CREATING AN EFFECTIVE MYSTAGOGY A Handbook for Catechumenate Leaders Dennis Chriszt, CPPS Paper, $31.95 240 pages, 5½" × 8½" ISBN 0-89390-515-1 View Table of Contents View Excerpt Quantity:

The restoration of the ancient Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults has been a stunning success for the most part, but one aspect remains a problem. Catechumenate teams do not know what to do with mystagogia, the period that comes immediately after initiation. Catechumens tend to think of their baptism as a kind of graduation and cease to participate in follow-up meetings — and they sometimes disappear from the parish altogether. To confront this problem, the author says catechumenate teams need to apply “mystagogical thinking” to every segment of the process — not just the final mystagogical phase. His book provides a roadmap for doing this — from the pre-catechumate, through the period of enlightment, and finally to the mystagogical period itself. This resource includes evaluation questions and an extensive bibliography.

Table of Contents

Preface

Abbreviations

Introduction: Focusing on Mystagogy

My Experience with Mystagogy

The Experience of Mystagogy in the Church in the United States of America

Critical Reflection on the Present Situation

The Christian Story and Vision

Some Challenges Presented by the Rite and Present Practices

In Search of an Effective Mystagogy?

A Mystagogical Method

Chapter 1: Present Mystagogical Practices in Three Parishes

St. Ambrose of Milan Parish: Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

St. Cyril of Jerusalem Parish: Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

St. John Chrysostom Parish: Archdiocese of Cincinnati

Chapter 2: Analysis of the Present Practices

An Effective Mystagogy

Inquirers Come with Several Strong Desires

Many People Play Significant Roles in the Initiation Process

The Process Is Focused on a Life of Faith

Some Conclusions

Chapter 3: The Church’s Vision of Mystagogy

The Ancient Tradition

A Contemporary Vision

Chapter 4: A Conversation with Present Practices and the Church’s Vision of Mystagogy

In Search of ...?

What Are the Goals of an Initiation Process that Is Mystagogical Throughout?

What Is the Context in which an Authentically Mystagogical Initiation Process Occurs?

Who Are the Significant People in an Authentically Mystagogical Initiation Process?

How Does the Tradition Affirm and Challenge Present Initiatory Practices?

Chapter 5: Suggestions for a Contemporary Mystagogical Practice

Starting at the End: Be Clear About the Goals

Back to the Beginning: Mystagogical Throughout

Ministers of Initiation: Mystagogues All

The Search Continues

Appendix 1

Introduction

The Period of Postbaptismal Catechesis or Mystagogia

Appendix 2

Introduction

Part I: Christian Initiation of Adults

Part II : Rites for Particular Circumstances

National Statutes for the Catechumenate

Code of Canon Law

Notes

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Bibliography

Original Sources

Secondary Sources

Resources for Mystagogy

Literature on Methods

Following is an excerpt from Creating an Effective Mystagogy. All rights reserved. Copyright © Resource Publications, Inc.

Preface

When I started the search for an effective mystagogy, I thought I already knew where it would lead. I imagined a final chapter with an outline of a process that one could use for catechetical sessions during the period of postbaptismal catechesis or mystagogy. I thought that mystagogy was the period of postbaptismal catechesis. I believed that by interviewing a number of neophytes and their mystagogues, I would confirm what I already believed from my own experience as a mystagogue. I was wrong. The search took me in directions I never would have imagined.

I had also believed that I could learn little from a group of fourth-century bishops whose world was very different from the world we live in today. Again, I was wrong. The more I read of the preaching of Cyril of Jerusalem, Ambrose of Milan, John Chrysostom, and Theodore of Mopsuestia, the more turns I took on my search for an effective mystagogy. In the beginning I never imagined that I would actually have wanted to read all the mystagogical homilies of these men, let alone their catechetical preaching. They led me to places in my own spiritual life I am grateful to have gone. I was surprised on several occasions when I chose to quote these great preachers in my own preaching during Lent and Eastertime.

I was surprised also by the conclusions at which I arrived. In the beginning I never would have guessed how significant the role of the preacher would become. Nor would I have thought that the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy’s statement on the real presence of Christ in the assembly gathered, in the word proclaimed, in the rituals celebrated, and in the ministers ministering would become such a significant foundation for developing an effective mystagogy and an authentic initiation experience. I never would have suspected that the distinction between postbaptismal catechesis and mystagogy would also have become so significant to the search for an effective mystagogy.

