Walking the Rite way

Sarah* wrote last January, “I do not know if you are still there now that Christmas has passed, but I would like to let you know that shortly after my e-mail to you my local church had a penitential service. This helped me go to Confession. I have been going to Mass and Communion ever since, including on Christmas Day and most of the Octave of Christmas, as I was off work at that time. It takes quite a lot of courage to go to Confession after 34 years. Thank you for your encouragement. The Christmas season was very joyful for me. I hope lots of other people have been helped through ‘Come Home For Christmas’.”

Another enquirer wrote: “I am a lapsed Catholic who recently moved to a new area and returned to the Catholic community… I am completely unfamiliar with Mass / Catholic law and am feeling lost and alienated. Finding help to answer questions when you return to the fold is proving difficult, unless I prefer having the whole parish know I and my spouse are ‘prodigals’. The most difficult thing in my life was to admit to myself that I had made a terrible, wrong decision in abandoning my faith. I am too embarrassed to ask anyone in the parish for help as only the Father (priest) knows that I stopped going to Mass 18 years ago aged 15. I sincerely pray that you are able to help.”

One couple who received an invitation letter said: “It was sleeping beauty waking up.” Someone who received a home visit said: “Now for the first time, I feel that I really belong to the parish.”

These are just some of the responses the Catholic Enquiry Office received as a result of last year’s first ‘Come Home For Christmas’ initiative, which was launched to equip parishes to warmly welcome those baptised who for many different reasons no longer attend church. Tailor-made posters, invitation cards, leaflets, welcome packs and a website were made available in support of this work of evangelisation. Parishes and individuals distributed around 100 000 leaflets and new materials are now available for Advent 2008 and January 2009. See: www.caseresources.org.uk and www.comehomeforchristmas.co.uk

St Hilda’s Parish in Sunderland was one of last year’s participating parishes. Parish Priest, Fr Noel Colahan said: “Parishioners seemed delighted to have something specific to hand to people. Having a physical resource made it easier to issue an invitation without appearing to pile on the pressure too much.”

Sheila Keefe, who is a parishioner at St Joseph’s in Romsey and promoter of the Portsmouth Diocesan KIT (Keeping In Touch) programme said: “So many church-going Catholics are concerned about their children and grandchildren who don’t seem to have any links with their local parish. We’ve found ‘Come Home For Christmas’ to be a real source of hope and, as a follow up to the initial Christmas invitations, the KIT programme offers home visits and small group meetings where people can share their stories and learn a little about today’s Church. In fact our meetings went down so well that we continued to meet in the local pub during the summer months.”

The Catholic Agency to Support Evangelisation (CASE) is resourcing this year’s initiative and the theme of the outreach materials is “…something missing?” Also being offered is a free information pack from the Catholic Enquiry Office and a text featuring a message of welcome from Cardinal Cormac-Murphy O’Connor.

Clare Ward from CASE said: “We were overwhelmed by the response from parishes last year and are hoping for an even greater one this year. A variety of materials are available in recognition of the fact that ‘no one size fits all’ in a Catholic understanding of evangelisation. Do contact us. We’d be delighted to support and resource you and your parish.”

Bishop Malcolm McMahon, Chair of the Bishops’ Conference Department for Evangelisation and Catechesis, said: “The star of Bethlehem clearly guided the three kings on their long and arduous journey from a distant place to the wondrous reality of Jesus’ birth. In the months leading up to this extraordinary event, let’s seriously consider in our families, parishes, in our lives, how we can serve as stars, as beacons, leading those baptised who are no longer church-goers to ‘come home’, to attend Mass. Be bold and courageous. I encourage you to respectfully reach out and ’shine’.”

For more information and resources please e-mail: info@comehomeforchristmas.co.uk
www.caseresources.org.uk
For more information about KIT please see: www.kit4catholics.org.uk E-mail: enquiries@kit4catholics.org.uk

Also see: www.everybodyswelcome.org.uk

It’s a beautiful spring morning as I sit to write: the kind we’ve been longing for and which is much more Easter than most of the preceding twenty eight. Cold yes, but with the brightness of morning sunshine promising to warm water and soil and hearts. A wonderful morning to look to what will be next Sunday’s First Reading (Acts 6:1-7) and which begins with the words:

“About this time, when the number of disciples was increasing …”

