Sacraments

OCIA, or Order of Christian Initiation for Adults is the process by which individuals become full members of the Catholic Church. This formation process culminates in the reception of one (or more) of the sacraments of initiation: Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist. During the OCIA process, individuals are invited to explore more deeply their own faith journey, while being introduced to the basic beliefs, liturgy, and spiritual tradition of the Catholic Church.

• Candidates: Individuals from other or no faith tradition(s) who desire to become part of the Catholic faith community through Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist AND/OR baptized Catholics who are seeking Eucharist and/or Confirmation.
• Sponsors: Confirmed Catholics who wish to support the faith journey of a candidate.
• Seekers: Anyone who wishes to learn more about the Catholic faith.

At Loyola, the OCIA program runs for the entire academic year, culminating with the Rite of Initiation Mass in March or April of the Spring Semester.  The program begins with a low-commitment, exploratory phase in the Fall. In the Spring, participants deepen their journey with retreats, Mass attendance, and regular meetings. You'll also have the chance for personal and spiritual growth through 1:1 conversations, prayer partners, and being part of a supportive faith community.

The process is generally divided into the following stages:

• Inquiry and Discernment: Individuals are invited to deepen their understanding of how God has been active in their lives.
• Catechumenate: Individuals being to reflect more deeply on the person and Gospel of Jesus.
• Rite of Election: On the first Sunday of Lent, candidates gather at Mass before the greater faith community.
• Purification or Enlightenment: Candidates are able to deepen their prayer life and examine their personal journeys more closely.
• Initiation: Candidates receive the sacraments of initiation during the Easter season.
• Mystagogia: Candidates continue to grow and reflect on the mystery of the Easter sacraments as they move forward on their spiritual journeys.

 

Generally, meetings are held weekly during the academic year, beginning in October (Fall semester) and culminating with the reception of the sacraments around March or April (Spring semester).

Requirements to Reserve the Chapel

• To reserve the Alumni Chapel for a Wedding, couples must have an affiliation with Loyola:The bride or groom must be a current student or graduate of the university;
  • The bride or groom must be a current employee of the university or a son or daughter of a current employee;
  • The bride is an alumna of Mt. St. Agnes College; or
  • The bride or groom is the son or daughter of a Loyola or Mt. St. Agnes graduate.
• Loyola Alumni Memorial Chapel is a Catholic church within the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Therefore, if either the bride or groom is Catholic, the couple must follow all the wedding procedures of the Catholic Church. In order for a wedding to occur here we must ask approval from the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Without this approval the wedding cannot occur in our Chapel. Be sure to discuss all of the requirements with your priest and be sure you can meet them. In particular, if either party has been married before, this must be discussed with the priest before you confirm your reservation. The priest will advise you if your time frame is reasonable. We will be happy to work with you to find a later date, if necessary.
• Be aware that if one of the parties is Catholic, then the ceremony must be Catholic. Both parties must be free to marry in the Catholic Church. All requirements for a Catholic wedding must be met: pre-nuptial investigation, Pre-Cana course, and gathering of all the required documents. If both parties are not Catholic, they are welcome to hold a non-Catholic religious ceremony as long as they are both free to marry.

Process to Reserve the Chapel

• Contact the Wedding Coordinator at weddings@loyola.edu to schedule a phone consultation. During this consultation, you will be able to review the chapel schedule for available days and times for your wedding and place a "hold" on the date/time.
• Either the bride or groom must directly contact the wedding coordinator, and no reservation can be considered complete until you have spoken with the wedding coordinator.
• You can hold a date for 2-3 weeks while you secure a reception venue and presider. We will not release this date without contacting you.
• Obtain a priest or a minister who will be able to officiate at your wedding. A wedding reservation CANNOT be
• accepted without a confirmed priest or minister.
  Complete the reservation form, which will be email to you after the proof of reserved reception venue has been received.
• A reservation fee of $700 will be collected at the time of reservation, and the payment link will be provided to you.

Any questions regarding chapel reservations should be directed to Chamini Vithanage at weddings@loyola.edu.

Congratulations on your engagement! As you begin to prepare the liturgy and music for your marriage celebration, we would like to take this opportunity to explain the basic principles we follow in preparing all liturgical celebrations here at Loyola.