Introduction

Focusing on Mystagogy

Liturgical catechesis aims to initiate people into the mystery of Christ (It is “mystagogy.”) by proceeding from the visible to the invisible, from the sign to the thing signified, from the “sacraments” to the “mysteries” (CCC 1075).¹

When I began to write this book, my goal was to help parishes design processes that enable people, especially neophytes, to experience the mystery of Christ and to reflect on and to live out of that experience throughout their lives. More specifically, it was to examine what was happening in mystagogy,² so that the gift to the church that is mystagogy might be used more effectively for the sake of the reign of God.

My experience of mystagogy, the experience of the fourth-century mystagogues, and the experience of mystagogues and neophytes in the United States today will be the starting point for this exploration.

My Experience with Mystagogy

I first encountered mystagogy while attending the Beginnings and Beyond Institute sponsored by the North American Forum on the Catechumenate.³ Until then, mystagogia, as it was called in 1984, was a complete mystery to me. While I had been a catechist and parish director of Christian initiation of adults for several years, I had no idea what to do during the period of postbaptismal catechesis. I had read the introductions in the Rite of the Christian Initiation of Adults,⁴ but I had no experience or understanding of what it was all about.

One of the presenters at that institute, Ron Oakham, introduced the participants to what he called ritual catechesis,⁵ a method for reflecting on a ritual experience. Together we both practiced and discussed that method. We also considered its implications for mystagogia. My experience of ritual catechesis and the subsequent discussions among those of us on the Beyond track during that institute had a profound influence on my future ministry as a mystagogue. That catechetical method became the method I used both in celebrating mystagogy in the two parishes where I subsequently ministered as a mystagogue and in teaching adults about sacraments in other catechetical situations.

During the following Easter season, several other mystagogues and I used the ritual catechesis method we had learned the previous summer in a small town just outside a major metropolitan area. There were about twelve hundred families, 90 percent of whom were first- or second-generation Americans of Eastern European descent. The town itself was over 90 percent Catholic with six Catholic parishes for some four thousand people. The town was dominated by three companies, all of which had moved their corporate headquarters into the nearby city during the previous two decades. It was a rather stable community. Although many children moved away as adults, few new families moved into the community. With so few people in the town who were not already baptized Roman Catholics, it was considered rare that anyone would seek initiation into the Catholic Church as an adult. But in the late summer of 1983, my second year as an associate pastor, each of the three full-time priests on the staff had encountered two or three persons who expressed an interest in becoming Catholic, and so we formed an initiation team and used the ritual and catechetical processes described in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.

The following year, two members of the initiation team attended the Beginnings and Beyond Institute. During the Easter season of 1985, I experienced mystagogy for the first time.

Susan had been baptized just two days earlier, and she was crying.⁶ The neophytes, their sponsors and spouses, and the members of the parish initiation team had gathered to remember, to reflect, and to rejoice. We had gathered around the waters of the font, the waters in which Susan and three others had been baptized. We had listened again to the Easter story of resurrection. We had blessed ourselves (some of us, like Susan, for the first time) with the water blessed two nights earlier by the light of the Easter candle. We had prayed for one another and joined our prayers together with the prayer that Jesus taught us. When we had gathered in the living room of the parish pastoral center, Susan began crying.

As mystagogue for that evening gathering of postbaptismal catechesis, I invited those who were gathered together to remember not only what we had just celebrated, but also what we had experienced a couple of days earlier at the Easter Vigil. Then I invited those who wanted to share their experience to do so.

Susan then told us this story:

“I had a hard time sleeping last Friday night. It had been a long day. But in the morning, Holy Saturday morning, I woke up filled with all kinds of strange feelings. For some reason, I knew that what had happened to Jesus was about to happen to me. By the time the day was over, I would be dead. I was not sick, but I was certainly dying.

“There were so many people to talk to. If this was to be the last day of my life, there were so many people to talk to. I talked to my children. I told them I loved them. I asked them if they could forgive me for the times I had let them down, for the times I had been less of a mother than I could have—should have—been.

