Father, I desire to be converted today, and I truly am Catholic in heart, but I don't start rcia until the summer. Can I take the most holy Eucharist now if I confess with a priest first? also does one have to be confirmed to confess and be forgiven?
Well, confession and communion are normally the privilege of those who are in full communion with the Church. It’s wonderful to hear that you’re taking steps toward that! That’s what RCIA is all about.
But of course it’s normally a process that shouldn’t be rushed — the classes are designed to help you get to know your new family and the Church’s faith as well as possible before taking the plunge. So why don’t you talk to your local priest about the situation and see what his judgment is, and if he thinks it’s worth skipping the normal steps. Confession precedes Communion, but Confirmation doesn’t necessarily precede Confession. (Of course, following normal timing, you would be receiving all three in quick succession if you were to wait until Easter.)
May God bless you in your journey towards greater union with him in the sacraments!
The gravity of it all caught up with me one night while sitting and talking with my mom. I blurted out, "I need to know if there is a God out there who loves me. I just want to know if I'm loved, and if I can count on being loved. If I had that, then I would be willing to do anything He asked of me. I wouldn't care if people thought I was a religious fanatic; I just have to know. I need to know." I didn't recognize it at the time, but God the Father can't resist that kind of desire; it is His Holy Spirit Who brings it about!
Dear Father, as a Catholic in a secular high school, how should I spread the Gospel? Or if it's not my proper time to do such things, then what is it that I am supposed to do? I mean, prayer is one thing, but living out the faith is another, and I'm not sure how I should go about it.
You might really get a lot out of reading and reflecting on this: the Pope's WYD message for 2008. (Or, if you've got lots of free time, Christifideles Laici.) The Holy Spirit wants to use you as a missionary! The question of course is "how"?
Our faith is missionary by nature. If we have received such an incredibly great gift, we can't keep it to ourselves, naturally. Christianity isn't selfish, and anything that would turn us in on ourselves to contemplate our own holiness and perfection at the expense of spreading the Good News... isn't truly holy, perfect, or even Christian.
Prayer is definitely the first step! Pray for those around you, pray for God's light to help them find what you've found, pray for your own needs too.
Your Christian witness can be relatively silent, though, and sometimes that's most prudent. A great big blaring "I love Jesus" t-shirt may end up turning off more people than it attracts. A very quiet "I love Jesus" in everything you do, the way you treat people, the things you say no to, the things you say yes to... now that's a real "I love Jesus" that can turn heads and change hearts!
Spreading the faith doesn't mean "being in people's faces" like some have thought. But it's not about "not being noticed," either. Striking the right balance in the milieu you're in -- in order to make your Christian lifestyle and your Christian hope truly attractive to the people you deal with -- isn't easy. But the Spirit (and maybe someone wise you may know) can inspire the specific ways. Maybe it's wearing a discreet purity ring that makes people ask what you're wearing and can be a way to strike up a good conversation. Maybe it's writing "Peter" on your backpack instead of "Joe" or "Lucy" instead of "Angela" so that people ask why you didn't use your name and you can tell them it's your Confirmation name. Maybe it's eating fish every Friday at lunch so that people ask why after a while.
But above all and in everything, John 13:35... "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
Hi Father, I am a lay catechist who helps run a team of lay catechists at my parish who are in charge of Confirmation Prep Classes on Monday evenings. Before classes, we pray Vespers. I was wondering if it was alright for us to have mini-sermons/reflections concerning the Readings in Vespers given by the lay members of our group (men and women) or is that a prerogative of clergy only?
Good question! I'm not entirely sure. I've only ever seen preaching done by priests and bishops during Vespers.
The General Instruction for the Liturgy of the Hours says this:
47. In a celebration with a congregation a short homily may follow the reading to explain its meaning, as circumstances suggest.
I was expecting to see "reflection" or "sermon," but it's the word "homily"... So I believe that triggers this, from the Code of Canon Law:
Can. 767 §1 The most important form of preaching is the homily, which is part of the liturgy, and is reserved to a priest or deacon. In the course of the liturgical year, the mysteries of faith and the rules of christian living are to be expounded in the homily from the sacred text.
Since that number comes from the section on the Church's ministry of the Word (preaching, evangelization) in general and not from the section on the celebration of Mass, I assume that it's meant to apply broadly.
On the other hand, a communal celebration of Vespers is normally led by a priest or deacon, but in their absence can also be led by a layperson. So I'm not sure if the word "homily" automatically excludes that, in the event of a layperson leading the celebration, there be preaching.
For what it's worth, Redemptionis Sacramentum has this:
161. The homily on account of its importance and its nature is reserved to the Priest or Deacon during Mass. As regards other forms of preaching, if necessity demands it in particular circumstances, or if usefulness suggests it in special cases, lay members of Christ’s faithful may be allowed to preach in a church or in an oratory outside Mass in accordance with the norm of law. This may be done only on account of a scarcity of sacred ministers in certain places, in order to meet the need, and it may not be transformed from an exceptional measure into an ordinary practice, nor may it be understood as an authentic form of the advancement of the laity. All must remember besides that the faculty for giving such permission belongs to the local Ordinary, and this as regards individual instances; this permission is not the competence of anyone else, even if they are Priests or Deacons.
So I'm really not sure, but I'm guessing that the texts should incline us to, on the safe side, have talks by laypersons given before or after the liturgical celebration rather than during.
By the way, I'm really impressed... praying Vespers with the kids is a really excellent idea. Definitely anything that you can do to help them understand the depth of what they're praying is going to be necessary, obviously... otherwise the Word of God can become just words that flow right past us.
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