The Second Sunday in Ordinary Time – January 18, 2026
You might want to sit down when I tell you that Lent is only 31 days away! With only five Ordinary Time Sundays this year between Christmas and Lent, there are several important rituals to consider celebrating in these coming weeks.
If you have Christians ready to become Catholic, don’t make them wait until the Easter Vigil. Sadly, many parishes still do this—even for those who have been living the Christian way of life for many years!—thinking that reception of Christians is akin to baptizing catechumens. However, the church warns against this confusion: “Equating candidates with catechumens is to be altogether avoided” (OCIA 477). Initiation is a “journey of faith and conversion” (OCIA 4) to Christ.
Let’s avoid putting up barriers and delays to full communion for our Christian sisters and brothers.
Those who have been validly baptized, even in another tradition, have already taken that journey to Christ. This is also why the U.S. bishops say that “‘convert’ is reserved strictly for those converted to Christian belief and never used of those baptized Christians who are received into the full communion of the Catholic Church” (National Statutes for the Christian Initiation of Adults, Norm 18).
Let’s avoid putting up barriers and delays to full communion for our Christian sisters and brothers. And let’s watch our language when speaking of those already one with Christ in baptism. What better way to begin this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity!
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