A Star to Follow
One thing that I have found irritating this year is when other Christians, once Christmas day has passed, wish me a 'Happy New Year omitting the 'Happy Christmas'. The child in me wants Christmas to last for ever; the christian in me knows it is a season packed with liturgical delight, from the Vigil mass right through to the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. That is why the RCIA process is so invigorating, because time and time again we are privileged to witness others experiencing the same liturgical delights.
Christmas Crib
I would like to share some ideas for using the nativity scene.
The story of the wise men is one of gentiles coming to pay homage to the infant king of the Jews; of hope: being driven to make a journey, following a great light in darkness; of trust: in the signs, of following a the night stars; of love: for a tiny baby whom they worshipped as the Christ child.
It is about gifts, eye-opening gifts of great wealth, a time for the catechumens to examine the gifts they are given, the gifts they offer to others, for part of the catechumenate is to 'learn how to work actively with others to spread the Gospel, and build up the Church by the witness of their lives and by professing their faith.'( # 75.4). This is also a time for catechists to reflect on their gifts.
- The Feast of the Holy Family (28th December) reminds us that holiness is found in the ordinariness of our everyday life, at home, in the family, in our parish community. Whether single, widowed, elderly, with or without children, the hope is that all experience the support of others in the community. Have a few of the faithful invite the catechumens with their family or friends, to see the nativity scene and to experience the hospitality from the RCIA group. At a time when people have long Christmas breaks, a late afternoon visit followed by mulled wine and a mince pie go a long way to breaking down barriers and the tensions, that can exist when a family member is taking the step in considering becoming a catholic.
- For the Epiphany, have a procession to add the Magi to the crib. Some (it doesn't have to be three) catechumens could carry a figure through the church to add to the crib. Or stress the manifestation of Our Lord to the whole world by inviting those from other cultures to process a figure.
- Focus on the crib as a catechetical activity. Explain it's origins, how St Francis of Assisi brought the idea of a live Nativity scene to his local church, and how it stresses the poor and lowly beginnings, the humility of Jesus being born as a child.
- Spend some time around the nativity scene and let people share their stories. With the secular world outside the church doors it can be quite soothing to get away from the bustle of planning social gatherings, and to think a little deeper about Christmastime in the catholic church. Reflect on the scene, the stories behind the figures, Joseph the Husband, Mary the mother, the baby Jesus.
- If you practice Dismissal, here is one time when you might like to issue an open invitation to the assembly to join the session at the end of Mass, and perhaps move it to the location of the crib, and give the catechumens opportunity to meet families and other groups of Christians (# 38)
The above can apply to those engaged in any period of the RCIA, from inquirers through to mystagogy. I particularly thought of the following sections: #4, #9. #38, #78, #244-6 (RCIA, 1988, USA study edition)
Saints Alive
Many countries are lavish in their remembrance of their saints’ days, with the whole village enjoying a day of festivity and reverence to a particular saint. The people of Malta take the celebration of the feast of St Paul’s Shipwreck, very seriously. Preparation is year long for this annual feast to their patron saint. It falls on the nearest Sunday to February 10th and there is much anxiety about the weather, for the 17th century wooden statue cannot be carried outside in high winds or heavy rain. I took this photo after the men had spent a couple of hours transferring the statue to its portable beams, had proudly begun the procession, only to be driven back into the safety of the church when the rain fell. It wasn’t only the bearers that shed tears, but many in the crowd acted as if they had suffered a great loss.
This year All Saints Day will be celebrated next Sunday November 2nd (England & Wales only) and I would like to explore how this provides a catechetical opportunity for RCIA catechists and the community.
Saints are so much a part of our life. We read about them, we pray to them in Mass and in a time of need; we feel supported by them and are secure in knowing they are a communion of saints. Our churches are dedicated to them, but so are street names, pubs and businesses. Statues are part of our architectural heritage Even non-christians have heard of St Christopher, and when on holiday how can you ignore the patron saint hanging above the visor of the bus driver in Malta, Crete, Cyprus etc.
From time to time, saints have featured with great predominance in my faith journey. Although, not always obvious at the time, on looking back I have been able to chart a sideways and upwards step, leading me to new exploration and depths as I try to fathom what exactly God has planned for me. While I find it a little puzzling why All Souls is not being commemorated on the 2nd November, I relish the opportunity that this change to the liturgical year offers to RCIA catechists.
