Sacraments of Initiation Fallow Year Reflection Resource Document
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DIOCESAN LITURGY COUNCIL Sacraments of Initiation A fallow year reflection resource … … You will sow your land and gather its produce, but (in the year of pandemic) … you will let it lie fallow and forgo all its produce … (Ex 23:10-11) In ancient times the ‘fallow’ year was concerned with the wellbeing of the land/creation and feeding the poor. The fallow year was also associated with Sabbath and time to rest with God. Sabbath is about becoming whole as a person, as a society, and in our case, as a church specifically in regard to the ministry of Christian Initiation with regard to children and families. 1 | P a g e Prayer of Teilhard de Chardin - Patient Trust Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability— and that it may take a very long time. And so I think it is with you; your ideas mature gradually—let them grow, let them shape themselves, without undue haste. Don’t try to force them on, as though you could be today what time (that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will) will make of you tomorrow. Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be. Give Our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete. —Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ 2 | P a g e Index Prayer of Teilhard de Chardin - Patient Trust ................................................................................................ 2 Index .............................................................................................................................................................. 3 Overview ............................................................................................................... 5 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 5 Some things about Process ............................................................................................................................ 7 Mystagogical Reflection ............................................................................................................................ 8 Theological Reflection for ministry ............................................................................................................ 9 Practical notes ......................................................................................................................................... 10 Resources – engaging families where they are ........................................................................................... 10 Sacrament ............................................................................................................ 14 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 14 Some food for thought … ............................................................................................................................. 14 Mystagogical reflection ............................................................................................................................... 16 Theological reflection .................................................................................................................................. 17 Pastoral reflection and imagining … ............................................................................................................ 17 Let us pray … ................................................................................................................................................ 18 Sacraments of Initiation ....................................................................................... 19 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 19 Listening to the Word in scripture ............................................................................................................... 20 Listening to the Word in church documents ................................................................................................ 21 Listening to the Word in community and ministry ...................................................................................... 21 Theological Reflection.................................................................................................................................. 22 Pastoral reflection and imagining … ............................................................................................................ 22 Let us pray … ................................................................................................................................................ 25 Sacrament of Baptism .......................................................................................... 26 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 26 Listening to the Word in scripture ............................................................................................................... 26 Listening to the Word in the liturgical texts ................................................................................................ 26 Listening to the Word in the liturgical documents ...................................................................................... 31 Listening to the Word in community and ministry ...................................................................................... 31 Theological Reflection.................................................................................................................................. 32 Pastoral reflection and imagining … ............................................................................................................ 32 Let us pray … ................................................................................................................................................ 34 Sacrament of Confirmation .................................................................................. 35 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 35 Listening to the Word in scripture ............................................................................................................... 36 Listening to the Word in the liturgical texts ................................................................................................ 37 Listening to the Word in the liturgical documents ...................................................................................... 42 Listening to the Word in community and ministry ...................................................................................... 43 3 | P a g e Theological Reflection.................................................................................................................................. 43 Review of Diocesan Pastoral Guidance for the Preparation and Celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation ................................................................................................................................................ 43 Pastoral reflection and imagining … ............................................................................................................ 44 Let us pray … ................................................................................................................................................ 45 First Communion ................................................................................................. 46 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 46 Listening to the Word in scripture ............................................................................................................... 47 Listening to the Word in the liturgical texts ................................................................................................ 49 Listening to the Word in the liturgical documents ...................................................................................... 52 Listening to the Word in community and ministry ...................................................................................... 54 Theological Reflection.................................................................................................................................. 54 Pastoral reflection and imagining … ............................................................................................................ 54 Let us pray … ................................................................................................................................................ 55 Gathering in our fallow time reflection ................................................................ 57 Where have we come from and where are we going? ...............................................................................