“I called my ex-husbands—all three of them. I doubt if they understood what I was doing. But I made peace with each of them in my own way. I asked for their forgiveness for the many ways in which I had hurt them during our marriages, and I offered them my forgiveness. I needed to be reconciled with each of them before I died.

“I called my parents, my brothers and sisters, even my ex-in-laws. I thanked them all for the ways in which they had supported and loved me over the years. They must have thought I was crazy, calling them for no apparent reason and offering them my love and asking for their forgiveness.

“But I was dying, and I knew I’d be dead before the day was over.

“And then we gathered in church to pray and to prepare ourselves for the Easter Vigil; it was like making my own funeral arrangements. You were all so excited about what was about to happen, and so was I. But I knew that I was about to die and that made my excitement and anxiety just a little different.

“And then, during the Easter Vigil, when you poured that water over my head, then I died ... I died.”

When she finished her story, many in the group were in tears. After a brief period of silence, I shared the following Scripture passage with the neophytes and their sponsors:

“Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.

“For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection. We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin. For a dead person has been absolved from sin. If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him. As to his death, he died to sin once and for all; as to his life, he lives for God. Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as [being] dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus (Rom 6:3–11).”

This was the same Scripture passage we had heard at the Easter Vigil, the epistle for that evening. But in this context, on this night, it came to life in a new way. Connections were made. The tradition was shared. The starting point for these connections and sharing was Susan’s experience.

This reading also reminded Eleanor, another neophyte, of another recent experience. A few weeks earlier, George, one of the candidates for full communion, had a massive heart attack. All the catechumens, candidates, sponsors, and catechists from our community had visited him in the hospital and prayed with him sometime during the following week. Some had witnessed his profession of faith, confirmation, and first communion. Some were present as he was anointed with the oil of the sick. By the end of that week, George died. All gathered at the wake and again at his funeral the day after they had celebrated the third scrutiny.⁷

Remembering that event, Eleanor, the other neophytes, and those who gathered with them began to make connections between the symbols of water poured over those who were baptized just a few days earlier and the water splashed on George’s casket just a few weeks earlier; the paschal candle that stood before those reborn to eternal life at the Easter Vigil and a similar candle that stood as a silent sentinel at George’s funeral;⁸ the white garments that wrapped the newly baptized and the white cloth laid on the casket of our friend. All these symbols spoke of the relationship between life and death, a relationship celebrated in baptism and in the Order of Christian Funerals. The words from Paul’s Letter to the Romans, quoted above, which had been proclaimed at George’s funeral, were also proclaimed at Susan’s and Eleanor’s baptism, just as the story of the resurrection of Lazarus was heard at both the third scrutiny and George’s funeral. We remembered. We made connections. We experienced once again the presence of God in our midst. There were new understandings and new insights into the faith into which the neophytes had just recently been baptized, understandings and insights that would have been impossible prior to the experience.

That experience of mystagogy convinced me of its importance. It had an effect, not only on my way of thinking about mystagogy but also on my behaviors as a mystagogue, preacher, and presider at the rites of the Roman Catholic Church. It likewise was effective in that the neophytes who were part of the experience began to see the connections between their lives, liturgy, and the Christian tradition. This was my first real experience of mystagogy during the Christian initiation of adults,⁹ and it is out of that experience that I come to this study.

I have experienced mystagogy many times since then. I have been both mystagogue and member of the Christian faithful. I have witnessed, rejoiced, and made connections in my own life as part of the mystagogical process. I have been blessed, and it is the blessings that I have received and the blessings I have shared with neophytes and other members of the Christian faithful that have convinced me of the importance of mystagogy and postbaptismal catechesis.

Like the Rite’s authors, I have come to believe that “the period of postbaptismal catechesis is of great significance for both the neophytes and the rest of the faithful. (RCIA 246).”¹⁰ I gained new understandings, new insights, and a deeper faith in God. The paschal mystery was opened up for me in new ways. The call to witness to the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ was reinforced and reenergized.