- Those involved with the period of inquiry have the chance to share in hearing the richness of saints’ stories when members of the parish participate in group sessions. What an easy way to introduce a relationship with saints when exchanging stories of how St Christopher was invoked on a hazardous journey, or how prayers to St Jude or St Rita helped turn a hopeless situation into a triumph. As for the lost things that St Anthony is asked to find…
- For both inquirers and catechumens, there is the opportunity for exploration and discussion over birth names and what saints they identify with. This may involve hearing about holy people from other cultures, and learning about new saints.
- Hands on experience is possible by bringing statues, icons or pictures to the group. Many art books or museum catalogues will show how saints have been depicted through the ages.
- Use this time of the liturgical year to think ahead to the Easter Vigil to bring alive those named in the Litany of Saints, so that our candidates will be able to sing out ‘pray for us’ with some familiarity of the saints named.
In our parish, everyone has been invited to bring to Sunday Mass a picture or statue, or icon of their favourite saint. I am hoping that those who have adopted England as their second country will bring statues of the saints they have grown up with, and catechumens and all, will see the variety of holy people that have inspired those in our community. It is a time for the neophytes and those who were confirmed to remember their confirmation saint, and together with the parish young confirmed earlier in the year, they could place their saints in a special location in the church.
- For those experiencing mystagogy, here is a chance to explore holiness. Look at popular prayers, or the saints named in the Eucharistic prayers. What is amazing about saints, is that they come from such a diversity of backgrounds and cultures. Anne Gordon in A Book of Saints - True stories of how they touch our lives, offers instances where people today have been influenced by their relationship with a particular saint.
The glory of saints is, that they have lived, and coped with temptation, doubt and what seemed insurmountable obstacles; they have planned their path of faith only to find its progress thwarted, until eventually they have realised God is leading them along another path. But perhaps the most apt is St Martin of Tours, the pagan soldier who tore his cloak in half to give to a freezing beggar, and then in a vision Christ called him to stop being a catechumen, and to be baptised.
Time for a Story
The Summer holidays, or any holiday is a time to catch up on reading . If you have time try Paul Turner's When Other Christians Become Catholic. It is a must when considering how we should be planning our catechumenate.
Turner not only explores the ritual text, but puts the practice of receiving others into full communion with the catholic church into our 21st century context, reminding us that the rite is what it says, about being "received": it is not about being 'forgiven or reconciled'. We have moved on from the early church needing a route, by which those guilty of heresy or apostacy, could renounce their beliefs and return to the fold. The process and rites that applied to such a situation are hardly applicable to those christians who knock on our parish doors today.
While restoring the RCIA, Vatican 2 also looked at providing an appropriate means that would enable other christians to come into full communion with the catholic church, in a way that would not make too burdensome, Turner shows how we have in a way compromised the rite, when we combine the rite of receiving baptised christians into the catholic church with the rite of initiating unbaptised catechumens.
What becomes clear, reading Turner, if you hadn't already felt it so, is that there was no intention to make is so easy for catechists, that those already baptised would be added to the catechumens, so that all progressed the same route, using the same rites.
From such a background there are some surprising but reassuring insights, for Turner says the rite was intended for a single candidate. How many of us worry when we only have person forward? Turner refers to such a situation, which calls for a 'simple ceremony with a profound meaning'. Looking at it from the opposite perspective, what does this say to us, when we have a large number of candidates, generally outnumbering the catechumens in combined rite? Should we immediately be thinking of spreading out our rites of reception throughout the liturgical year, so as to help that meaning come out?
For Turner the Rite of Reception happens within a Sunday mass, at any time of the year, any time that is, but at the easter vigil. Why not read his book and see if you think what he says makes sense . Will it influence your future planning of the RCIA process?
Sue
The Summer Harvest
Summer is here, schools are about to break up and those involved with RCIA will soon disperse -if they haven’t already- until september. So how does the community continue to exercise its responsibility in the initiation of adults, when formal RCIA meetings have a break?
… the community must always be fully prepared in the pursuit of its apostolic vocation to give help to those who are searching for Christ. In the various circumstances of daily life, all the followers of Christ have the obligation of spreading the faith according to their abilities. #9
In looking at how the ‘primary minister of initiation’ is the community, Thomas Morris (Morris, T. (1997) The RCIA Transforming the Church. Paulist Press, pp.67-8.) reminds us to ask, what is it about our particular community that makes it distinctive: why do we initiate, and into what do we initiate? This was the theme of the recent RCIA conference, and is a worthwhile exercise to consider. Identify what makes your parish community what it is. What is it that identifies those from your church? Remember that the typical community is made up of those who volunteer, as well as those who don’t.