It’s a familiar story: the good news of increasing numbers, tempered by struggle and tension; we’re not being fairly treated! And with it comes the requirement for the early church to listen to the complaints and adapt to meet the needs of the current situation. It’s certainly a relevant text for our own times, but what about the neophytes and their continuing reflection on their new status as full members of the Body of Christ? As the apostles considered ways of delegating and involving more people in the tasks of ministry, perhaps it’s a good time to consider ways in which the neophytes’ particular gifts and talents can be welcomed and put to good use within the particular parish community to which they belong. The rite instructs us:

“The period of post-baptismal catechesis is of great significance for both the neophytes and the rest of the faithful. Through it the neophytes with the help of their godparents, should experience a full and joyful welcome into the community and enter into closer ties with the other faithful. The faithful in turn should derive from it a renewal of inspiration and of outlook.” [R.C.I.A. 236]

In my last parish we made a special effort to undertake the necessary discernment and then training and support across various ministries in order that by Pentecost our neophytes could be seen to be active in an appropriate area of ministry. So we had new readers, new cleaners, new flower-arrangers, new welcomers and companions on the journey for new enquirers. Sadly, the new life of Easter can be restricted to a narrow, spiritual focus if we’re not careful and the opportunity to bring new people into new areas of ministry can be overlooked. Just as that clear blue sky of a sunny spring morning can highlight the tired paintwork and dingy windows that have survived the darkness and gloom of winter so too the Easter life of resurrection can highlight the need to revitalise ministries that have perhaps grown tired, albeit settled and comfortable. A burst of energy and enthusiasm can be just the Easter sunshine required to warm the water, the soil and the hearts of our parish ministries. Whilst a failure to consider ways of integrating the new life the neophytes represent into the existing life of the community risks leaving them marginalised and under-valued. There’s a wonderful David Whyte poem, Everything is Waiting For You, that I think speaks to both neophytes and the community at this special time, especially the final verse:

Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into
the conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.

Perhaps part of the joy of mystagogia is the discovery that for both neophyte and parish community everything is indeed waiting!

• Everything is Waiting For You, Poems by David Whyte, 2003 Many Rivers Press

It’s a shame that, at least as far as Sundays are concerned, we only hear the story of the disciples on the Road to Emmaus once every three years.  As a story that shows the power of meeting Jesus in the Word and Eucharist, it is wonderful for all Christians - and a real gift for those in these early days of mystagogy.  It’s a Gospel we can go back to from time to time and reflect on how we have met Jesus - and what effect this has had on our own discipleship.

At some point, the weather in the UK has to improve - our bleak weather at Easter must soon give way to springtime! There are signs of spring around us - but they are hard to spot from under and umbrella or behind a scarf and hat. So, having a bit of faith… let us assume that this is the week when it will be warm enough to get outside and maybe take an Emmaus Walk for ourselves.

New Catholics might like to do this with their godparent or sponsor - or it could be done in small groups. The main thing is to ensure that there is space for talk - and space for the silence in which the Word can speak. It can be useful to give each person a certain amount of time - to speak without interruption or to keep silent - their companion offering respectful listening before having their own time to speak.

The Walk can be divided roughly into four parts. Though each part will have its own dynamic and there has to be flexibility if something really significant comes up, it is important that all four areas are experienced to give a sense of wholeness and completion by… Participants can always agree to come back to the parts that seem worth revisiting.

Read the first part of the Emmaus Story: Luke 24: 13-17

What were the sorts of things that we were discussing at the beginning of the Journey to initiation? And what issues along the way caused us to ask hard questions - perhaps even to wonder if this was the right path for us: was this man Jesus actually the one we wanted to follow? What helped to resolve the issues - or are there still things we are pondering on?

Read the second part of the Emmaus Story: Luke 24: 18-27

What are our memories of the Easter Triduum? Of Holy Thursday evening? Of the solemn celebration of the Lord’s Passion and the long hours of waiting at the end of Good Friday and Holy Saturday? How easy was it to feel part of the events we were recalling? What emotions did we experience?
What spoke to us in the Word of God during those days? Where did we hear the voice of Jesus as the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus did - speaking - explaining - challenging - as we listened to the many pieces of Scripture of the Triduum?

Read the third part of the Emmaus Story Luke 24: 28-31 (If this can be timed to arrival at a convenient hostelry or tea room for refreshments so much the better!)

What was the experience of taking part fully in the Liturgy of the Eucharist like? What did it mean for me - does it mean for me - to recognise Jesus in the breaking of bread?

