Abstract
The restoration of the ancient institution of catechumenate, as it happened for urgent pastoral reasons at the Christian West in the 20th century, returned into the life of the church community several important liturgical moments. For many centuries they were either completely forgotten or taken from their original context and accumulated in the rite of baptism itself.
Although they come to us from the distant past of the Church, they are not archaeological findings revived from mere love to the past. But they are neither a modern attempt of ceremonial ritualization or directing the preparation of an adult to the baptism.
The catechumenate rites are primarily an act of the Church, which with the power of Christ, with his blessing and gifts addressed to those who are to be born from water and the Holy Spirit, and it accompanies them - in the power of what it is itself - in the existential life decisions and the steps towards their Lord.