Shownotes

Seven Essentials for Sponsors

In the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, sponsors play a far greater role than simply standing beside someone at the Easter Vigil. A sponsor is not merely a ceremonial requirement or a name on a parish form. A sponsor is a spiritual companion, a witness to the Christian life, and often one of the most influential people in a catechumen’s journey toward Christ and His Church.

The Church needs faithful sponsors, men and women who are willing to walk patiently with another soul toward holiness. If you are preparing to serve as an OCIA sponsor, here are seven essential steps to becoming the kind of sponsor the Church truly needs.

1. Deepen Your Own Relationship with Christ

The first responsibility of a sponsor is not teaching another person. It is becoming a more faithful disciple yourself. A sponsor cannot guide someone toward a life he is not actively pursuing.

Candidates and catechumens are often watching far more closely than sponsors realize. They observe how you pray, how you speak, how you approach the Mass, how you respond to suffering, and whether your faith appears alive or merely habitual.

A good sponsor commits to:

- Regular prayer

- Frequent confession

- Faithful Sunday Mass attendance

- Reading Scripture

- Ongoing conversion and repentance

As Christ says in Gospel of Luke 6:40: “Every one when he is fully taught will be like his teacher." Before sponsors help form disciples, they must first remain disciples themselves.

2. Know the Faith Well Enough to Explain It Clearly

Sponsors are not expected to possess graduate degrees in theology, but they should have a solid understanding of the Catholic faith and be willing to continue learning. Many people entering OCIA carry sincere and difficult questions:

- Why do Catholics confess to priests?

- What is the Eucharist?

- Why does the Church teach certain moral doctrines?

- What makes Catholicism different from other Christian communities?

A sponsor should be able to explain the essentials of the faith with clarity and charity. The only times I become overly wordy or defensive is when I lose my charity because I did not have that clarity down.

This includes familiarity with:

- Salvation history (the relationship between the Old and New)

- The sacraments (especially Communion and Confession)

- The Mass (“What do I do with my hands?”)

- Catholic moral teaching (Section One of Part 3 in the Catechism is foundational)

- Prayer (What makes Christian prayer unique?)

- Basic Scripture Knowledge (how to read it, pray it, study it)

Helpful resources include:

- Catechism of the Catholic Church

- Sacred Scripture (Biblegateway.com)

- Parish formation programs

- Faithful Catholic books and podcasts (I can think of a podcast…)

The goal is not to win arguments. The goal is to help another person encounter the truth that is Jesus Christ. Be grounded in the gospels. Being a sponsor is an excellent way to learn the faith systematically, because the best way to overcome ignorance is by first overcoming apathy. You are a sponsor. You cannot be apathetic in this mission field. Once a person ceases being indifferent to something, that persons solves the ignorance problem on his own!

3. Build an Authentic Relationship

One of the greatest mistakes in OCIA is reducing sponsorship to a classroom function. I am certainly guilty of this. “If I run a good enough class and teach great content, I will have made disciples. ”This is simply not true. Christian discipleship has always been relational. Christ formed His disciples not only through sermons, but through shared life. Think of the saints that formed new religious orders. They had their band of brothers that they were discipling who then went out and discipled others. And they did this in and through personal relationships.

Sponsors should strive to genuinely know the person they accompany:

- Share meals, coffee, or beer together

- Discuss life and faith, especially as it reflects your particular vocation

- Attend parish events, because commitment shows up on your calendar

- Pray together, both individually and liturgically

- Talk honestly about struggles and growth

A catechumen should not feel like a project. He should feel accompanied. The most effective sponsors are present and faithful companions.

4. Listen More Than You Speak

Many people entering the Church carry complicated stories. Some arrive with wounds from past churches, broken families, addictions, doubts, intellectual confusion, or painful experiences. A sponsor who constantly lectures may unintentionally shut down honest conversation. A wise sponsor learns to listen carefully. This is why Jesus was always asking questions. So was Socrates. You should, too. Questions draw a person out into a place of comfort once their interior dispositions are made known.

Ask thoughtful questions, like:

- “What drew you toward the Church?”

