Throwing fish to the penguins?
Like many others my understanding of the task of the adult catechumenate has developed over the years – or at least I think (and hope) it has.
I’m sure that when I was first involved in the process as a catechist my first instinct was to try to teach the faith, only. And the faith I tried to teach, or share, was largely to do with belief about this or that.
Such beliefs are important. And we are instructed that one of the tasks of the process is that encounter with the tradition of the Church. Cf RCIA 75.
My first approach has been challenged by the experience that that there was often a world of difference between what I was trying to teach and what was being learnt. And often enough this gap existed because the ‘teacher’ hadn’t paid enough attention to those he wanted to teach/wanted to help learn!
RCIA 75 also requires that part of the work of the one charged with enabling the formation of catechumens is to help them to share in our life in common. If that is not being achieved in the catechumenal group – not just in terms of warm fuzziness, but in terms of careful attentiveness, and readiness to serve actual need then the effectiveness of other dimensions of the formation we offer is going to be compromised. Faith is also about relationship. Relationship with God and relationship in the Church.
So, over time, I’ve moved from process which is mostly about input, to process to which is more about engaged and mutual reflection. How are we finding God? How are we finding each other? This reflection is not empty of belief about this or that, or God or the Church. But it is about much more than that belief alone. It’s about how these things matter to us, and why. Not just why they could or should matter to ‘them’, but why they matter to me, and maybe will matter to ‘us’.
It’s quite challenging, is this. It leaves the catechist somewhat more vulnerable to the process because it requires more in the way of personal commitment and transparency to the group. It’s less like throwing fish to the penguins, and more like getting in the pool, joining with the others in the search for that food, the ICTHUS, the nourishment of life or heart and soul that only God can give.
In the past year I’ve returned to parish ministry – after some years doing other things. I find myself once more taking part in the work of the adult catechumenate in a particular parish community.
And I’ve inherited a format which is resiliently based on the school year, a six months all-in-one structure. And this brings a challenge. How best, within those present constraints, to equip those in the group for Christian living beyond their (relatively short) time in the RCIA group? Adult learning often goes quite slowly – even when people more, more or less, volunteer for it. Responding to people’s sometime active and passionate desire to learn and grow helps, of course; as does putting the effort into trying to discern what it is that the group experience can help people to learn helps that process along, but there are still very clear limits to what can be achieved in 6 months or so.
Given these circumstances, and my reading of them, I think my understanding of my role, during this year and over time, has shifted yet again. We try to focus on responding to what those searching for faith and those beginning to live more deliberate and consciously faithful lives are ‘ready for’. And we try to be aware of how the members of the group have a right to know what the Church believes about God and herself and the world – at least in the basics. But there’s been something more too, and that’s trying to remain ever conscious of how what we are doing and sharing in will give our catechumens and candidates skills to draw on the resources of the Church in the future.
What does this amount to – well, for example, not only teaching about the scriptures and making use of the scriptures in our gatherings, but again and again speaking of how in our prayer with scripture outside of these gatherings, and outside of Mass, we can meet with the Lord and deepen our knowledge of him. Or, another example, focusing on how we pray the Mass and the presences of Christ there, building up an expectation that, week on week, what we should expect to change at Mass is not just bread and wine, but us. And the other – answers on a postcard please, because I’ve really not made much progress on this one – is trying to see how we can continue to support the members of the group after the ‘given’ period of mystagogy.
One challenge in this, that our catholic parishes as a whole are really very a-mystagogical in the way we live, share in sacraments, and consider our faith. Maybe, just maybe, the way we resource our catechumens and candidates this year will help them to serve as a sort of leaven in the batch.
Why do we think Evangelisation starts at the Church door?
So how do you recruit? It may not be the right term, but if we put as much energy into recruiting as the National Trust do, just think of the numbers we may be initiating into the Church.
Two things got me going on this, one was a comment about the likelihood of a Rite of Acceptance, that ‘we may have someone who has just joined the RCIA. They've been to the first session'. The second was when I was literally standing at the front door to the parish office and was told ‘that we might have a couple of ‘nibblers', who'd made an approach. It was probably standing at the outside door to the parish office that did it, but I suddenly thought, how we were failing prospective Christians by waiting for them to approach our church. Both the above comments recorded the expectation that enquirers make their first approach to the church, and while in some respects that is correct, we seem to have forgotten there is an even earlier stage. What might it take before we get into the mindset of being open to evangelisation away from the church door.
The first thing is to note that evangelisation is not taking every opportunity to ‘preach God' to the unconverted. It is not proselytising and it's not moralising. I think of it as being open to the Holy Spirit working in others and using me as its instrument. I couldn't stand on a street corner and proclaim the Good News of God, but I've come to see how in subtle ways I can open other people's hearts to the joy and hope that Jesus brings. Here is one example.