Read the final part of the story: Luke 24: 32-35

So - having encountered our Risen Lord in our confusions and questions - in the Word of God - and in the breaking of bread - what are we going to do with it? Leave it all behind with the hymnbook at the end of Mass? Or…
As we walk back to our own “Jerusalem” what do we take back - and how do we share that with other people?

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)

Two Opening Prayers from the Missal for Easter Week

Easter Monday

Father,
you give your Church constant growth
by adding new members to your family.
Help us put into action in our lives
the baptism we have received with faith.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who live and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Easter Saturday

Father of love,
by the outpouring of your grace
you increase the number of those who believe in you.
Watch over your chosen family.
Give undying life to all
who have been born again in baptism.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who live and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Excerpts from the English translation of The Roman Missal © 1973, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved.

Something I have learnt through experience is never ask a group a question that you do not know how to answer yourself. This is not about being omniscience but being prepared first to draw on one’s own experience before expecting others to do likewise.

As we look beyond the Triduum to the Easter Season and see 6-7 weeks of mystagogy we need to remind ourselves the celebration of the Triduum is the starting point. Perhaps we need to first note down our experience of the liturgies of the three days. I am a great one for jotting down the practical details: what went well, what needs to be attended to next time, what could be better. This is all very useful when we come to prepare the following year’s liturgies. But here I am more thinking of a journal. Reflections and impressions over three days. Even if you are busy as a liturgical minister in some form your need to participate. Participation is the first condition of mystagogy.

On Holy Thursday

• What were your expectations before hand?
• Was there a word or a phrase in the readings that stayed with you?
• Which symbols caught your attention?
• How did you feel at the end?

On Good Friday

• What words would you use to describe the liturgy?
• During the intercessions for whom did you pray?
• What did feel like to kiss the cross?

At the Easter Vigil

• What did you see as you gathered around the fire?
• How many times did images of water come in the readings?
• How would you depict the liturgy of baptism?

These questions are only starters. After you have got down your impressions take the opportunity to come back to them, to reflect on them. Ask why did you think or feel that, what can learn about what we celebrate, about Christ.

These reflections will enable us to help others to reflect. In the end though it will be the neophytes who lead us deeper into the mysteries. This paradox is at the heart of the Easter gospel.

When I prepare the liturgy booklet the one thing I am likely to forget is the reading that changes each year — the gospel at the Easter Vigil. One of the element that is common to gospel in all three years is that the resurrection is announced by someone in white garments. In Matthew ‘His face was like lightning, his robe white as snow’. It is not too fanciful make a connection with those who will rise up from the waters and put on a white garment, white as snow perhaps. In the waters of baptism they will die and rise with Christ, they are the sign that Christ is risen in our midst. From them over the coming weeks we will learn what it all means.

Originally there was going to be a week’s break on Walking the Rite way but when I was preparing the next 3 Year of St Paul leaflets I was struck by how in the middle of Christmas — at the Dawn Mass — there is baptism.

Here is the passage and the prayer from the leaflet (adapted from RCIA) for reflection.

When the goodness and loving-kindness of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. This Spirit he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 

Titus 3:4-7

All-powerful God,
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by water and the Holy Spirit
you freed your sons and daughters from sin
and gave them new life.   

Send your Holy Spirit upon us
to be our helper and guide.

Give us the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of right judgment and courage,
the spirit of knowledge and reverence.
Fill us with the spirit of wonder and awe in your presence.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

In the Gospel of the Fourth Sunday of Advent, we hear that Joseph had learned the news of Mary’s pregnancy. What would have been going through his mind as he tried to work out what to do? The desire to keep his honour wrestling with his desire to protect this young woman from any more disgrace than she was already facing…How many nights had he tossed and turned - before a fateful night on which, it could be said, the history of salvation depended. The Word had become Flesh but was infinitely vulnerable - and would be for many years. How was the Child to be protected in the long years of childhood if this good man rejected the woman who he thought had so seriously betrayed him?

And God sends a messenger to speak to this man in a dream… to enter his troubled sleep with words of comfort - of reassurance.But words that made no sense -what on earth does a child having been conceived by the Holy Spirit mean?

Joseph - like his namesake hundreds of years before - was a dreamer. Like the earlier Joseph, he trusted the dreams - and would have known that dreams are not always sweet - and their interpretation not always comfortable.Hadn’t the first Joseph ended up in Egypt because of his dreams? But then, hadn’t he ended up as Pharaoh’s right-hand man because of his skill in dream interpretation?

