Copyright: © 1995 Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. This document may be freely reproduced for non-commercial purposes with credit and mention of the Lift Up Your Hearts web site http://www.worship.ca/ as the source.

Pneuma is a journal on spiritual direction and formation in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.

1. In January 1995, the executive director of the ELCIC's Division for Parish Life, Rolf Nosterud, attended the second annual conference of the North American Association of the Catechumenate near Dallas, Texas. Members of the this fledgling association include various catechumenate team members from congregations in at least four denominations, as well as administrative staff from different levels of their program and judiciary offices. These conferences provide a "show and tell" forum for the latest resources in the adult catechumenate movement. As well, it becomes an opportunity to hear plenary theme speakers and attend workshops on specific concerns and skills involved in the catechumenate movement. The focus of this year's meeting also included passing our incorporation constitution and electing a board of trustees.

   Our director, Rolf Nosterud, was elected as one of the board trustees. He feels NAAC will become an important support for the ELCIC catechumenate teams since we are all so new in the process, whereas some of the NAAC members have been experiencing and doing catechumenate operations for six years or more. On the other side, Nosterud says, NAAC members are interested in the ELCIC "Living Witnesses" because we are the first church body to provide such a process as a church-wide initiative with approved resources and teams. Whether initiated as an officially-approved process or as a grass roots movement, the adult catechumenate will likely need time to find a home among congregations in modern North America. He hopes that team members in our ELCIC will have a chance to attend these NAAC conferences in the future. Look for further information on NAAC conferences in future issues.

   One thing seems clear, our "Living Witnesses" is recognized as a well-prepared expression of this movement to prepare people for life in the church - whatever it is called! To be placed on their mailing list, write The North American Association of the Catechumenate, c/o St. John's, 211 N. Monroe Street, Tallahassee, FL 32301.

2. The current issue of the "Practice of Ministry in Canada" promotes the following workshops and courses which may be of interest. Queen's House Retreat and Renewal Centre offers a series of courses entitled Summer Stillness 1995, including Ron Rolheiser's "Discovering Contemporary Spiritualities," July 17-23; 601 Taylor Street West, Saskatoon, SK S7M 0C9 (306)242-1916. Dr. Kenneth Leech, author of the famous "Soul Friend," will offer a two-week course, "Spirituality, Politics, and Pastoral Care in an Urban Context," July 17-28 at the Vancouver School of Theology Summer School; 6000 Iona Drive, Vancouver BC V6T 1L4 (604)229-9031. In addition to frequent retreats and the Ignatian exercises, Loyola House offers a Summer Practicum in Spiritual Direction (June 23-August 31) and a weekend event "Male Spirituality: Myths Which Energize Male Spirituality," June 23 - July1; PO Box 245, Guelph ON N1H 6J9 (519)824-1250.

3. For those of you on synodical task forces for the catechumenate, please forward copies of materials you develop for workshops and training events to Rolf Nosterud. In future issues of "Pneuma" we will let you know of those shareable materials.

4. Don Johnson has written a paper for a new publication from Augsburg Fortress, "New Practices in Baptism," being edited by Gordon Lathrop. After a narrative of his personal journey to the catechumenate and of the limitations of traditional practices in adult baptism, he explores the theology of baptism and aspects of the catechumenate.

5. Kathleen Hughes recently raises questions of our congregations as credible communities: What does it mean for us to be a credible community? What do others read on our faces? What do others learn from the way we live our lives, the choices we make, the promises we keep? What commitments have we assumed by our baptism? What commitments do we reaffirm every time we celebrate the eucharist? How do we become a credible community to those we welcome into our midst and to a world so in need of healing and hope? What habits of heart are essential to catechumens and for ourselves to sustain a life of discipleship over the long haul?

   Walter Wangerin's story "Maundy Thursday" is a good example of how the eucharistic community is the fundamental context for catechesis in Christian initiation. The story is about a little boy and his mother and their discovery of Christ's glory in the eucharistic assembly. Like many young children, the little boy was old enough to want to see Jesus and young enough to believe that he "could" see Jesus. But Sunday after Sunday he became gradually disillusioned. He found himself surrounded by people who claimed to believe they had seen the glory of Christ, but he could find no evidence for himself. The little boy studied their faces, but he found no convincing expression of joy. He searched all the rooms of the large church and still found no trace of Jesus. He concluded that Jesus was no where in the church for him.

   But one Maundy Thursday, as he sat beside his mother in church, the little boy's attention was drawn to some words of the eucharistic prayer. His attention was drawn to the presider lifting bread and "mumbling" some words; and then to an enormous cup and the words: "This cup is the New Testament in my blood." He watched as people began to process to the front of the church. His mother humbly moved forward and diminished almost to the size of a child. She accepted something from the presider, quickly but carefully placed it in her mouth, moved to receive from the cup and then walked back to her seat. As she sat down beside him and lowered her head to pray, the little boy could tell the difference. He moved his face to within inches of hers, and when she opened her eyes she questioned his curiosity, "What is that, Mama, what's inside you?" As his mother began to flip the pages of her hymnal, she said, "That's Jesus. It's Jesus inside me." The boy threw his arms around his mama. He discovered he had been looking in the wrong place all along. Jesus was inside his mama; she had been his holy temple all along. As his mother ate and drank in memory of Jesus, she bore the Lord in the direction of her son. And as his mother fulfilled the command of Jesus to "love one another," her little boy understood the glory of Christ risen from the dead, and it filled his heart with joy.

   As the boy grew in faith in this eucharistic assembly, he saw a disparate mass of sinners become a communion of saints. Nourished by the faith of others in the congregation, encouraged and challenged by the word of God, and sustained by the bread and the wine of the eucharist, he and they became ready and willing to join hands and hearts to bring Christ's love to a hungry world. No longer isolated individuals, this assembly took seriously Christ's command to love one another with a love beyond all telling.

   Reprinted from Gregory Klein's "We Have See His Glory: Preparing People for Life in the Eucharistic Community" from "Catechumenate," March 1995. Copyright 1994. Archdiocese of Chicago. All rights reserved. Liturgy Training Publications, 1800 North Hermitage, Chicago, Illinois 60622-1101. Used with permission.