Somebody I know (but not a close friend), who has had their share of worries in their personal and family life, sent me a text one Sunday morning asking when I went to church if I would ask my God to keep a special eye on someone for them. It came right out of the blue from someone who had previously told me they couldn't find God in their lives because of all the troubles they'd endured. I was delighted to be able to text back and say ‘of course'.
I got another text the next week, asking if I would please send the same words to God. I must have been a bit slow, because it needed this text to make me think that I should be doing something other than praying, as I'd been asked. Eventually, I sent a text with a little story about a close (non baptised) friend of mine, who at a time when she was experiencing some family problems, had told me how she liked to call into churches, any church, and look for a statue of a beautiful lady, with a serene face, who she would talk to, and how it used to make her feel calm, and at ease. After my text there was silence for a while, and then I got a text back that mentioned about looking for a very easy book about God. I thought of all the books I've got and realised that a story version of the Gospel was the best book to start with. I got an email address and sent a few ideas.
Now I don't know what will happen with this person's journey, but I do believe that similar opportunities happen to us all in our daily lives, and that this is when evangelisation takes place. It is a way that the whole parish can get involved in subtle ways in the first period of the RCIA, after all:
‘the precatechumenate is of great importance... It is a time of evangelisation: faithfully and constantly the living God is proclaimed and Jesus Christ who he has sent for the salvation of all. Thus those who are not yet Christians, their hearts opened by the Holy Spirit, may believe and be freely converted to the Lord....' (# 36).
Being honest, I know in my parish that the message has not yet got through that it is the whole Church, (RCIA General introduction 7), all the baptised, who have a part to play in the very first period of the RCIA (# 8). Until the ‘entire community’ understand that their individual and collective role as Christians is to ‘proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom of God’ (EN 14) then new Christians will only enter our church when they manage to arrive at the church or parish house door.
Until RCIA ceases to be the domain of the few who make up or are affiliated to the RCIA team, the whole dimension of ‘witness’ will go undetected and undervalued.
I’ll end with a suggestion. As our fully initiated Catholics emerge at the Easter Vigil, how might we benefit from their experience? Has anybody analysed and assessed how the last ten years of enquirers got onto the RCIA? How many of our PPC’s have anyone with responsibility for evangelisation? What strategies can we introduce for reaching out to the unchurched?
How do we use our liturgy to express Catholic identity? Is it accessible to those who are not (or not yet) Catholics? Is it inculturated? Is it faithful to Catholic tradition?*
The Word of God – blessing and task
A little late this week 3 members write from an international conference in Chile.
Martin writes
The International Forum on Adult Religious Education holds a consultation every two years. The theme of this year's consultation is The Word of God: blessing and task for catechesis today and it is being held in Santiago, Chile over this last week. The invitation to attends goes to Bishops' Conferences around the world and It is a privilege to be part of a small group from England and Wales.
The Forum is 20 years old this year and it began as an initiative from England and Wales. The first meeting was organised by Paddy Purnell, Anne McDowell and Margaret Foley and held at St Mary's College, Strawberry Hill. Each meeting takes a similar format: reflection and discussion on a theme, generally inspired by a Church document or initiative, and country sharing. What can be fascinating is the interplay between the familiar and the unknown — the similarities and difficulties we hold in common and differences that can be beyond our experience.
Two highlights for me have hearing about the meeting of Latin American bishops - CELAM - at Aparaceido in Brazil last year. Their reflections on catechesis, the need for bishops and their agencies to have an examination of conscience as to where they have failed to be the Church and the importance of the catechumenal model for all catechesis.
On Sunday morning we visited local parishes to look at family catechesis. We met families from the parish who spoke to us about their involvement. What was moving was the sense that the parish and the catechesis was responsibility of the community and that the involvement in family catechesis had strengthened relationships.
Paula writes
It has been a real privilege to take part in this international consultation. Throughout the process there have been opportunities to hear from countries around the world about the joys and challenges of adult religious education and also our hopes for this ministry in the future.
For me the most striking experience was the visit to a local parish for Sunday Eucharist and sharing with parish catechists. The welcome and hospitality was overwhelming and humbling at the same time. We were welcomed into two local parishes and met those involved in family catechesis. The parish and community structures are very different to those in the UK and the numbers of catechists quite astonishing. Catechists undertake formation provided by the archdiocese, and this is a serious undertaking for the catechists and the whole family of the catechist. Married couples are catechists together and as one man commented, although this interfered with his football team it was important for him and his wife to undertake this ministry together. The ministry of catechesis is described with great enthusiasm and commitment as a lifelong ministry in the parish community, catechists are called to live their lives as witnesses to the Word of God that they share. This was not undertaken lightly, and in the people we met, it was clear that their lives, in mind heart and action was shot through with the Word of God.
