I couldn’t help noticing during the General Intercessions that there seemed to be a lot going on this past week. The Martin Luther King holiday. The Inauguration. The Day of Prayer and Fasting for the Protection of Unborn Life. The Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity. On top of it all, we continued to pray for vocations, for the sick and suffering, for people impacted by the California wildfires. As far as prayer goes, we had a great deal on our plate this past week.

For those of you at the Saturday evening Masses, you’ll notice another wrinkle in our prayer and celebration. At those two Masses, we celebrate the first ritual moment in the now OCIA (Order of Christian Initiation for Adults), formerly RCIA (substitute Rite for Order) process. At these two Masses, three men preparing for the Easter sacraments—Austin Chen, Mike Emerick, and Evan Miller—are “welcomed” to the parish community as they continue their journey of faith. Now these guys have been coming to classes, participating in Mass alongside us, learning about the faith for several months. They’ve joined with candidates from our neighboring parishes, St Ann’s and St Joseph the Worker—a strong element of cooperative ministry that we’ve enjoyed many years.

Tonight’s (or last night’s) welcome involves some dialog—similar to the one we do with parents and godparents when they come to the door of the church with an infant in arms—about who they are and what they desire of the Church. We answer with promises of prayer and, most importantly, with the sign of the Cross.

We’ll see them again as Lent approaches—sending them to the Bishop to be “elected” for this year’s Easter sacraments, praying over them at several of the Lenten Masses, and when Lent is finally finished celebrating sacraments at the Easter Vigil. In the meantime, continue to pray for and with them. Continue to welcome all who come through the doors of our churches. As we so often sing during our Lenten season: “The journey makes us one."