Diocesan Resources
Catechetical Sunday 2011 Eucharistic Mystagogy
Eucharistic Mystagogy by Dr. Gerard F. Baumbach, Director, Center for Catechetical Initiatives Concurrent Professor, Department of Theology, University of Notre Dame (in English and Spanish)
When teaching students about the history and theory of catechesis, I hold up the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) by the two pages entitled “Period of Postbaptismal Catechesis or Mystagogy” (no. 244-51). The book dangles in the air momentarily. Perhaps students wonder if the 375-page volume will break apart, and maybe some wonder if mystagogy is deserving of all the attention.
The point of the exercise is to demonstrate that the “language” of mystagogy, inclusive of the powerfully rich witness of the RCIA in the section named above, goes beyond the written page and penetrates the realm of sacred mystery for days, months, and years after sacramental celebration.
The term “mystagogy” and its rich and inherited meanings are not new to the catechetical life of the Church. In the fourth century, St. Cyril of Jerusalem identified his preaching to the newly baptized as mystagogical when he spoke of “these daily instructions on the mysteries” (Edward Yarnold, SJ, The Awe-Inspiring Rites of Initiation: The Origins of the R.C.I.A [Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1994], Sermon 2:1).