And don’t we now know that this Joseph’s dreams were not prophesying a quiet life?

Yet he took Mary into his home and brought up the Child with such love that when Jesus came to try to express something of what God was like, he used the childhood word he would have used for Joseph: Abba.

What was in that dream that led a Jewish carpenter to stake the rest of his life on it?

An angel told him not to be afraid - that all these strange circumstances fall within God’s plan - within God’s great Dream for humanity. For a short time the dreamer catches a privileged glimpse into the Dream and for the rest of his life will play his part in its unfolding.

Those we accompany of their journey come with their own dreams - those glimpses that draw them to God - to enquire ‘what does this mean?’ - to question ‘is it real?’ Perhaps our role as catechists is to act as angels - as messengers of God. We listen to their stories - to their dreams - and we say “don’t be afraid. God is with you.” And we share from our experience of living out our part in the Dream. We speak of other players in the Dream - the great and the small - the ones who sought to interpret and the ones who simply gazed in rapt awe upon the mysteries within it. We tell of those who also staked their lives on the Dream - who gave and give their lives for love of it.  We lead them into rites which earth the Dream in sight and sound and touch and taste and smell - for it is the Dream of the Word Incarnate - en-fleshed - a Dream to be lived out in human bodies. We feed the mind - the imagination - for it is here that the Dream takes root and heart.

Like Joseph, we are keepers of the Dream - but not its owners. We have heard our own angels calming our fears and encouraging us to faith - to hope and to love. Joseph’s charge was the protection of the Child Jesus and his mother - ours to retell their stories. His privilege, it is said, to die with Jesus and Mary at his side - ours to know that his adopted son broke the barriers of death and made real the yearning dream of eternal life. His faith was to face the shattered dream of conventional marriage and family life and to trust the greater Dream through long journeys and exile. Ours is to stand with others in their broken dreams and to brave the journeys and the exiles that form our part of the Dream.

For we have glimpsed the Dream. We have sensed that before we were formed in the wombs of our mothers, God was dreaming of us and of the part we would play in the unfolding of his Great Dream. Our parts may be small - but are no less important for that - for without them the Dream is incomplete.In witnessing our faith, others learn to trust the dream planted in them and to let God’s Dream take root - and grow closer to its fulfilment through those who, like Joseph, dare to dream their dreams and to stake their lives on the truth of the greater and eternal Dream.

Monday the 17th December marks a change in the journey towards Christmas or perhaps more correctly it marks a moment when the birth of Jesus comes to meet and remind us that we are all part of his family tree.

Matthew’s Gospel begins with the family tree of Jesus the Christ, son of David, son of Abraham. It is beautifully put together, neatly divided and very often missed out as the list of names has a tendency to confuse rather than inform. Yet it is worth looking at and reflecting on.
Genealogies tell us where and who we come from, they give us a sense of identity and point us in a direction. Really good genealogies include even the skeletons we would like to keep in the cupboards of our lives. A bit like Harry Potter hidden away under the stairs.

The genealogy of Jesus goes a long way to telling us who he is, where he comes from and where he’s going. He is a carries in his genes the blood of Abraham and the blood of David. It is important to remember that when Abraham began his journey from the ancient city of Ur, near modern Basra, he was a gentile. As King Hussein of Jordan reminded us when he spoke at the funeral of his friend Yitzhak Rabin’s funeral “we are all the children of Abraham”. If only we could take on board the implications of that word. The radicalness of us all being children of Abraham is found in the words of John the Baptist when he says “God can raise up children of Abraham from these stones”. See the world through inclusive rather than exclusive eyes.

Jesus also carries the blood of David, the great King,who reigned over the Israel at a time when they were at their most powerful, a kingdom that stretched from Dan to Beersheba. A Kingdom which didn’t last long, became divided and eventually became totally destroyed resulting in the deportation of the people to Babylon. The exile in Babylon makes a key moment in the history of Jesus’ people. When all is lost and there appears to be no future, how can we and even God stay faithful to us?

A truly terrible time. Akin in the gospel story to the disciples facing the crucifixion of Jesus. All is lost, there is no future. How can we go on? Should we give up?

The Exile and the Crucifixion of Jesus amazingly become the great moments of Hope rather than despair. A miracle indeed!

