Rite of Election – Last week at the 9:30 a.m. Mass, we celebrated the Rite of Sending with our Catechumens and Candidates. Mrs. Kumiko Jovero, Mr. Nicholas Stevens and Mrs. Jennifer Sullivan are Catechumens preparing for Baptism, and Mr. Wesley Powell and Mrs. Madeleine Conui are Candidates preparing for Confirmation. Wesley was baptized in another Christian tradition while Madeleine was baptized Catholic as a child and received First Holy Communion, but is now seeking to be Confirmed. At the Cathedral, it was beautiful to see it being filled with hundreds of men and women seeking to become Catholics. The Archbishop explained that the word “Election,” from its Latin roots, means “Chosen.” The Bible teaches that God was the one who first chose us. It was because God loves us that He called us into being. We of course, have the choice to respond and reject God’s offer of love. We are certainly proud and happy that our Catechumens and Candidates, along with the hundreds of Catechumens and Candidates from throughout the Archdiocese, are choosing to respond to God’s love, by loving God in return and choosing to become members of God’s family. They signified this by writing their names in the Book of the Elect. So now, our Catechumen are called by a new name. They are now, the Elect, the Chosen ones by God. Let us hold them in our prayers during this Season of Lent as they prepare for initiation at the Easter Vigil. To help us remember them in prayer, Sr. Rita Chen, their teacher and guide, made bookmarks with their names. Please take them with you and remember them and the thousands throughout the world, making this same spiritual journey towards the waters of Baptism at Easter.
Apostles’ Creed & Confiteor – If you have noticed, last Sunday, the first Sunday of Lent, we used the Apostle’s Creed instead of the Nicene Creed. The Revised Roman Missal encourages this because this was the Creed used in the early Church, and which Catechumens prepared themselves during Lent for Baptism at Easter. So it’s good for us to keep this connection with the early church. Legend has it that each of the apostles contributed to its composition, although there are no records to indicate this or when it was first composed. Earliest reference to the Apostles’ Creed was made by Pope Siricius in about the year 390.
It also seems appropriate to use the Confiteor Prayer during Lent. The title of the prayer comes from its first word in Latin, “Confiteor Deo omnipotenti,” “I confess to almighty God.” Some have felt that the revised translation seems to go against a healthy ego because although we have all sinned, but the prayer seems to go overboard to the point of self-flagellation. It says that I have greatly sinned and that it was “through my fault, through my fault and through my most grievous fault.” However, this form of prayer is not meant to destroy our healthy ego, but rather to point to the holiness of God. Saints as they grow in holiness and nearer to God, become even more aware of their own unworthiness before God. Peter when he first saw the miracles that Jesus performed, fell to his knees and asked Jesus to depart from him for he was a sinful man (Luke 5:8). So the revised Confiteor is not trying to highlight what terrible sinners we are, but rather the wonder and holiness of God, who even in His greatness, reaches out to fallen humankind and welcome us as His beloved children.
Fr. Dan
