Studia Pastoralne
Rocznik Wydziału Teologicznego UŚ

FAMILY CATECHUMENATE IN THE DOMESTIC CHURCH
Summary
In the present article the role of the „Church of the Home” in the exhortation Familiaris consortio is analysed in the aspect of Christian initiation defined in the post-Council Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (Ordo initiationis christianae adultorum). The Christian initiation has a special character in the life of family, because Christian parents in the sacrament of Matrimony are consecrated to educate their children in a really Christian spirit. The Church that is a community united in the Holy Spirit – koinonia – is realized in the dimension defined by the terms martyria, leiturgia, diakonia and similar it is in the Church of Home.
In the history of the Church we find the two basic forms of introducing new members into the Christian community. The first one is the catechumenate of adults who personally, consciously accepted the Gospel. This is a process aiming at accustoming them to Christian life stage by stage (cf. OICA 4), and leading to receiving the sacraments of initiation along with the mystagogy accompanying them. The other form is accustoming children who were baptized in infancy to Christian life; this is done parallel to their biological, social, psychological and spiritual development. This process also happens gradually as a natural element of educating children in a Christian family, and it is called „family catechumenate”. Here is the place of preparation children for receiving the sacraments of the Eucharist and the Confirmation.