Franciscan at Home

Dear Teresa,

I'm so glad to hae someone experienced to turn to for advice.

We have a few new people in our RCIA team, and I would like to give them some basic formation on the Christian life, as this is what our catechumens and candidates are seeking. I’m not quite sure where to start though. What are your thoughts?

Yours hopefully,
Julie

Dear Julie,

How lovely to hear from you again, and I am so pleased to hear your team is growing. What a good idea to start your team’s training and formation with an introduction to the aspects of the Christian life! I suggest the best place to start is with this small scripture verse from Acts 2:42: ‘They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers’ (RSV). Christian Initiation, as you say, is to prepare someone for Christian life in all its dimensions.

Dear Teresa,

Thank you for the help you gave me. It makes total sense that we should start with evangelisation, and looking to the Rites has been amazing in that it has helped me really engage with this period. I was going to ask you about the next stage, but something has come up. At the Easter Vigil, we had a small group received into the Church and then that was it for them. It struck me that this seems odd. I worry about one of them in particular as this person has no Catholic support network and her sponsor no longer calls her either. So often it seems that people lapse in their new found faith, and I wonder if this may be one reason why. I’d appreciate your thoughts.
Julie

Dear Julie,

Thank you for your letter. How interesting that you raise this point and how right you are to raise it. If you look at the Rites, you will see that this is not the end, but the period of the neophyte year which includes 7 weeks postbaptismal catechesis which is called mystagogy.

This page on Christian initiation is offered in each issue of The Sower as an on-going way to address specific questions that do not necessarily get addressed in more general articles and training resources. The questions all come straight from the field, and have two sources: 1) from readers like you; 2) from issues raised during seminars conducted by the Association for Catechumenal Ministry (ACM) over the past ten years in various dioceses.

In this issue we address the following questions:

Q: Beyond Mystagogy, why is the Neophyte Year of a new Catholic so important?

RCIA Catechists – Stay Tuned!

This page on Christian initiation is offered in each issue of The Sower as an on-going way to address specific questions that do not necessarily get addressed in more general articles and training resources. The questions all come straight from the field, and have two sources: 1) from readers like you; 2) from issues raised during seminars conducted by the Association for Catechumenal Ministry (ACM) over the past ten years in various dioceses.

In this issue we address the following questions:

Q. An RCIA inquirer has recently come to our parish and she is seeking to have the Church address the situation of a previous marriage to a man who is a Jew. He was never baptized and neither is she. How does this situation differ from a marriage between two baptized people? Would a Pauline or Petrine privilege be relevant here?

Q. I’m having trouble finding really solid catechetical material for adults in the Spanish language. What is available for someone developing an RCIA process for a Hispanic community?

Eric Deitel looks at how we can ensure that the RCIA process is fully respectful of the dignity of each person.

Non-baptized persons and baptized non-Catholics seek to enter into full communion with Christ and His Church through the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA). Many RCIA programs can fall into the trap of making a cookie-cutter program that all people go through for a certain amount of time to become Catholic. These programs fail to assess each person’s background and history and can tend to treat the person more as an object moving through an assembly line. St. Augustine’s work, De Catechizandis Rudibus can help give great advice to help these RCIA programs get out of this trap. In the eighth chapter of his work, St. Augustine identified a type of people who seek to enter into the catechumenate but do not fit the average person. St. Augustine identified this person as someone who has some basic knowledge of the Christian faith and willingness to live it. Augustine then gives practical advice on how to individualize the RCIA process.

St. Augustine viewed that instruction for people seeking the sacraments should be personalized as much as possible. Augustine used two key characteristics to look for when assessing the individual: pure motives and a Christian education. He expressed that the individual’s motives are “to be made a partaker in the sacrament.”[i] This makes evident the purity of his or her motives. The individual was seeking ‘only’ the spiritual benefits of the Church in the sacraments and not the temporal benefit of being a Christian which St. Augustine described early in his work.[ii] The second key characteristic of this person was his or her education. The person’s education was described as “a considerable knowledge of our Scriptures and literature.”[iii] The word ‘considerable’ showed that Augustine was not speaking of someone who had heard a few stories from the Bible but an individual who has carefully investigated the meaning of the these stories. The individual had a basic knowledge of the Christian faith.

