Period of Evangelization

Where do you go when you have questions about God? About the meaning of life? About prayer or sin or Mary or the saints? How do you respond when you are touched by another person’s faith or selflessness or goodness? Whom do you go to in times of sadness or uncertainty? What do you do when you feel blessed?

We Catholics have many answers to those questions. We may seek out our pastor or another parish minister, or turn to another believer, perhaps a friend or family member. Maybe we seek the intercession of the saints or go directly to God in prayer.

But where does someone go who doesn’t belong to a community of faith? Many of them, too, seek out a Catholic minister or friend. This may be the first step in wanting to learn more about what Catholics believe and perhaps even the first step in joining the Catholic church. If so, they may be invited to join others who have similar questions. These people, called inquirers, meet with some members of the community, clergy and laity, to seek answers to their questions and learn about what the church believes.

This first, informal step in the Christian initiation process is called precatechumenate because it precedes the decision and commitment that people in the catechumenate are called to make. The precatechumenate period is a time of inquiry. It may last a short time or for a period of many months or years; it is up to the inquirer. It is also called the period of evangelization because in this time we tell the good news that we have to share: the Christian faith as it is lived in the Catholic communion. We tell it through the great stories of scripture, through the history and tradition of the church, through the lives of ordinary Christians. And because the questions that urged the inquirers to learn more about God and the church are signs of God already present and active in their lives, we listen, too, and help the inquirers see how God has always been with them and where God is leading them.