By Jessica Easthope
There was standing room only on Sunday March 9 Sunday, at Immaculate Conception Church in Jamaica Estates, Queens.
“It’s almost a sense of being overwhelmed. I mean, in a good way,” said Brooklyn Bishop Robert Brennan of the group gathered there.
One-by-one, he greeted more than 430 men and women and their godparents as they made their way up to the altar during the Queens Rite of Election.
“For many of us, we were born into our faith. And it just seems so natural. But it stops us in our tracks when somebody says, ‘Yeah, this is I believe, what you believe.’ And that inspires all of us,” Bishop Brennan told Currents News.
Arnold Pryor, a parishioner at Incarnation – St. Gerard Majella Parish in Queens Village was inspired by his wife, Wendy and their two daughters, who were born Catholic. Now he’s one step closer to joining them in participating fully in the Mass.
“I feel lighter, freer,” he said. “It’s one, for my own journey and own personal relationship. But it’s also to strengthen my family as well.”
The catechumens, now called “the elect,” have participated in the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults or OCIA for the last two years, and will be baptized and receive the sacraments of communion and confirmation during the Easter Vigil.
“They are so looking forward to the first time they can come to the table for the Eucharist,” said Fr. Joseph Gibino, the Diocese of Brooklyn’s vicar for evangelization and catechesis.
Fr. Gibino says this old tradition gets richer every year, but just how far does it date back?
“To the beginning,” Fr. Gibino said. “ When we read the Acts of the Apostles, what the community did was gathered together to pray for those who were preparing for the Easter Vigil. And we’ve encouraged a longer process to really allow people to come to the encounter with Christ.”
And encounter they have, for Dan Dan Tien, a parishioner at St. Michael’s Church in Flushing, Christ is pure joy.
“Sometimes I feel lonely and helpless,” she said. “But right now I feel God with me.”