Dear Teresa,

Thank you for your letter. I can see now why RCIA is called a process and what you say about its aspects – catechetical, pastoral and liturgical make sense. I hadn’t thought about it that way before. I’ve looked at the Rites and really see that they do have all these three aspects! I can’t believe I missed this before. I’m not sure what to do at which point though. I have asked the people coming what they want to know about, but I am finding it hard to explain things as they don’t often have the basics. Help!!
Julie

Dear Julie,

How good to hear from you again. It’s an interesting point isn’t it – what to do at which point. I have heard other people having the same problem as you, so you’re not alone, don’t worry! I find always looking to the Church herself is a good starting point.

Last time I mentioned that there are three aspects to the RCIA process; now it is prudent to mention what the Church calls the periods of RCIA.

This page on Christian initiation is offered in each issue of The Sower as an on-going way to address specific questions that do not necessarily get addressed in more general articles and training resources. The questions all come straight from the field, and have two sources: 1) from readers like you; 2) from issues raised during seminars conducted by the Association for Catechumenal Ministry (ACM) over the past ten years in various dioceses.

In this issue we address the following questions:

Q. Why are the Scrutinies in Lent considered so important for the unbaptized elect?

Q. What is the Penitential Rite for a baptized candidate in Lent?

This page on Christian initiation is offered in each issue of the Sower as an on-going way to address specific questions that do not necessarily get addressed in more general articles and training resources. The questions all come straight from the field, and have two sources: 1) from readers like you; 2) from issues raised during seminars conducted by the Association for Catechumenal Ministry (ACM) over the past ten years in various dioceses.

In this issue we address the following questions.

Q. What is my essential purpose as an RCIA godparent or sponsor?
Q. How long should the RCIA process be?

Dear Teresa,

I have been asked to run our parish RCIA, as the person who leads it has moved away. She left some details saying that the group meets once a week on a Monday night. They come in, she explains a doctrine to them, they talk about it for a while and then go home. Wouldn’t it just be easier for my priest to give them instruction? That’s what happens in my old parish.

Julie

Dear Julie,

Thank you for your question. The way RCIA is delivered in parishes varies a lot. So, how do we know what we should be doing? The best way is to look to what the Church teaches.

The restoration of the ancient catechumenal process (called for in five documents of the Second Vatican Council!), is a reflection of the Church’s wisdom in going back to a tried and true practice in order to lovingly bring people into her fold.[i] Why did the bishops so strongly desire a restoration of the Rite of Christian Initiation? Why not continue to rely on individual instruction by a priest to receive those interested in becoming Catholic or completing their initiation through Confirmation and first Holy Communion?

Bringing adults into the Church through RCIA is a very ancient practice of the Church. We know this because well known saints of the 4th to the 6th centuries (St Augustine of Hippo and St Leo the Great to name but two) described what they said and did in writing, so we have first hand knowledge of their catechumenal processes. Please note Julie, RCIA was and is a process.

Esta página sobre la iniciación cristiana se ofrece en cada edición de The Sower como herramienta continua para enfrentar preguntas concretas que quizás no reciban respuesta en los artículos o demás recursos de capacitación más generales. Todas las preguntas provienen directamente del campo, y tienen dos fuentes: 1) de lectores como tú, y 2) de asuntos que se suscitan durante los seminarios dirigidos por la Association for Catechumenal Ministry (ACM) [Asociación para el Ministerio Catecumenal] a lo largo de los últimos doce años en varias diócesis.

P: Nuestro equipo de RICA quiere conocer algunas alternativas para explorar y hacer presente con mayor profundidad las tradiciones y prácticas católicas referentes a la oración en nuestras sesiones de RICA. ¿Tiene algunas ideas?

P: Durante los años cuando tenemos a jóvenes entrando a la fe católica dentro de nuestra parroquia, hemos sentido más y más que necesitamos ofrecer alguna especie de experiencia “de seguimiento” para ayudarles a meterse de pleno. Por lo menos quisiéramos tener un año de neófitos más fuerte para “avivar” a nuestros jóvenes con todas las cosas buenas que están sucediendo en la Iglesia. ¿Qué sugerencias tendrías?