- “What has challenged you the most?”

- “Where have you experienced God recently?”

Sometimes the greatest gift a sponsor can offer is not immediate answers, but sincere attention. People often become open to truth after they first experience trust. Trust makes disciples. Lectures do not.

5. Model Catholic Life in Everyday Situations

The Catholic faith must become visible in ordinary life. We are not a Church of mountaintop experiences only, which is why we revisit year after year the same liturgical seasons. We want to show how grace builds upon our nature, not replaces it, and how God’s grace permeates through and through the glorious and the mundane, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Sponsors teach through their lived example:

- How they pray before meals

- How they speak about others

- How they handle stress and suffering

- How they approach confession

- How they participate at Mass

- How they practice charity and forgiveness

Candidates are learning what Catholicism looks like when lived by an ordinary person. This is why authentic witness matters so deeply. A sponsor who visibly strives for holiness gives credibility to the faith being taught in OCIA sessions. Christianity becomes compelling when it becomes embodied. Your role incarnates the faith into ordinary life. As the saying goes: “More is caught than taught."

6. Stay Present After Easter Vigil

Too often, sponsorship quietly ends once the sacraments are received. But initiation is not graduation! It is initiation (obviously), but into what? Into a newness of life (Romans 6:4) thatonly is explainable by the dead and risen Lord. Easter Vigil is a beginning, the first step into a new way of being human in the world. The newly initiated frequently need the most support after entering the Church:

- Learning how to sustain prayer (especially when you don’t want to)

- Understanding parish life (and navigating the off-putting parts!)

- Building Catholic friendships (and converting all of your friends to Catholicism!)

- Developing spiritual habits (we don’t rise to the occasion, but fall to the level of our

habits)

- Continuing theological formation (divine wisdom is a lover, a spouse, a friend who is

always drawing us by the hand to walk ever deeper into the Mystery of God)

The Church calls this post-initiation period “mystagogy," a time of deeper reflection on the mysteries of the faith now being lived sacramentally.

A strong sponsor remains present in the class, but also in the life of the neophyte. You do this by checking in regularly with them just to connect and touch base. Also, by inviting the new Catholic into community, whether that’s your own or events and ministries at the parish. People stay in the Church because of the relationships they form. Moreover, your post-Easter walk with them is now through encouraging sacramental life and helping them discern their mission. This is where discerning one’s charism (unique giftedness by the Spirit) is important for the neophyte.

Long-term accompaniment often determines whether someone becomes a committed disciple or simply drifts away after initiation. The statistics are not pretty. It is something like 70% of newly minted Catholics drift away after one year of practice. Yikes!

7. Pray and Sacrifice for Your Catechumen

Ultimately, conversion belongs to God. Sponsors are not responsible for producing holiness through persuasion or personality. They are called to cooperate with grace. One of the most powerful things a sponsor can do is intentionally pray and sacrifice for the person entrusted to them. This includes things like:

- Daily intercessory prayer (put the photo on your mirror or near where you pray)

- Fasting (this is POWERFUL, people!)

- Offering sacrifices (not animal sacrifices!)

- Praying the Rosary and mentioning them by name.

- Having Masses offered (so many retired priests, monasteries, convents that do this)

- Sending encouraging Scripture passages (like your favorite evangelical neighbor does to you)

As First Corinthians 3:6 reminds us: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.”

The sponsor’s task is faithfulness to the mission. That is it. Not their holiness or conversion. You plant. You water. But God alone causes the growth.

Final Thoughts

The Church does not need perfect sponsors. She needs faithful ones.

A great sponsor is not primarily someone with all the right answers, an outgoing personality, or extensive theological knowledge. A great sponsor is someone who sincerely follows Jesus Christ and is willing to help another person do the same. You are gospel-centered, gospel-minded, and gospel-filled!

In many cases, sponsors become lifelong spiritual friends, mentors, and companions in the Christian life. Their witness can shape a catechumen’s understanding of Catholicism for years to come. To sponsor someone in OCIA is ultimately to say: “I will walk with you toward Christ." How cool is that?!