The family tree of Jesus tells us that he carries the whole story of his people and not just his people in a narrow way but the story of all of us. The skeletons in the cupboard come in the names of the women mentioned in the otherwise more normal list of men. They are to say the least foreign and to a greater or lesser extent involved in rather dubious behavior even though they are undoubtedly very strong women who despite the unquestioned difficulties which face them come out with great integrity and wholeness.

Tamar: Who uses all of her cunning and skill to get her rights: Genesis 38
Rahab: of the scarlet cord hanging from the window: Joshua 2
Ruth: The Moabitess who becomes the Great Grandmother of King David: Book of Ruth
Uriah’s wife: The unnamed Bathsheba who is simply taken by David and whose husband, the honourable Uriah the Hittite is murdered on David’s orders. 2 Samuel 11
And finally Mary who is found to be with child by the Holy Spirit and whom Joseph takes home as his wife and who is named Jesus but will be called “Emmanuel” a name which means ‘God is with us’.

The family tree of Jesus is definitely worth more than a glance or two. Also of course our own family tree whether that tree be biological or of our faith journey carries much that can enlighten, enrich and even challenge our lives. It is always good to remember that we are all in one way or another members of the family tree of Jesus.

Most parish enquiry groups are a mixed bag, so I don’t think ours is unique in that we have two unbaptised teenagers and their uncatechised but baptised Mum; a person who was ‘received’ elsewhere two years ago through one-to-one instruction but has never felt she ‘belongs’ to the Catholic church, and although fully initiated, she comes along to share in the catechesis;  then we have a man whose first marriage has just been annulled, now engaged to a young widow parishioner; another is married to a Catholic whose children are now being prepared for Holy Communion and he wants to think about becoming a Catholic himself;  a woman from a Protestant background with a strong personal relationship with God, but no experience of ‘church practice’; and finally, a woman who met one of our neophytes in a cycling club and is interested in finding out more (about the Church, not cycling!)  

When we first started using the Rites of Initiation of Adults we were worried about this sort of mix, and how to meet each person’s needs.  Now we have stopped worrying!  We see it as real ‘treasure’ for the parish.  Using the liturgical year, and the lectionary, as mainstays for our catechesis, we have found that over a period of between 1 and 3 years our catechumens come to a deep understanding and experience of the mysteries at the heart of our faith. We are no longer ‘driven’  by the time constraints of a more programmatic approach - and we would call this more of an ‘apprenticeship’  into the Catholic Christian way of life - the sort envisaged in the Rite itself.

All these people have knocked at our door at odd intervals since last January, and we have trained ourselves (!) to say ‘Come in’ rather than ‘Come back in September’.  We are muddling our way towards an all-year round ‘Come and See’ enquiry.  By about Advent most people have been with us for several months, and we offer the first opportunity for the Rite of Welcome (or Acceptance).  In looking at the Rite together, seeing what is required, it has been discerned (by us and them) that 3 of our 7 enquirers are ready for this step. And that hasn’t been difficult - people know when they are reay, and we can see the change in them over the months - there is an infectious enthusiasm, an openness to the Gospel, eagerness to learn to pray, to be part of community life.  Others are still a little cautious about what this commitment might mean, and want to carry on asking questions.

With the limited resources in our small rural community, the team decided to have the enquiry and catechumenal sessions on the same night.  This means a welcoming drink and chat, followed by prayer time and gospel sharing together, and then split into the two groups for the deepening catechesis, with two members of the team guiding the process in each group, with sponsors there to support.  The main ‘pillar’ of our catechesis in Advent for both groups continues to be the Sunday gathering, with opportunity to reflect afterwards on the experience of the Liturgy - the heady mix of signs and symbols, gestures and vestures, words and silence, is rich enough fayre for any apprentice to feast on! Leading up to Christmas we have some parish activities planned, and the enquirers and catechumens are actively encouraged to take part in community life - special advent liturgies, an outreach to the elderly housebound, a presentation on our Zimbabwe project - all of this is part of the apprenticeship in the Christian way of life, deepening the awareness of Christ in the season of Advent.  Yes, Christ in history, and Christ who will come again, but most importantly, the Christ who comes and is present is so many ways in our every-day C21 lives.

Resources:

• Have a look at RCIA Network website [www.rcia.org.uk]  for Tool Box for discernment among other things;
• The Liturgy Office  for info on lectionary based catechesis and lectio divina.
• www.cliftondiocese.com produce some resources for year-round lectionary based catechesis
• Shrewsbury (Paddy Rylands) and Brentwood (Nuala Gannon) produce weekly  ’lectio divina’ leaflets.