By Matthew Gambino • Posted March 14, 2025

One of the joys of joining a parish’s OCIA program is witnessing a “lightbulb moment.”

That’s when a person preparing to enter the Catholic Church, or a Catholic wishing to learn more about his or her faith, suddenly has a realization of some gem of Catholic spirituality, the breadth of Catholic social teaching, or nugget of Church history.

I’ve personally witnessed those graced moments when a person who has never been baptized (a catechumen) or a person who received baptism in a Catholic or other Christian church (a candidate) brings an open heart and mind to a weekly OCIA session, and the Lord enters.

The eyebrows rise, the eyes widen and you can tell the person has just had a profound moment of conversion on their way to receiving the sacraments of initiation: baptism, Eucharist and confirmation.

The Order of Christian Initiation for Adults is a parish-based series of weekly meetings that are a combination of faith sharing, small-group religious education, Christian formation and community building.

Lifelong friendships among parishioners often result from the sessions that typically run from September through May.

The lightbulb moment isn’t limited to those preparing to receive the sacraments at Easter. Often, they are joined each week by “cradle” Catholics who may be accompanying a spouse who is a catechumen or candidate, or they might simply want to learn more about their faith.

They may hear an aspect of Catholic teaching, dogma, or prayer and as it impacts them deeply they say something like, “I never heard that before, and I went all through Catholic school!”

Those “Ah ha!” moments of realization as people learn about and love more the living and almighty God are happening with greater frequency these days in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

As CatholicPhilly reported a week ago, a total of 725 catechumens and candidates (331 and 394, respectively) presented themselves in the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul to sign the Book of the Elect. They signified their intention publicly to receive their sacraments of initiation at their parish this Easter.

That figure, according to an analysis by the archdiocesan Office for Divine Worship, is the leading edge of a trend showing more people are entering the Church at levels not seen in at least a decade.

This year’s total of 725 people receiving their sacraments outpaces last year when 661 people entered the Church.

Both years compare higher than 2016 when 590 people entered the Church.

Not only have the numbers of those entering the Church bounced back from the lows of the pandemic years — 237 in 2021, and 380 in 2022 — but exceeded those of the pre-COVID years.

This is a sign of hope for three reasons.

If people are motivated to complete their Catholic sacraments it’s because they are seeking the Lord, and He is finding them. They are bringing open hearts and encountering the Lord who alone can fill the human heart. God remains active among his people in our time.

Today’s catechumens and candidates also are seeing in other Catholic Christians – their spouse or their friend, their neighbor, or their coworker – positive models of Christian discipleship.

They are credible witnesses to the faith. Through their lives they are attracting those who seek God and offering an invitation as much in actions as in words, “Come and see.” This is the spirit of missionary discipleship, which leaders such as Pope Francis and Archbishop Nelson Pérez have been calling for Catholics to embrace.

The call to missionary discipleship has only just begun in the Church of Philadelphia. This points to another reason for hope.

Already the call is producing the fruit of more members joining the Body of Christ, the Church. How much more can one hope to witness in coming years as the pastoral plan with its missionary impetus comes into full flower?

We believe that faith and love are divine gifts of grace and so is hope. That gift of the Holy Spirit for this moment gives me much hope for more “lightbulb moments” of deepening encounters with our Lord Jesus Christ. They’re coming to a family and a community near you, praise God.

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Matthew Gambino is deputy communications officer for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.