A last thing that struck me was the role of the godparent. In family catechesis, all families need a father in those instances where a woman may be widowed or divorced and Godfather becomes the father in the family. In our own situation in the RCIA and RCIC in England and Wales, maybe there is something to be learned from this idea.
Linda writes
A key moving experience for the group was the visit to the Sanctuary of Fr Alberto Hurtado.
Fr Hurtado was canonized by Pope Benedict in 2005 and is the third saint for Chile. Born in 1901 he died of cancer at the age of 51 in 1952.
His ministry as a priest focussed much on the young and the poor. The dvd clip we saw showed a warm and ever-present smile.
The Sanctuary includes a museum reflecting his life and work, a beautiful garden including a wall where people's prayer petitions and thanksgiving for prayer are placed and a chapel where the saint's tomb forms the altar. It is a place of grate peace which celebrates the life Fr Hurtado and which offers the opportunity for reflection and prayer.
Will there be fewer people at the Rite of Election this year?
I received an email newsletter just before Christmas which, with an apologetic tone, reminded me that it was only 5 and 1/2 weeks until the beginning of Lent. Easter is almost as early as it can be this year — it can only fall on 22 March before that and that won't happen in our lifetimes (2285 if you really want to know!). An early Easter means an early Lent and the First Sunday, the normal date for the Rite of Election, will be on 10 February. Hence my question. Or at least the origin of my question. What's behind is a question about whether the discernment which is proper before the Rite of Election might say we need a bit longer before we can answer the questions asked of us at the Rite with integrity.
- Have they faithfully listened to God's word proclaimed by the Church?
- Have they responded to that word and begun to walk in God's presence?
- Have they shared the company of their Christian brothers and sisters and joined with them in prayer?
Before looking at what the Rite says about being prepared for the Rite of Election and the length of the catechumenate a story.
Last autumn I was in Tours, France and I took the opportunity of visiting the shrine of my patron saint — St Martin. The shrine is a 19th Century basilica and in the crypt is the tomb of St Martin (died 397). Nearby is a museum which tells the history of both the Basilica and of St Martin himself through fragments and art works. One of the most famous incidents in his life happened when he was 17 and a soldier in the Roman army at Amiens. On a cold winter's night he met a beggar and though he had little he shared is cloak with him. That night he had a vision of Christ in the guise of the beggar. He heard Christ say to the surrounding angels:
Martin, who is still but a catechumen, clothed me with this robe.
Though I was familiar with the story and some of the many images associated with it I had not come across the last line before and it served as a reminder both that one time to be a Catechumen was a distinct stage in a person's life and that God is working during this period. The Life of St Martin, written quite soon after Martin died, says that he became a Catechumen when he was 10 and shortly after his vision he sought to be baptised at the age of 18.
Looking at the Rite
In the introduction to the Rite of Election it states:
Before the rite of election is celebrated, the catechumens are expected to have undergone a conversion in mind and in action and to have developed a sufficient acquaintance with Christian teaching as well as a spirit of faith and charity. RCIA 107
And the length of the catechumenate...
The time spent in the catechumenate should be long enough — several years if necessary — for the conversion and faith of the catechumens to become strong. By their formation in the entire Christian life and a sufficiently prolonged probation the catechumens are properly initiated into the mysteries of salvation and the practise of an evangelical way of life. By means of sacred rites celebrated at successive times they are led into the life of faith, worship, and charity belonging to the people of God. RCIA 76
And why not?
The phrase 'several years if necessary' is probably one of those we pass over thinking, if at all, that it applies elsewhere. The challenge is how to faithfully respond the request that the catechumens made at the Rite of Acceptance and to recognise that it takes time.
It is perhaps worth articulating some of the reasons that we find this challenge difficult:
- we see discernment as, at best, a one-way process by the catechumens not as a shared responsibility which is integral to the Rite
- Seeing the process of Initiation as a single timetable for a whole group — for whom is such a timetable designed?
- A year seems a long time to wait for next Easter. Our language can also seem negative: initiation can be delayed or put off.
- All this pre-supposes a team and a process that can cope with people at different stages over the year.
- There is also a need to make clear differences between the different periods particularly in terms of catechesis. The period of purification and enlightenment is not the time for a final catch-up on matters of doctrine but a time of spiritual preparation for Easter.
This would not be the time to suddenly decide that your Catechumens will not be going to the Rite of Election! Nor is it a proposal that, like Martin, the Catechumenate should take 7 years. It is an encouragement to continue to reflect on what the potential of Catechumenate is.
- For further thoughts on these issues see recent postings in Team RCIA
- The 11 March posting will be reflections on celebrating the Rite of Election - contributions welcome.