Hello APCL Community!!
Hello friends. First let me introduce myself, my name is Zach and I am a pastoral and catechetical minster in the archdiocese of Indianapolis. I am on the leadership team of APCL, the wonderful professional organization for the pastoral and catechetical ministers for Arch Indy. I have been married for five years and we have one foster child at this time that we are hoping to adopt.
I am starting this blog to help spread the APCL message and to create a forum for the all of us who are “co-workers in the vineyard” (USCCB) in Arch Indy to collaborate. This collaboration will be a mixture of sharing ideas, struggles, and best practices. The Office of Catechesis offers a lot of cool resources and aid to us, but maybe we all are not able to make it to those events. This is a place where some of those events will be posted. This blog will expand from this starting point and I look forward to sharing and discussing these topics with you.
Why am I calling this blog Mystagogia? Mystagogia is a term that is used for the post sacramental period of the RCIA process. Mystagogia is to help “lead through the mysteries.” I see this blog has helping to "lead through the mysteries." We have a lot of mysteries in our line of work whether it is getting volunteers or teaching about the mysteries of the Mass and Sacraments. I intend this blog to help us with our personal experience in executing our duties of catechizing the faithful and bringing them to fuller relationship with Jesus Christ, who we receive every Sunday. Our work has its own unique challenges and rewards; I want us to celebrate them together with a forum that can allow us connection throughout the thirty-nine counties of the Archdiocese. We have been called to this work and we help people encounter Christ through the many jobs and hats we wear whether it is Pastoral Associate, Director/Coordinator of Catechesis, Youth Minister, RCIA catechist, and the many other names we have. This mystagogy introduces us into a fuller and deeper relationship with Christ, through the sacraments and the Gospel. It allows our reflection on our relationship with Christ in the intimacy of the sacraments. In speaking of the neophytes’ experience the Rite of Christian Initiation states:
We have been called to live out of this mystery.
Until next time. God Bless and Peace,
Zach
I am starting this blog to help spread the APCL message and to create a forum for the all of us who are “co-workers in the vineyard” (USCCB) in Arch Indy to collaborate. This collaboration will be a mixture of sharing ideas, struggles, and best practices. The Office of Catechesis offers a lot of cool resources and aid to us, but maybe we all are not able to make it to those events. This is a place where some of those events will be posted. This blog will expand from this starting point and I look forward to sharing and discussing these topics with you.
Why am I calling this blog Mystagogia? Mystagogia is a term that is used for the post sacramental period of the RCIA process. Mystagogia is to help “lead through the mysteries.” I see this blog has helping to "lead through the mysteries." We have a lot of mysteries in our line of work whether it is getting volunteers or teaching about the mysteries of the Mass and Sacraments. I intend this blog to help us with our personal experience in executing our duties of catechizing the faithful and bringing them to fuller relationship with Jesus Christ, who we receive every Sunday. Our work has its own unique challenges and rewards; I want us to celebrate them together with a forum that can allow us connection throughout the thirty-nine counties of the Archdiocese. We have been called to this work and we help people encounter Christ through the many jobs and hats we wear whether it is Pastoral Associate, Director/Coordinator of Catechesis, Youth Minister, RCIA catechist, and the many other names we have. This mystagogy introduces us into a fuller and deeper relationship with Christ, through the sacraments and the Gospel. It allows our reflection on our relationship with Christ in the intimacy of the sacraments. In speaking of the neophytes’ experience the Rite of Christian Initiation states:
[T]hey have truly been renewed in mind, tasted more deeply the sweetness of God’s word, received the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, and grown to know the goodness of the Lord. Out of this experience, which belongs to Christians and increases as it is lived, they derive a new perception of faith, of the Church, and of the world (RCIA 245).
Until next time. God Bless and Peace,
Zach
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