On Mondays, I answer questions frequently asked by those considering a return to the Catholic Church. How do I know this stuff? I was away for more than 30 years myself, and am the co-author of When They Come Home: Ways to Welcome Returning Catholics, a book for pastors and parish leaders interested in this ministry.
There’s baptism for babies, confirmation for converts and kids, marriage for couples, annointment for the sick and dying and all the other sacraments that involve some 
ceremony with friends and family if not the whole parish. Why isn’t there something for people like me who left and came back?
I recently attended a professional seminar that included a session on generational communication styles. Baby boomers like me got typified as wanting the 3Ps (plaque, post, picture). Millennials were typified as always getting trophies when they were kids, even if they finished last. Gen Xers, we were told, mainly want to be left alone. Given that, I’m betting you are either a boomer or millennial.
As a returnee, you have a history with the Church and have been baptized (and, most likely, experienced the sacraments of penance and reconciliation, the Eucharist, and confirmation, and quite possibly matrimony). How blessed you are! And while there is not a sacrament for those who were away and come home, that moment when you can again participate fully in communion may be more profound for you than it was the first time. No, there’s no public moment where everyone’s going to applaud and buy you gifts. But do know that the Lord and many of his ministers–lay and ordained, some you know and some you don’t know–are rejoicing that you’re back home.
