Each year on the First Sunday of Lent the Church celebrates the Rite of Election. This is one of the rites that make up what has traditionally been called the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, or RCIA. This has been changed over the past year, and it is now called the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, or OCIA. Don’t ask me why they changed it. I don’t get it either. But the First Sunday of Lent is still the date for the Rite of Election.
We begin with the Rite of Sending for Election, here in the parish. We only have one Catechumen this year. His name is Matthew David Bryson. He and his sponsor will be called up after the homily for a very brief ceremony, and then will go to the Cathedral this afternoon for the Rite of Election with Bishop Iffert.
Please keep Matthew in your prayers as he enters into this final stage of his preparation for the Sacraments of Initiation—Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist—at the Easter Vigil.
—Fr. Mike Comer