• Please encourage the full and active participation of all who gather to celebrate your marriage. Singing by the assembly at a wedding expresses the joy and unity of the people gathered. It is an attractive and meaningful way of inviting guests to actually participate rather than remain spectators throughout the liturgy.
• We encourage all couples to prepare a printed booklet for use by your wedding guests. The assembly at most weddings will be a mixture: members of the local church, visitors from other churches, people of Catholic background now inactive, alienated Catholics, Christians from other denominations, persons of other faiths, agnostics, and atheists. For those who will be unfamiliar with worship in this community, we need to do everything possible to make them welcome and help them understand our prayer. The University owns the reprint licenses needed for legally reprinting music for one-time occasions. And although we cannot do the actual printing of the programs, we are more than happy to assist you in whatever way possible.
• All weddings at Loyola MUST use the musicians who are part of Music Ministry at the University. Musicians are chosen because of the ministry they fill and the professional quality of their art.  In the wedding liturgy, the bride and groom are ministers of the sacrament of marriage. Other ministries usually at work in the Sunday assembly also function in the wedding liturgy: ministers of hospitality (ushers), ministers of the word (lectors), and ministers of music (Eucharist).
• A cantor, or leader of song, is indispensable at wedding liturgies. The task of this person is to enable and motivate the song of the assembly. This is different from a soloist who usually performs for an assembly, although the roles are not mutually exclusive. If you are considering a friend to sing for the wedding, he or she would function best as a soloist (singing one or two songs before/during the liturgy).
• Wedding celebrations are rooted in the expectations and experience of regular Sunday celebrations. Where Sunday worship is healthy, the goal is simple: couples preparing for marriage will draw on that Sunday experience in planning their wedding. The basic shape and outline of the wedding liturgy is precisely what the assembly does in its celebration each Sunday. Therefore, the same elements of the Mass that are sung each Sunday, are sung for weddings, namely: the Gathering Hymn; the Responsorial Psalm; the Gospel Acclamation (Alleluia before the Gospel); the Eucharistic Acclamations (Holy, Holy, Holy; Memorial Acclamation; Great Amen; Lamb of God); and the Communion Song.
• Decisions about choice and placement of wedding music should grow out of three judgments set forth in Music in Catholic Worship, the definitive work by the United States Bishops Conference on Liturgy (1982). The liturgical judgment: Is the music's text, form, placement, and style congruent with the nature of the liturgy? The musical judgment: Is the music technically, aesthetically and expressively good, irrespective of musical idiom or style? The pastoral judgment: Will it help the assembly to pray? All styles of music for liturgy-classical, contemporary, and folk-should conform to these principles.
• You are encouraged to set up a consultation/planning meeting with the Director of Liturgy and Music, George Miller. At this meeting you will be able to finalize the details of your wedding music. All proposals for wedding music selections must be submitted for approval by the director of liturgy and music.
• Under the "Wedding Music Selection Demos" link below are suggested songs for your wedding.  You are not limited to the titles listed there, only by the guidelines in choosing suitable music.

Music and Liturgy Preparation Checklist

PLEASE NOTE: George Miller (Cantor) and Adric Macsisak (Organist/Pianist) will automatically receive your wedding dates from the Wedding Coordinator. They need not be notified unless there are urgent & cogent issues surrounding your wedding music until 3 months before your wedding in order to schedule a music consultation.

• 3 months prior: Contact George Miller to schedule a music consultation meeting.
• 3 months prior: Contact and secure any optional & additional musicians (see below).
• 2 months prior: Meet with George Miller for music selection. Please note: Music stipend fees are due at the time of your consultation with Mr. Miller.
• 3-4 weeks prior: Send your Wedding program to Mr. Miller for proof-reading.
• 2 weeks prior: Mail stipend check to priest or minister. Please note: your stipend/gift to the priest or minister is not included in Chapel fee.

Loyola Wedding Musicians

The organist and cantor fees are $250.00 per person (subject to change).

• George P. Miller, Cantor/Piano, unclegminor@gmail.com
  7704 Windy Ridge Baltimore, MD 21236 (W) 410.617.2449 (C) 443.286.9215
• Amy Klosterman, Organ/Piano, klostermanaf@gmail.com 
  2710 Manhattan Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21215 (C) 410-493-3537 
• Mary Slomba, Substitute Cantor, clslomba@comcast.net 
  11757 Camp Cone Rd. Glen Arm MD 21057 (H) 410.592.2384

Optional Wedding Musicians

Fees for additional musicians are negotiated individually.