The Experience of Mystagogy in the Church in the United States of America

In 1988, Liturgy Training Publications conducted a survey of catechists and parish directors of the Christian initiation of adults. While those who answered the survey were not statistically representational of the Catholic population in the United States, they do seem to form a kind of cross section of the American church. The most common responses to two different questions¹¹ indicated that of the RCIA stages or rites [mystagogy] seems most difficult to understand [and] most difficult to do (O’Brien 9). In the workshops that I have conducted in three different dioceses over the past twelve years, the participants seemed to support the survey results. Time and time again, I was asked to share resources and information that might enable catechists and parish directors of Christian initiation to both understand the goals of mystagogy and to help them plan for the postbaptismal catechesis that takes place during this stage of the initiation process.

James Dunning summed up the situation in this way:

“We have no hard data, but we do have anecdotal evidence that some neophytes not only become passive but totally inactive regarding Sunday worship. Some suggest that this is not so much a matter of deliberate choice but of drifting away from active participation because the church has drifted away from them. The church that they experienced during initiation—a church of small groups round the scriptures sharing faith—in effect no longer exists for them” (“Demystifying Mystagogy” 32).

When I suggested to Dunning that perhaps as many as 50 percent of those initiated at the Easter Vigil cease to participate in the liturgical life of the Church within two years of their initiation, he responded by calling me “an optimist.” He indicated that from the feedback he received while conducting institutes and giving presentations at various conferences, many people he talked to thought the number would be larger and take place sooner. This may be an indication that something is awry. While many neophytes consider their experience of the Christian initiation of adults to be positive, its effects may not be long lasting, or at the very least, some of the expected behavioral results (for example, regular, active participation in the liturgical life of the parish community) are not in evidence.

Though anecdotal evidence seems to indicate that more and more parish initiation teams are doing something they call postbaptismal catechesis or mystagogy, the vast majority of parishes in the United States do not appear to be doing anything during or beyond the Easter season that they would call mystagogy. Some of this may indicate a misunderstanding of the term itself. The Rite indicates that the “main setting [for mystagogy] is the so-called Masses for neophytes, that is, the Sunday Masses of the Easter Season” (RCIA 247). Most ministers of initiation, including the United States bishops, seem to believe that additional gatherings ought to be part of the Easter season and “should extend until the anniversary of Christian initiation, with at least monthly assemblies of the neophytes for their deeper Christian formation and incorporation into the full life of the Christian community” (National Statutes for the Catechumenate 24). What these assemblies look like remains unclear. To many ministers of initiation, the Rite seems to imply that some kind of catechetical gatherings ought to take place when it also calls mystagogy “the period of postbaptismal catechesis.”

In the last few years, several published resources have been made available to assist parishes in doing postbaptismal catechesis.¹² The very existence of these resources seems to indicate that many people believe that mystagogy ought to include more than the Sunday Eucharistic celebration.

Critical Reflection on the Present Situation

The Rite seems to be at least partially to blame for the inaction and the confusion that is occurring. Whereas the introduction regarding the other stages of Christian initiation are much more clear about what happens during those periods, those concerning mystagogy are rather sparse. While the 1988 edition contains almost three times as much text as the provisional text regarding mystagogy, the instructions are still rather vague.¹³

The period of the catechumenate and the period of purification and enlightenment include numerous rituals.¹⁴ The only rituals during the period of postbaptismal catechesis or mystagogy are the Sunday Eucharists during the Easter season and a Mass with the bishop. In many parishes, the neophytes have no distinct role in the Sunday Eucharist during the Easter season. Following the intense rituals of Lent and the Triduum, this can be experienced as a ritual letdown.

The academic calendar often has more influence on parish life than the liturgical calendar does. Thus, in many parishes there is a tendency to use both the language and structures of academia in the process of Christian initiation. A number of resources, especially those published immediately after the introduction of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, provide a detailed curriculum that can easily give one the impression that the Christian initiation of adults is primarily an educational program.¹⁵ Together with a tendency to see baptism as the goal of initiation, the Easter Vigil can be thought of as a graduation. This kind of understanding can lead one to believe that mystagogy is totally unnecessary, about as important to one’s overall education as a class reunion.

J. Michael McMahon reminds us that “neither the sacraments of initiation nor their preparation are ends in themselves. They allow believers to enter into a new life, as they are joined to Christ and share with others who have also responded to the proclamation of the good news” (85). Until catechists and others in leadership in the Church believe that “the initiation journey never really comes to an end” (McMahon 89), mystagogy will be considered unimportant because the initiation process will have already ended with the reception of the Easter sacraments.

