Mystagogy Class One

Our deacon started the class out with this joke:

Three priests were sitting around discussing how things were going at their respective parishes.

The first priest complains of a terrible bat infestation at his church, and it is soon apparent that this is something of an epidemic at all three parishes. After much discussion of all matters clerical, they go home for the night.

After a week or so, they meet again and discuss the bat problem.

Priest 1: I tried to get rid of my bats this week. I shot at them with my shotgun, but I think I damaged the belfry more than the bats! I still have no way of getting rid of them!

Priest 2: I tried another way. I couldn't bring myself to shoot them, after all they are God's creatures, so I went up with a big box. I knocked all the bats into the box with a stick and drove out to the forest where I released them. But they were back at the church before I was!

Priest 3: I've solved the problem. I did much the same thing. I had all the bats in the box, but before I released them, I baptized and confirmed every one of them, and they haven't been back since.

It seemed to be quite true in the case of our class. We had 8 adults baptized and another 15-20 confirmed, and there was only six of us in class, plus two of the sponsors. We talked a bit about Easter Vigil, and I got a few questions answered.

During the break we talked about which parishes we might attend. There's one guy who wants to attend Latin Mass on Saturdays at a different church, and another girl lives in another parish but chooses to come to the Cathedral because she works downtown and spends a lot of time there during the week. Oddly enough, both of them don't like St. Jude's much. They think it's not "churchy" enough.

We spent the second half of the class around the Baptism font. It was very moving, and reminded us of our special day that we had just a few days ago.

We were also invited to the convalidation of two of our classmates. The two of them were confirmed and their three oldest boys were baptized and confirmed, leaving only their young daughter waiting to receive her sacraments.