• Luis Engelke, Trumpet 410.292.0718 
  luisengelke@gmail.com
• Melina Gadjer, Violin (& string trio) 410.340.4047 mgajger@yahoo.com
• Sara Nichols, Flute 410.377.4443 
  snichland@aol.com
• Jarred Denhard, Celtic Harp/Bagpipes 410.292.6142 
  jdenhard@aol.com

Resources

• Planning Your Wedding (PDF)
• Wedding Liturgy and Music Preparation
• Wedding Music Selection Demos

The church cares deeply for couples entering the sacrament of marriage and offers Pre-Cana sessions as part of the preparation for your life together. Completing Pre-Cana is required for all couples getting married at Loyola. Unfortunately, Loyola does not offer Pre-Cana sessions anymore. Below is a list of Pre-Cana programs approved by the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

Programs Available

Archdiocese of Baltimore Pre-Cana Conferences
The Archdiocese of Baltimore offers Pre-Cana classes for Baltimore couples at a variety of locations throughout the year. Please contact the marriage preparation and enrichment office to inquire about class availability, ask questions, or to register for their classes.

Baltimore Catholic Engaged Encounter
The Engaged Encounter weekend utilizes a dynamic process based on listening, writing, and dialogue. The process encourages the engaged couple to concentrate on building a relationship. The weekend extends from 7:30 p.m. Friday evening to approximately 4:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon. Free from the pressures and distractions of daily living, the engaged couple has the opportunity to concentrate exclusively on each other, while examining the essential issues they will encounter within the marriage relationship.

The design of the Weekend encourages the couple to explore mutual strengths and weaknesses, goals, aspirations and attitudes concerning family life, children, sexuality, finances, the church, and society. The couples are encouraged to communicate in terms of planning their marriage, not only a wedding day celebration.

All weekends are held at Holy Trinity Spiritual Center in Pikesville. Please direct any questions or inquiries regarding these weekends to the Engaged Encounter the following number: 1-877-222-8858

Online Programs & Resources (recommended by Archdiocese)

• Unveiled Marriage
• The Marriage Group
• For Your Marriage

Copy of certificates of completion should be sent to the wedding coordinator at weddings@loyola.edu. 

Follow us on Instagram @loyolamdweddings to see pictures from weddings in our chapel. Photographers are credited.

 

As you prepare for your wedding, please take some time to review the following frequently asked questions.

Congratulations on the birth of your child, and thank you for inviting the Church into your child’s spiritual journey!

Many Loyola University alumni have a special connection to our school. They return to campus to celebrate their wedding ceremony in the Alumni Memorial Chapel, and some inquire to celebrate their child’s baptism here because Loyola University has been a part of other important sacramental moments in their lives. However, in keeping with Church teaching about the celebration of Baptism, Loyola University and Loyola Campus Ministry have a policy in place that does not allow us to baptize your child in any campus sacred spaces.

In the Catholic Church, Baptism is an initiation into a community of faith. Baptism is a ritual act that affirms that it is not just an act of/for an individual, but an act of/for a faith community.

This is why the Church directs that baptism be celebrated in the specific church community to which a family belongs: the local parish. It is in the parish community that a family can “put down roots” for themselves and grow not only the child’s initiation into the Roman Catholic Church, but also help in the growth of the life of that Parish community. The parish can provide a place to foster and help grow the faith of the child to whom you are seeking baptism.

Loyola University’s Campus Ministry / Alumni Memorial Chapel is not a parish. We are a station of The Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, the mother church of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, with a mandate to serve the needs of the students at Loyola University. Campus Ministry and the Alumni Memorial Chapel are not able to provide the full spectrum of services and support that are found in a parish community, which are essential for preparing parents for the baptism of a child, and sustaining them through all the sacramental encounters of life.

We hope this helps you to understand why the Alumni Memorial Chapel (as well as other sacred spaces on campus) is not available for celebrating child baptism. If Campus Ministry can be of any assistance in helping you locate a Catholic parish in your area and register there, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Be assured of the prayers from the Campus Ministry Team and of the Society of Jesus on campus for your family as you and your loved ones walk with your child on their faith journey for years to come.