By Sam M. Lucero
Catholic Herald

Annual Lenten rite held in Spooner

SPOONER -- With family, friends and sponsors there to offer encouragement, over 100 people turned out March 4 at St. Francis de Sales Church to publicly express their intentions to receive the Sacraments of Initiation at the Easter Vigil in April.

The ceremony is known as the Rite of Election of Catechumens and the Call to Continuing Conversion of Candidates. It is held each year on the first Sunday of Lent. Because of distance, the Superior diocese holds two celebrations -- on the first and second Sundays of Lent. The second rite is slated for March 11 at St. Mary Church in Tomahawk.

Bishop Raphael M. Fliss was in Spooner to receive the catechumens and candidates on behalf of the church. The catechumens (individuals who have not been baptized and who are seeking baptism, confirmation and Eucharist) and candidates (baptized members of another Christian denomination or baptized Catholics who left the church and are seeking confirmation and Eucharist) represented 23 parishes in the northwestern part of the Superior diocese.

According to a handout, 33 catechumens and 78 candidates from these 23 parishes are planning to receive the Sacraments of Initiation.

"You folks are on a great, challenging journey," Fliss told the catechumens and candidates in his homily. "You are responding to God's invitation, his call to make his plan our own."

Fr. Andrew Ricci, pastor of St. Francis de Sales Parish, presented the catechumens to the bishop. "Now they ask that ... they be allowed to participate in the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and the Eucharist," Ricci told the bishop.

The catechumens and their sponsors then came forward. Fliss asked the sponsors if the catechumens were prepared to continue their journey toward full church membership. After responding affirmatively, the catechumens were asked to enroll their names in the book of elect.

"I now declare you to be members of the elect, to be initiated into the sacred mysteries of the next Easter Vigil," Fliss said.

Ricci then presented the candidates to Fliss. Their sponsors also told the bishop that these candidates were prepared for full initiation in the church.

"The church recognizes your desire to be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit and to have a place at Christ's eucharistic table," Fliss told the candidates. "Join with us this Lent in a spirit of repentance. Hear the Lord's call to conversion and be faithful to your baptismal covenant."

Before dismissing the assembly, Fliss urged all in attendance to pray for the elect, the candidates, as well as themselves, "that we may be renewed by one another's efforts and together come to share the joys of Easter."

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© Superior Catholic Herald, 2001