Catechesis, preaching, and ritual celebrations can sometimes focus too narrowly on personal salvation. They can also proclaim a kind of magical understanding of sacraments. These misunderstandings of the tradition can also lead to a notion that salvation is complete once one has been fully initiated. Once complete, there is no need for “deepening the Christian experience, for spiritual growth and for entering more fully into the life and unity of the community” (RCIA 7.4), and thus mystagogy becomes unnecessary.

How particular communities celebrate the early stages of the initiation process can make it difficult to celebrate an effective mystagogy. The signing of the senses during the rite of acceptance into the order of catechumens is often celebrated as if this is simply a ritual blessing. The paradoxical power of the cross as a symbol of both death and life, both blessing and curse is diminished, and the catechumen’s experience of the paschal mystery is minimized. The scrutinies are often celebrated as blessings of the Elect (Paris) rather than exorcisms that “uncover, then heal all that is weak, defective, or sinful in the hearts of the Elect” as well as “bring out, then strengthen all that is upright, strong and good” (RCIA 141). A small amount of water poured over the forehead of the Elect can minimize any sense that baptism involves “dying with Christ.” When the power of the ritual is not experienced in its fullness, it can prevent, or at least make it difficult for, the neophytes to experience that they have been immersed into the paschal mystery of Christ’s dying and rising. When ritual signs are minimized, when the paschal character (RCIA 8) of the process is not evidenced, the mystery that mystagogy reflects on may seem absent, thus making reflection on the mystery almost impossible.

The ways in which the previous periods of Christian initiation are celebrated can become obstacles to an effective mystagogy, obstacles not easily overcome. Mystagogy depends on a period of evangelization during which a person feels “called away from sin and drawn into the mystery of God’s love” (RCIA 37). It depends on the period of the catechumenate during which catechumens were led “not only to an appropriate acquaintance with dogmas and precepts but also to a profound sense of the mystery of salvation in which they desire to participate” (RCIA 75.1). It depends on rituals that are real celebrations of God’s presence in the world and in the lives of all who believe. It depends on symbols that are lavish and gestures that are strong signs of God’s action in our lives. Mystagogy cannot make up for what is lacking in the earlier periods of Christian initiation.

Mystagogy is the last thing to come and the first thing to fall apart, not just because we are tired, but because, in all honesty, we don’t know what to do with it, and the trivia we fill it with invites boredom. Have we, in the last analysis, brought these people through nine months, a year, two years or more of intense preparation for entrance into a life about which we have nothing to say? ... a life with which we are bored, or about which we are so ignorant or have so little experience that we have nothing to share? (Hixon 128).

The truth is often that we don’t have enough experience of the renewed liturgy or ecclesiology of Vatican II to know what to say to neophytes. Members of the Catholic Church baptized in infancy do not know what the experience of the neophytes is really like, and our imaginations are limited by our own experiences or lack of experience of conversion.

On the other hand, some pastoral ministers have had such powerful experiences with the Christian initiation of adults that they believe that it can solve all the problems of the parish. They put all their eggs in this one basket. The Christian initiation of adults is not a renewal program for the parish. It is a ritual process that often engages the faithful in new ways of being a parish, but that is not its primary goal. Those who use it in this way may be misusing it.

Small faith communities are often formed during the initiation process. Catechumens, sponsors, and catechists form strong personal relationships that often disappear shortly after initiation.

Of all the stages in the RCIA, the mystagogical period perhaps calls for the most change in pastoral practice. If we spend the other periods initiating people into a community of celebration and ministry, that community must stay with them during the Easter season to help them reflect on what has happened and to help them make decisions for the future.

Even more, I would take the stance that so many values in secularized America conflict with Gospel values that to continue to grow in faith the newly baptized need to have some regular contact with a small prayer community which will also provide support. (Dunning, “The Stages of Initiation,” 242).

Once initiated into the larger Church, the neophyte is often abandoned by both sponsors/godparents and catechists, who have the mistaken impression that once a person is initiated they no longer need the support that was part of their preparation for initiation. It may in fact be that they need the support of the community even more, and that may be why so many neophytes leave the community they have spent so much time preparing to join.