Evangelization, Christian Initiation

and

Conversion of the Heart

Memory and imagination give us our only access to the past.  During the process of Christian Initiation, the candidate has taken an entire year of catechesis; learning the tenants of the faith, talking and discussing, reasoning and relating the truths of the faith with their own understanding of Jesus and the Church. They have prepared their minds to receive the graces that the Sacraments of the Church will bring them but the process of evangelization can only be completed when that person has had a true conversion of the heart. The knowledge that has been planted in the mind must drop eighteen inches and forever mark a change, a change that will show those who do not know God, what a relationship with Jesus Christ looks like.

Evangelization is ongoing and after a true conversion of the heart, that relationship with Christ must continue to be nurtured, whether candidates are coming into the Church through marriage or as converts to the faith or for some other reason. Catechesis has given them a “mind”   for the faith, but only a “heart” for the faith will make them strong, desiring the meat of the word the Church has to offer, and not just the milk.

(But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. . . I Corinthians 3:1-3).

Preparation for Confirmation should aim at leading the Christian toward a more intimate union with Christ and a more lively familiarity with the Holy Spirit -- His actions, His gifts, and His biddings -- in order to be more capable of assuming the apostolic responsibilities of Christian life (CCC `1309)

Confirmation is to be the beginning of a walk with the Lord, ongoing and ever climbing upward, toward a call to holiness. A relationship with Jesus is never meant to be business as usual but a convicting and life changing, daily program of renewal and relationship with a living Saviour. We, the Church are to be Living Stones, that point others to the Cross of Christ.

A Retreat for the Candidates and their Sponsors should include this life giving change brought by laity to laity. For the most part, candidates will have already had a full year of the religious. Ministering one to another is what the laity is called to do and will cause unity to develop within the Body.  Relationships and similar reasons for coming to the Church can be shared in a retreat type setting that can include sponsors and candidates by deanery or at least several parishes in the same area. Having an open format that allows for discussion and personal exchange with each other will help soften the heart of the individual even more to receive all that God has for them through the graces the Church has to offer.

Putting together a weekend retreat with conversion stories and testimonies from converts or cradle Catholics who have had a true heart conversion can bring the Candidate to a hunger for the Eucharist and an anticipation for the fullness of the Church that they will experience at Confirmation.

PEOPLE need a heart conversion. God is no respecter of persons. He doesn't see Catholic or non-Catholic, protestant, candidate or cradle Catholic. He sees a person in need of a Savior and that is what we would like to offer in a deanery by deanery retreat.
Kerygma Teams and the Evangelization Committee can put these types of weekends together and coordinate a conversion and not a program.  When a candidate looks back in their memory, they will know God saved and gave them the best, as they prepared for their Confirmation into the Church.