Mystagogy Program
St. Stephen Martyr Church, Chesapeake VA
Barbara Nicolosi Harrington
Barbara R. (Nicolosi) Harrington is an award-winning writer, commercial screenwriter, internationally known public speaker and communications consultant with significant experience in the non-profit sector. She is a university professor of screenwriting, cinema, Great Books and theology.
Vision and Goals
Flowing out of the RCIA program, the vision of the St. Stephen’s mystagogy is to ease the transition for new Catholics from a period of intellectual formation, into one of spiritual, liturgical, and communitarian formation. To achieve that, the program will have four primary goals:
- To break open Magisterial teaching on the lay state (selections from Vatican II as well as letters/encyclicals from recent popes) as well as classic spiritual texts to build a thoughtful, practical devotional life.
- To introduce the various spiritual charisms in the Church (i.e. Dominican, Carmelite, Franciscan, Salesian, etc.) so that they may develop a personal program of spirituality rooted in the uniquely Catholic legacy;
- To deepen the prayer life through study, communal prayer, the practice of meditation, Mass, and the Liturgy of the Hours; and
- To establish a fully Catholic life and mission, including a formation in the art of the Church, the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, and the commitment to a specific personal work of service.
SERIES I: Keynotes of an Authentic Catholic Spirituality
St. Stephen’s new Mystagogy Program kicks off with a focus on prayer as the fundamental underpinning of the life of the Catholic disciple.
SERIES II – Catholic Legacy: Art, Story, Music and Poetry
In this second series, we will be breaking open together some of the most beautiful works of art, story, music and poetry that have come down to us through the ages in the Church.
SERIES III – January-April 2023: The Divine Comedy: Sin, Suffering, Virtue and Holiness
Texts to include: The Divine Comedy, Dante, “The Grand Inquisitor” from Brothers Karamazov
SERIES IV – May-August 2023: Holy Mother Church: Essential Magisterial Documents
Texts to include: Rerum Novarum, Lumen Gentium – Dei Verbum – Humane Vitae – Gospel of Life – Familiaris Consortio –
SERIES V – September- December 2023: On the Blessed Sacrament for the Year of Eucharistic Revival
Texts include: The Church of the Eucharist by Pope St. John Paul II, Catechism of the Catholic Church, The Gospel of John