Journeybread for the Shadowlands: Readings for the Rites of the Catechumenate

Conversion happens when the Word of God comes alive for people and transforms them. How does this happen in the RCIA? This book shows how the readings for the rites of the catechumenate both describe conversion and help bring it about.
Journeybread for the Shadowlands offers those who prepare people for Baptism a source-book for meditation on the relationship between the liturgical readings and ritual actions of the rites, and the faith-experience of the converts. It provides a liturgical spirituality for the RCIA.
But this book is also addressed to all who seek a deeper conversion by listening in on the experience of the catechumens, and allowing the Word of God to come alive for them, too.

Scripture is a powerful tool for conversion and catechesis, especially when proclaimed in the context of a worshiping assembly. The community recognizes and praises Christ, the Word made flesh. The reading and preaching of the Scripture passages during Christian initiation is therefore of profound significance. This work takes the rites of the catechumenate for which there are proper readings and explores how each set of readings, in the context of the prayers and ritual actions of its rite, serves as a catalyst for conversion. It suggests how a given set of readings expresses the conversion experience of the catechumens at a given point on their journey of faith, and how it affects further conversion. These reflections on each rite are offered as meditations for sponsors, catechists, and homilists, to help them in turn enable their catechumens to hear the Word of God and be transformed by it. The treatment of each rite concludes with a summary section which includes reflection on how the readings relate to each other, and how they relate to the ritual actions of the rite and the faith-experience of the catechumens. Summary sections following the Rite of Election and the Rites of the Scrutinies and Presentations consider the relationship between the proclamation of the Word and the specific stages of the conversion process marked by the rites. The texts of the selected readings are also included."I commend Journeybread especially to clergy and laity engaged in the catechetical task of the Church. This is a theologically well-informed meditative reader for any and every Christian, literate and strong." Don Saliers Worship