the days ahead to remember the liturgies of Holy Week, Easter, or a Sunday Mass and discuss as a family. Here are a few questions to get you started: What did you see? What did you hear? What word or phrase captured your attention? What do you remember most? What touched you? What did it mean to you? What symbol stood out for you? If that symbol could have spoken, what might it have said? How did the liturgy challenge or affirm your perspective? How did it deepen your faith?

Mystagogy shows us how the liturgy teaches, reinforcing a key concept of the Second Vatican Council.

“Although the liturgy is above all things the worship of the divine majesty, it likewise contains rich instruction for the faithful.” Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy 33

For example, I remember when a visitor to our parish engaged in mystagogy without knowing it. He noticed that we prayed (in the General Intercessions) for those on death row. He was a lawyer who was all too familiar with criminal punishment. He was deeply moved by the prayer. It spoke to him about the abundance of God’s love and motivated him to seek a deeper understanding of our beliefs on capital punishment. His perspective about who Catholics are and what we believe was challenged and changed.

The liturgy teaches us a lot about our faith, but it requires that we come to Mass with eyes and ears wide open, with attentiveness and presence, ready to be amazed, challenged and changed.

I would like to invite you to share your experiences of the liturgies of Holy Week, of Easter or of a recent Sunday Mass by emailing me at kkuczka@sta.org. These comments will then be published in next weekend’s blog. I too will share my experiences of the liturgies of northern Italy. Sharing our experiences can help us to learn from one another and can lead us to a deeper faith in the Risen Lord, which is what mystagogy and Easter is all about.

After Easter

On this Mother’s Day I am grateful for my mother, my grandmothers, and all of my maternal ancestors, whose origins I will soon discover. I recently received the gift of a DNA testing kit. These kits, produced by 23andMe, Ancestry.com, and others are designed to help people trace their roots, connect with unknown relatives, and even indicate genetic medical trends from the swab of a person’s saliva. These products, along with the popularity of programs such as the PBS Television series, Tracing Your Roots, tell us that we are eager to determine our family tree.

The Easter season calls us to remember our spiritual ancestry. Whenever we are sprinkled with holy water, a sign of our baptism, we are reminded that we are all the beloved children of God, and that the community that surrounds us is a part of our spiritual family tree.

Those who were initiated at the Easter Vigil have spent these weeks of Easter reflecting on what it means to be a child of God and on how the rituals, symbols, and the entire experience of Holy Week transformed them. Here are some of their comments:

What were the peak moments for you?

The lighting of the fire helped usher in a new beginning for me

Taking communion …  I felt whole with the family and with Christ.

The “I do’s” felt like I was getting married!

[One candidate to another after he was confirmed] “Christ looks good on you!”

How did God speak to you? What did God say?

“You’re home, this is your family.”

[Through the Litany of the Saints] “The saints are always there to pray for you.” 

[Through the cello at the 7 Last Words] “I am here.”

Who was the God you experienced the night of the Easter Vigil? What did God say to you?

It felt like a homecoming.

God was smiling from ear to ear, wrapping his arms around us.

It felt as if a hand was being extended, as if to say, “Follow me, I’ll walk with you through this.”

What does baptism mean to you now?

Baptism washed away everything from before, which allowed the oil to seal the good of my new life within.

This is one night [The Easter Vigil] when water and oil do mix!

 How would you sum up your journey of conversion?

From confusion to clarity.

From darkness to light.

From being angry to forgiving everybody.

From feeling empty to feeling whole. 

From being disconnected to being connected, being part of the community.

From being lost to being found.