Once you have placed yourself under the care of an Orthodox priest in a local church, you may be enrolled as a catechumen of the Holy Orthodox Church. A catechumen is a student of the Way of Christ who is preparing for entrance into the Church through Holy Baptism.
Becoming a catechumen means that you believe in Jesus Christ and commit yourself completely to being an Orthodox Christian and to living His Way. This requires repentance and a sincere desire to be obedient to Christ, our Lord and Master. When you join the catechumenate, you renounce all previous attachments to other beliefs and religious groups so that you may come under the spiritual care and protection of Christ’s Holy Church.
As a catechumen, you will immerse yourself in the life of the Orthodox Church as much as possible. You will receive formal instruction from the priest or an instructor, who has been appointed and blessed by the priest to serve as a catechist. You must learn what we believe and how we live the Apostolic Faith in our hearts and in our actions. You should always be present in the communal prayers and worship of the Church alongside Orthodox Christians, as appropriate. You will begin to practice prayer and fasting according to the custom of the Faithful. During this period of preparation, you should get to know the Orthodox Christians around you in the congregation and participate in the social fellowship of the community.
Learning the Tao of Holy Orthodoxy is not an academic exercise. In some respects, it is more like vocational training and military training. Through catechism, you learn the inner way of the heart and mind by experience, which produces faithful, virtuous action. If you are willing to be changed and possess a proper disposition of heart, you will be shaped with the help of Divine Grace into an Orthodox Christian.
As a catechumen, you may not yet receive the Holy Mysteries, the sacred Medicines of the Church. These are reserved for the members of the Church. While you are a catechumen, you prepare your soul to receive the Mysteries with the right disposition of heart in the proper time, when you have been joined to the Church. As the physical marital union and the process of having children are properly the result of a Holy Marriage between a man and woman that has already been accomplished, the reception of the Holy Mysteries is the result (or fruit) of a union with the Church that has already been accomplished. Catechism is a time of sincere repentance and preparation in the present mixed with joyous anticipation of the future.
(Note: Some catechumens have previously been baptized as Christians while separated from the Holy Orthodox Church in one of the many non-Orthodox groups that have resulted from heresy and schism. The Orthodox Church does not recognize such a baptism as valid, but if the form of the baptism is considered sufficiently an Orthodox form, with water in the Name of the Holy Trinity, the catechumen in this situation may be united to the Holy Orthodox Church by being anointed with special oil, Holy Chrism. The Chrismation brings Grace to the previous baptism, completing whatever is lacking, and unites the catechumen to the Church.)
Text copyright © 2017 by Fr. Symeon D. S. Kees
