Liam Bergin,
‘Baptised in Christ: Reborn for Mission’ in ‘Baptised and Sent’.
See www.synod.ie
Easter Day of the Lord’s Resurrection
5 April 2026
While the catechumenate in the early Church was a period of preparation for adult candidates, it also served as a time of renewal for the whole Christian community. This was heightened during the season of Lent as a period when the whole Church engaged in a time of intense prayer, fasting, and almsgiving with the candidates in preparation for their Easter baptism.
Secondly, through the series of scrutinies, tests, and exorcisms that the catechumens underwent, the community was eager to evaluate and encourage their spiritual and moral growth as they prepared to be members of the Church. The decision to become a Christian in a hostile world was not to be taken lightly. The fruits of faith and love should be manifest in the candidates.
Thirdly, the celebration of baptism during the Easter Vigil accentuated its association with the paschal mystery and with the triumph of the Lord Jesus over sin and death. Today, the placement of the paschal candle beside the baptismal font and the passing of its light to the parents or godparents recalls this aspect.
Tertullian wrote: ‘Christians are made not born.’ The ceremonies that the candidates underwent gave expression and shape to the lives of faith, hope and love that they desired to embrace.
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Second Sunday of Easter
12 April 2026 • Divine Mercy Sunday
In baptism Christians first encounter the mystery of reconciliation and the forgiveness of personal and original sin. The sad fact is that Christians do sin even after they have passed through the waters of rebirth. That is something we acknowledge in the penitential act at the beginning of every Mass.
Believers are constantly challenged to configure their lives to the person of Christ, to encounter again and again the saving power of God’s healing love. Pope Francis said: ‘the Sacrament of Penance is like a ‘second baptism’ … The day of our Baptism is the point of departure for a journey towards God that lasts a lifetime, a journey of conversion that is continually sustained by the Sacrament of Penance. … When we go to confession, we go to ask the pardon of Jesus, but we also go to renew our Baptism through his forgiveness. And this is beautiful, it is like celebrating the day of Baptism in every Confession’.
The need for healing, reconciliation, and the rebuilding of trust has a personal and communal dimension, particularly in light of so many scandals related to abuse. The baptised have the privilege to know and the duty to extend reconciliation, to recognise mistakes, and to rebuild trust.
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Third Sunday of Easter
19 April 2026
According to Catholic Social Teaching, water is a human right that it is due to all people. It is not an economic commodity that can be owned and traded for profit. Access to water is a right to life issue.
In Laudato Si’, Pope Francis recognised the insidious connection between poverty and access to water: ‘Our world has a grave social debt towards the poor who lack access to drinking water, because they are denied the right to a life consistent with their inalienable dignity’.
The use of water in the sacrament of baptism makes an ethical claim on Christians to save the water with which they celebrate salvation. Water, like grace, belongs to no one in particular but is freely given for the wellbeing of all. Whenever politics or economics block general access to this universal right, the order of nature and grace is upended.
The sacramental use of water calls on Christians to ensure uninhibited access to clean water for all God’s creatures, that they may sip and be refreshed, dip and be renewed, and know the fullness of life offered to all by God who creates, redeems and transforms with this saving gift. Christians are ethically committed to save the water by which they celebrate salvation.
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Fourth Sunday of Easter
26 April 2026 • Day of Prayer for Vocations
The Eucharist is ‘the source and summit of the life of the Church.’ The parish community deepens its sense of its own identity as the Body of Christ when it celebrates the Sunday Eucharist, and as it draws from it the strength to live as disciples of the Risen Lord in a particular time and place.
The Mass has been central to the Irish Catholic identity and experience. Devotion to and the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was central to our cultural and religious self-understanding. Baptism has never formed the Irish Catholic imagination in the same way. Unlike many other European countries, no ancient baptismal sites have been found in our land.
The retrieval of the centrality of baptism prompted by the synodal journey must lead to a deeper sense of the four-fold presence of Christ in the Eucharistic celebration. Christ is present in the assembled community, in the minister who presides, in the word proclaimed, and in the consecrated elements of bread and wine. It is precisely here, gathered in the Spirit as daughters and sons of the Father, and therefore as brothers and sisters in Christ, that those who share a common dignity derived from baptism, are strengthened by word and sacrament to fulfil a common mission in the world.
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