SALT LAKE CITY — The Rite of Election of Catechumens and the Call to Continuing Conversion of Baptized Candidates drew people from all over the diocese to the Cathedral of the Madeleine as they took one of their final steps in the process of Christian initiation. Accompanying them were their sponsors and members of their parish’s Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults team.
Bishop Oscar A. Solis celebrated the rite on Saturday, March 5 for people in the Wasatch, Northern, Eastern and Southwestern deaneries, and on Saturday, March 12 for the Salt Lake Deanery.
The rite calls candidates and catechumenates into a new relationship with the Church. The catechumenates are those preparing for all the Sacraments of Initiation; the candidates were baptized in a different faith. All are preparing for full participation in the Catholic Church at the Easter vigil.
This year in the Diocese of Salt Lake City, 275 people are entering the Church.
During the ceremony, Bishop Oscar A. Solis welcomed those present to the cathedral, the mother church of the diocese. “It belongs to all the people here in the Diocese of Salt Lake City,” he said.
“My dear catechumens and candidates, today is a very important day for you and for those who have supported you,” the bishop said. “I hope that God’s grace will inspire you as you continue your preparation for the reception of the Sacraments of Initiation at the Easter vigil. I encourage you to persevere in your journey. The people of God of the diocese pray for you and accompany you on your final period of preparation.”
The Gospel reading was of temptation of Jesus by the devil. In his homily, Bishop Solis said that Jesus found strength to resist temptation through prayer, fasting and penance, a foretaste of the Lenten disciplines that “help us focus our attention away from ourselves and move our hearts and our minds towards God.”
“Christ teaches us that we should not rely only on our human strength but rely on God’s love and power,” he added. “We have to set priorities right – choosing God over anything else in this world, and we will find ourselves victorious against the devil. His victory over the devil will also be our own if we follow the ways of the Lord. We can confront and conquer temptations, as he did, when we use our knowledge of God in the Scriptures. We will find strength and the power to repel the devil and overcome temptations in our life through prayer and through penance. These will open our minds and our hearts to the grace that God provides us in order to strengthen our hearts and to be able to overcome whatever tempts us.”
Being a follower and believer in Christ will not be easy, the bishop warned. “You will encounter challenges and difficulties along the way. These will discourage you from becoming faithful to your calling as God’s children.”
During the rite, the names of the catechumens were called and written in the Book of the Elect “as a pledge of your fidelity to God and to our Church,” the bishop said. “We pray that your response is not just a ‘yes’ in words but a true conversion of your heart and total transformation of your life in Christ.”
After the rite, all those previously known as catechumens and candidates are known as the Elect. The word “elect” in Latin means “chosen,” and “you have chosen to belong to the community of faith we call the Catholic Church, but in reality, it is God who has chosen and called you to be his children,” the bishop said.
Bishop Solis encouraged all the Elect to persevere in their preparations. He and the faithful of the diocese “look forward to when you can all gather together with our faith community around this altar to celebrate our faith and the holy Eucharist as one faith family and brothers and sisters in Christ,” he said.
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