Challenges in Sacramental Prep

How do you make sacramental prep effective both in preparing individuals for the sacraments and in forming them into disciples? Mike and Dave respond to a listener’s question regarding Baptism prep and discuss sacramental prep as a whole. They share common challenges and primary goals for sacramental prep.

Snippet from the Show
In order to make disciples, you must catechize and evangelize.

Listener Question

Good morning!

I seem to recall Michael mentioning some time back that he was revamping his parish's preparation for infant baptism. I am interested in doing the same, but I don't really have time to build something from scratch. While there are several programs out there with good information, everything seems to be video/information driven. I am curious what his revised process looks like.

Our parish recently began using Witness to Love for our marriage preparation. It is a virtue-based, catechumenal model for marriage prep, and has already borne great fruit for both the engaged/newlywed couples and the mentors who accompanied them throughout the process. I have been looking everywhere for something similar for baptism preparation, but haven't been able to find anything. I asked the people at Witness to Love if they have any plans to develop something similar for baptism prep, and they say "No."

I really don't think our current preparation - a 60-minute class about the baptism rite and the biblical basis for infant baptism - is really sufficient.

If you have any pointers on how to accompany parents in preparation for baptism and beyond, I would be very interested.

Thank you!

Blessings,

EKSB Listener