Easter Monday, and the question what now

The Easter Vigil ends near midnight. You have been baptised, confirmed and received the Eucharist for the first time. You go home with a candle, a damp head and a stunned heart. On Easter Monday morning, the question quietly arrives. What now.

The Church has a name for this season. It is called mystagogy, an old Greek word meaning the unfolding of the mysteries. It is the fourth and final stage of OCIA, and although the formal sessions usually run only through the Easter season to Pentecost, the lived reality is the whole first year. Mystagogy is how a new Catholic learns to live the sacraments rather than merely to have received them.

Bishop Davies has framed this in a way that is both demanding and reassuring. "Every member of the Church must always be a convert." The first year is not the end of conversion. It is the rhythm of conversion settling into a life.

The rhythm to build

The Catechism teaches that the Christian life is built on prayer, the sacraments, the moral life and works of charity. For a new Catholic, this works out as a small handful of habits, repeated until they feel like home.

• Sunday Mass, every Sunday. Not most Sundays. Every Sunday. If you cannot attend the parish where you were received, attend wherever you are. Mass is Mass.
• Confession, monthly or more often. Many devout Catholics go weekly. Others monthly. The Catechism recommends at least an annual confession of grave sin (CCC 1457), but a regular rhythm of confessing venial sin is one of the surest paths to peace.
• Daily prayer, even ten minutes. Begin with the Our Father, a decade of the Rosary, or the day's Mass readings.
• One weekday Mass if you can. The Cathedral offers one before work. Saint Joseph's, Stockport, has perpetual adoration around the clock.
• One spiritual book at a time. The Catechism is your handbook. The lives of saints are even better.

Parish friendship

The single most important factor in whether a new Catholic stays Catholic, in study after study, is friendship in the parish. People stay where they are loved.

So join something. The parish coffee morning. The young adults group. The lectio divina. The Saint Vincent de Paul Society. The choir, even if you cannot sing. The 171 candidates who attended the 2026 Rite of Election at the Cathedral, alongside 100 in 2025 and 82 in 2024, did not arrive on their own and are not staying on their own. Each was carried by a parish. Stay carried.

The Bishop's vision for converts

The Bishop has been candid that the Church's job in this moment is to be present, not flashy. The new wave of converts is being formed by what is already there: faithful Mass, reverent worship, the steady witness of ordinary Catholics.

It is by striving to live our own conversion that we can best support a new generation of converts. For Lent calls us to recognise that every member of the Church must always be a convert. May we truly be a Church of converts, that is always "ready for converts."

Bishop Mark Davies, Pastoral Letter for Lent 2026.

You are now part of that body. Newman's phrase, "a Church ready for converts," is no longer a phrase about you. It is a phrase about what you, with your parish, are becoming for the next person.

Two diocesan anchors

For those who can travel, two places in the diocese are worth a regular visit during your first year.

• Shrewsbury Cathedral. The Cathedral Church of Our Lady Help of Christians and Saint Peter of Alcantara at Town Walls, Shrewsbury, SY1 1UE, has been the mother church of the diocese since 1853. It hosts the Chrism Mass, the Rite of Election and the Bishop's principal liturgies. Its Margaret Rope windows reward slow looking. Visit, even once a quarter, to remember that you belong to a diocese, not only a parish.
• Saint Joseph's, Stockport. Dedicated by Bishop Davies on 22 October 2022 as the Eucharistic Shrine of Perpetual Adoration. The Blessed Sacrament is exposed day and night. If you live within reach of Stockport, an hour at Saint Joseph's during a difficult month is one of the surest pieces of pastoral advice the diocese can give.

What if I miss a Sunday, or fall back into an old sin

You will. Saint Paul did. Saint Peter did. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins" (1 John 1:8-9).

The Sacrament of Penance is for exactly this. Go to confession. Begin again. The Catechism puts it: "Christ instituted the sacrament of Penance for all sinful members of his Church" (CCC 1446). All sinful members. All of us.

What to do this week

• Put Sunday Mass in your calendar as a recurring fixture. Treat it as non-negotiable.
• Find one weekday rhythm you can keep. Five minutes of morning prayer. A short Examen at night.
• Speak to your local parish priest about a parish group you might join.
• Visit Shrewsbury Cathedral or Saint Joseph's, Stockport, before the next month is out.
• If you need diocesan support during your first year, email Natalie Orefice at Natalie.orefice@dioceseofshrewsbury.org.