Mother Church is still celebrating the record number of converts who were received into her family at Easter. Her task now, like that of all mothers, is to nourish her children so they grow in wisdom, age, and grace before God and man. As mothers with adult children know well, this task has no expiration date: the Church dispenses the gifts of salvation to each child until his final breath.
How the Church performs this task, practically speaking, has varied over her long life. The early Church continued formal instruction of the newly baptized during Easter week. Before baptism, catechumens were taught about the faith; after it, they were led into faith via guided participation in the sacramental life.
This post-baptismal training was called mystagogy (from the Greek mystagogos, “leading through the mysteries”). And it remains a model for us today. The converts, transformed by baptism into new creations – forever different from their former selves and forever members of God’s family – now live the life of grace. That is, they practice the faith through prayer, sacraments, keeping the commandments, avoiding sin, developing virtues, and performing acts of charity.
But how exactly are the neophytes, so many of whom
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