Dear Editor,
Thank you for including Our Sunday Visitor's Program Baptism: The Most Precious Gift in your April review of baptismal preparation programs.
We particularly appreciated the reviewers' praise of its community involvement, creative activities and session plans. Baptism: The Most Precious Gift was created by Beth Branigan McNamara and Our Sunday Visitor to provide a solid, affordable program with a wealth of reproducible materials. It is for those parish staffs who are looking for an excellent, flexible program for infant baptism preparation but want to keep a handle on costs as well.
I must apologize, however, for having sent you an unedited draft of our manuscript for review. Because of time constraints, we were unable to send you the finished and approved text. We feel that the points raised as limitations in the ML review have been addressed in our editing, review, and imprimatur processes and that the final program is much stronger. I have included a review copy of the final program, which -- I think you will agree -- addresses some of the key issues raised in your review.
Again, thanks for your initial review of Baptism: The Most Precious Gift. I hope you'll take the opportunity to re-examine our final program at some later date.
Greg Erlandson Editor-in-Chief
Dear Editor,
I read with interest the rating of Baptismal Preparation Programs in the April issue of Modern Liturgy. Unfortunately, your team only rated my book, not the Baptismal Program from Twenty-Third Publications of which that book is only one part. My little book was written to serve as a take-home supplement for parents after they had viewed the video Celebrating the Sacraments: Baptism. That video is a re-make of the old and very popular filmstrip on baptism by the late Charles Keating. Since Keating had died before the revision was done, the folks at Twenty-Third used his script with some revisions to allow for more inclusive language, etc. They completely changed the photos from the filmstrip, producing a new video with plenty of pictures showing many types of families in different settings. They asked me to write a small book to accompany the video. Hence, the lack of pictures in the book.
For your future reference, Twenty-Third went on to produce three more videos and accompanying books. The Celebrating Sacraments videos include Reconciliation, Eucharist, and Confirmation. The At Home with the Sacraments books include the same titles. I am the author of all of those video scripts and books. It has been interesting to me that the books have sort of taken on a "life of their own." Many parishes do use the videos and books together, but a surprising number purchase multiple copies of the books without using the videos. If we had known this was going to happen, perhaps we would have planned a book with more graphics and activities. (A group meeting plan with suggested activities is included with each video.) Your panel may have provided us with a future project.
Thank you for all your efforts to further the good work of liturgy in our Church, and thank you for this opportunity to set the record straight about my book.
Peg Bowman Woodstock, IL
Dear Editor,
I wanted to comment on the Bulletin Insert that appeared in the March issue (ML 23:2) about the history of scrutinies. Our parish celebrated the scrutinies for the catechumens last Lent. I enjoyed reading the article. I've been coordinator of religious education at our parish for the last 20 years. Several years ago I started the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, adapted for children, as part of our religious education program. It has been one of the most positive initiatives I've ever started. It has been an inspiration to see how this has affected the children and families involved.
Keep publishing the contemporary, tasteful, and right on-target insights to the importance of the liturgy in our lives.
Gerard J. Budzynski New Freedom, PA JerryCRE@aol.com