You’re expected to show up, learn the faith, and start living it. That’s the short answer. The catechumenate isn’t a classroom exercise where you pass a test and move on. It’s a period of formation where you’re being shaped into someone who can receive the Mysteries and live as an Orthodox Christian.
Most parishes expect the catechumenate to last somewhere between six months and a year. Sometimes longer. Your priest decides based on where you’re starting from and how you’re progressing. If you’ve been attending services for two years already and you’ve read half the Ancient Faith library, it might be shorter. If you’re coming straight from no church background at all, it might take more time. There’s no formula.
What You’ll Actually Do
You’ll attend services regularly. Not just Sunday mornings, we’re talking about making the liturgical life of the church your life. Vespers on Saturday evening. The Divine Liturgy on Sunday. Feast days when you can manage them around your refinery schedule. Great Lent is especially important. You need to be there to hear the prayers, the Scriptures, the homilies. You need to breathe the air of the church.
You’ll also attend catechism classes. Every parish structures these differently. Some have formal lecture series you work through. Others meet one-on-one with the priest or a designated teacher. You’ll cover the basics: who God is, what we believe about Christ and the Trinity, how we read Scripture within Tradition, what the sacraments are, why we venerate icons and ask the saints’ prayers. Expect homework. Expect reading assignments.
Speaking of reading, you’ll do a lot of it. Your priest will probably hand you a stack of books. Maybe The Orthodox Church by Met. Kallistos Ware. Maybe The Orthodox Way. Definitely something on the Divine Liturgy so you understand what’s happening when you’re standing there on Sunday morning.
You’ll start praying daily. Not elaborate, maybe just morning and evening prayers from a prayer book. But you need to establish a rule of prayer now, while you’re a catechumen, so it’s already part of your life when you’re chrismated. Same with fasting. You’ll learn the Wednesday and Friday fasts, the fasting seasons. You’ll probably mess it up at first. That’s fine. You’re learning.
And you’ll meet with your priest regularly. He’s evaluating your readiness, yes, but more than that he’s getting to know you, answering your questions, helping you work through the hard parts. Because there will be hard parts.
Your Sponsor
When you’re formally enrolled as a catechumen through prayer, you’ll be assigned a sponsor. Think of this person as your guide. They’ll stand with you during the catechumenal prayers. They’ll answer the practical questions your priest doesn’t have time for. They’ll introduce you to people, explain why everyone’s kissing icons, tell you when to stand and sit.
Your sponsor will eventually become your godparent when you’re baptized or chrismated. They’re vouching for you, presenting you to the church. Choose someone (or let your priest choose someone) who actually knows the faith and lives it. Not just someone you like.
What You Can’t Do Yet
You can’t receive Communion. This is the big one. You’ll stand there during the Divine Liturgy and watch everyone else go forward to receive the Body and Blood of Christ, and you’ll stay in your place. It’s hard. People coming from Protestant backgrounds where communion was open to anyone who believed sometimes find this jarring. But the Eucharist is the fullness of union with Christ and His Body, the Church. You’re not there yet. You’re preparing to be there.
You also can’t receive other sacraments, no confession yet, no anointing. You’re outside the canonical boundaries of the church. Not rejected, not unwelcome. Just not yet united.
What This Is Really About
The catechumenate isn’t hazing. It’s not the church making you jump through hoops to prove you’re serious. It’s formation. We believe baptism and chrismation will unite you to Christ, fill you with the Holy Spirit, make you a member of His Body. That’s not something you walk into unprepared.
You’re learning to think differently, pray differently, live differently. You’re being healed of ways of thinking about God and salvation that don’t fit reality. If you’re coming from a Baptist background here in Southeast Texas, you’re probably used to thinking of salvation as a one-time decision. We’re going to teach you that salvation is a process, a healing, a transformation that lasts your whole life. That takes time to sink in.
You’re also being tested. Not by exam, but by life. Can you get up for Liturgy on Sunday morning after working a twelve-hour shift? Can you fast when your family’s having a crawfish boil on Friday? Can you keep praying when it feels dry and pointless? These aren’t arbitrary hurdles. They’re the actual life you’re signing up for.
When your priest finally says you’re ready and you’re baptized or chrismated, probably at Pascha or Pentecost or Theophany, you’ll walk forward as a catechumen and leave as a full member of the Church. You’ll receive the Eucharist for the first time. And everything you did during the catechumenate will suddenly make sense. You weren’t just learning facts. You were becoming someone new.
Talk to Fr. Michael about where you are in this process and what he expects specifically. Every parish does this a little differently, but the goal’s the same: getting you ready to live in Christ.
