RITES OF ACCEPTANCE

by Raymond Wong

SANDAKAN: After journeying for 11 weeks on the RCIA precatechumenate period, the inquirers were accepted into the Catholic Church through the Rite of Acceptance into the Order of Catechumens on 20^th Aug 2017 where the candidates will now be addressed as “catechumens”.

This year 2017, the St. Mary’s Cathedral Parish has 65 candidates with 52 BM speaking candidates and the English and Chinese speaking having six candidates each.

The Rite was conducted by Fr. Stanley in the BM Mass as delegated by the Bishop.

The candidates were welcomed by Fr. Stanley in his opening address to the congregation.

The Rite commenced after the homily by Fr Stanley where the candidates with their respective sponsors came forward to the front of the church. At this Rite, they are asked to more fully embrace the Gospel message with the help of God, and are also signed with the Cross to show that they now belong to Christ, the Shepherd of souls. The Rite of signing on the forehead, eyes, ears, lips, heart and shoulders were also repeated by their respective sponsors.

Immediately after the signing, the handing over of the ‘Bible’ to the candidates was performed where each candidate received the bible which is the “Word of God” being presented to them.

The prayers of the faithful followed and the dismissal where all the candidates were allowed to return to their seats. This is just the first phase of their journey of initiation.  We encourage all parishioners to pray for these souls as well, as they continue in the initiation process over the coming months, and to reach out to them as fellow members of the Household of Christ.