For those who don’t think they are involved with the catechumenate why not try LIFT. Living in Faith Together is a meal based small group, designed for those who may be too busy to commit to a more formal church group, but want to continue to mature their faith. On the basis that everyone has to eat, we combine a meal while sharing the Gospel. We meet once a month in each other’s homes. The host provides the home, somewhere to sit and eat, and everyone brings a plate of food. The evening starts with a reading of the Gospel for the following Sunday. There is time for reflection, or for lectio divina, and then discussion throughout the meal. It can be adapted to involve a couple of families with the catechumens, or to integrate with other groups and members of the community. A meal for the team, or catechumens, or sponsors, would help keep the continuity of RCIA being year- round. You could concentrate on a section of the rite; look at individual ministries: sponsors, godparents; or just get together for Christian based conversation.
I make a few other suggestions:-
- For the team, ask everyone to read the rite and reflect on it.
- As a team, attend a day retreat.
- Explore and find new resources - when travelling in England or abroad, go into a local church and ask how they practice RCIA: this is a great way for picking up ideas, particularly when you get chatting to the local parishioners.
- Ask everyone to read a book, article, or resource and be prepared to give some feedback on it in September: for example, look at the last couple of years of Catechumenate. (Catechumenate published bimonthly by Liturgy Training Publications.The Liturgy Office offers a subscription service in UK)
- Consider RCIA 75(2) & (4) and involve catechumens, candidates and neophytes in something in the parish, SVP, charity, social justice, Fair Trade.
- What is going on in your neighbourhood that would be a living example of what it means to be a Christian?
- Go for a walk, journey together, tell your stories.
- Be prepared for when someone comes knocking at the door, so you haven’t got to turn them away, but can enable an enquirer to start their journey when they want to, at their pace, rather than on a fixed process dictated by the school year.
Share any good ideas, what was challenging, what worked well.
New Year or All Year Round …
I agree with Martin, (May 19 2008) that one of the factors that hinders the progression of RCIA is a cloak of secrecy, perpetrated by some in leadership roles. To overcome this, I suggest it requires an appreciation by the team of the scope of adult initiation, as well as a good understanding of the rite, so as to appreciate the essential role of the community.
For example if you explore the requirements of RCIA #4,
‘The initiation of catechumens is a gradual process that takes place
within the community of the faithful. … the faithful provide an example…’
The following might be useful questions to ask:
• In what ways do we inform the parish of the ongoing RCIA process?
• Is everyone aware that RCIA is part of this parish?
• Do the parishioners acknowledge their own responsibility to those being initiated?
• Do they recognise the candidates, and the new catholics?
Next time you are at mass or at a parish gathering, do a straw poll and ask what is known about RCIA and how it occurs in your parish.
If the answers to the above are less than satisfactory, why not have a brain storming session with your team on how to publicise and promote RCIA. You could have an open meeting, or invite specific parish groups to consider practical ways, that the faithful can ‘provide an example’ of what being Christian means. Such contact is essential to the whole initiation process (see #9, #75.2).
This leads me to Martin’s point about using this time to have a “new year resolution”. My resolution would be to introduce year-round RCIA, for that is the key to making it an ongoing gradual process, which involves the whole parish.
‘During the period of evangelisation and precatechumenate…. Christ’s
message is made known by word and deed…(the people) welcome them
into their homes, into personal conversation, and into community gatherings’ #9.1
So from the first, the enquirer is in contact with the community. That same community will be present during the liturgical rites (#9.2) and ongoing through to the post-baptismal Mystagogy. Just as the community experience the liturgical seasons of ordinary time, advent, lent, easter, Pentecost, the liturgical year provides the same cycle of spiritual growth for those experiencing adult initiation.
Year round catechumenate brings its own challenges. How to introduce it, manpower, a substantial change to the school year model, a change of mindset away from ‘instruction’.
Some suggestions:-
• Manpower: use it as an opening to invite new parishioners to become involved, in hospitality, formation, sponsors, etc.
• Agree a holiday rota, avoiding those with school age children.
• Introduce it this summer, as a fortnightly or 3 weekly event and gradually extend it over the year, to the same frequency as usual RCIA sessions.
• Have different teams for different parts of the process. It is demanding to attend week after week. Catechists need a break to continue their own formation, and opportunity to discuss and experience other models.
• Offer a general invitation to the parish to come along to the gatherings: a notice in the parish newsletter that all are welcome, indicating discussion will be around the Sunday lectionary, can be less daunting than offering a fixed topic where cradle catholics may think their ‘knowledge’ will be tested.
• Using the lectionary, and following the liturgical year, makes it easier for team members to drop in and out of the process, than being ‘topic-based’.
• Announce the year-round process: from the pulpit (shows clergy support), the parish newsletter, notice board, circulate to other parish groups.
• Ask the parish to pray for its implementation, in the bidding prayers, prayer groups etc.
• Evaluate, reassess, and discuss as a team - ask members to journal the process- it is wonderful to read back and see how positive a change has been, as this is often underestimated while you’re experiencing it.
• Use this site to pass on your experience, what works, what can be avoided.
Adopting a year round catechumenate will make RCIA more widely known and integrated in parish life, especially as the liturgical rites come to be celebrated in the Sunday mass, and the community is kept informed about catechumens.
The increase in team members (encouraged by requiring shorter periods of commitment ) will mean you are better placed to cater for the different stages of the catechumenate and to differentiate between the unbaptised and baptised.
Easter – a Rollercoaster
For neophytes, and those candidates just received into full communion with the Catholic Church, this Second Sunday of Easter marks yet another turning point, as they enter the final period of christian initiation. While remembering the height of the Easter Vigil, it is quite easy to be brought sharply back to the realities of everyday life in the readings of the Second Sunday of Easter. This leads me to ponder four questions. What signs are going to be received in awe by our new catholics (Acts, 2.43)? How will their faith be nurtured? Are they going to have the resilience to continue the post baptismal period of mystagogy? What are the practical considerations for the RCIA team?
As ever I return to the rite: the neophytes, together with those received into full communion with the catholic church #244, #410 ( see #330 for children) now join with the whole community as they:
… grow in deepening their grasp of the paschal mystery and in making it part of their lives through meditation on the Gospel, sharing in the eucharist, and doing the works of charity.
RCIA #244
The above assumes #75 will have been followed in a systematic way: providing appropriate catechesis over sufficient length of time, based on the liturgical year. The Word that was opened up in the period of Dismissal, is now able to be explored and built upon, particularly during the Easter Season when the sacraments of initiation have been encountered, experienced and made one’s own. In the following Sundays all the faithful can be reminded of their baptismal vows (sometimes overshadowed at the Easter Vigil when all thoughts have been with those being baptised). The community is ready for the sacramentals to be opened up anew, to be reminded of the importance of the symbols of our faith: oil, water, bread and wine. Yet one of the greatest ritual symbols is the assembly: this is the community the neophytes will have experienced through sponsors, godparents, catechists and the local church as they were introduced to the christian way of life. Now this relationship develops as they become one with the community, as all journey towards Pentecost, nurtured by liturgical catechesis, the ongoing RCIA sessions and all the people.
The community must never underestimate their role in the initiation process, but this can only occur where the whole church is aware how vital is the ‘the pastoral care of Christian initiation’ (GDC 91). Where RCIA is not part of integrated church practice this poses a delicate problem to be overcome. The Easter Season provides the opportunity for the whole community to walk the same easter path.
Another obstacle is if the catechumenate period envisaged by #75 did not take place. What can then occur is a frenzy to impose all the required catechesis in the mystagogy period. But we have missed the purpose of mystagogy if we cram it with ‘religious facts’ (see #244- 248), whether during the initial period which ends with Pentecost, or the extended mystagogy to the anniversary of initiation (adopting the USA system).
This is the time for the neophytes to create and make firm their ties with the community; to experience the liturgy as one of the faithful, and to become immersed in a process of formation that continues throughout one’s life. This is a time to renew the whole community as they see faith experienced as known, lived, celebrated and prayed (GDC 84)
Suggestions
- Forward planning to provide a new group for the newly initiated; to plan the initial period and extended period.
- Use the liturgy - involve the initiates, process the gospel, the offertory gifts, intercessions.
- Use the homily - remind the faithful of their baptismal vows: the rights, obligations and duties they bring; before Pentecost have the sprinkling rite, or invite the assembly to process and dip their hand in the baptismal font.
- Let the initiates continue to meet sponsors, godparents, the community; provide opportunities for questions to be asked, contexts explored.
- Have ongoing formation sessions for the whole community- open up the Easter Mystery, explore the symbols, look for the signs in daily life, bring the gospel alive through lectionary based catechesis, engage in prayer.
- Introduce them to parish groups, tasks, charities, web based resources, newspapers and journals.
- Ensure they attend - and the parish is represented - at the Pentecost Mass with the bishop (this should occur in all dioceses).
Have in mind that faith has to be known, celebrated lived and prayed (GDC 84) as you search for new ways to show what it means to be part of the body of Christ in today’s world, nourished by the Word and Eucharist.
All this demands forward thinking so the newly initiated don’t believe they’ve hit the jackpot and have nothing more to do. This is a new way of life for those who believe, and it will keep returning to new heights.
- # RCIA (1998, USA edition)
- GDC General Directory for Catechesis (1997)
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?*