Walking the Rite way

Walking round the local mega-supermarket last year in Autumn (part of a well known ‘family’) was like entering a time-warp. In the same aisle were Halloween costumes, Bonfire Night essentials and a few early reminders that Christmas wasn’t too far away. In the milk aisle, the plastic cow was mooing and the plastic chicken clucked next to the eggs. In the background, over the PA system, someone was giving a commentary on life in the store – bargains on aisle 26, Golf Clubs on aisle 2 – oh, and  “Sandra on aisle 24 is 40 today, lets all sing: Happy Birthday too you…”. By the time I got the shower-gel aisle, I was completely overwhelmed with the endless choices – Which water do I want? What kind of bread do I want? What kind of cereal, soap, ….? The experience became somewhat surreal and for a moment, time stood still and I began to feel like I was caught in some weird sci-fi universe in which “resistance is futile”.

So, what has this got to do with RCIA? The key thing is to trying not to overwhelm people all at once with the speed of the process and all that’s on offer.

As many of our parishes will be preparing to welcome new enquirers over the next couple of months maybe we need to be aware that in new situations people can easily feel overwhelmed, carried along by the momentum of the group and end up feeling a like there’s no way out - or that ‘resistance is futile’. We often speak of meeting people ‘where they’re at’ and not where we want them to be. This requires discernment on the part of the enquirer and of catechists – and it requires us as catechists to be aware of any of our own desires and tendencies which might be coming into play. It also means avoiding the temptation of the October – Easter ‘course’. RCIA is a gradual process, not a treadmill. How does the way we work in parishes allow for the different speeds at which enquirers will journey?

We also need to avoid the RCIA curriculum approach – we’re not about putting everything our faith brings to us on offer all at once – like the supermarket shelves. We are about creating space for an encounter with Christ. As Pope Benedict said recently, Christianity is not a moral code or a philosophy, but an encounter with a person. In speaking of Paul on the road to Damascus he said “this change of his life, this transformation of his whole being was not the result of a psychological process, of a maturation or intellectual and moral evolution, but it came from outside: It was not the result of his thinking but of the encounter with Jesus Christ.”

( http://www.zenit.org/article-23546?l=english)

In exploring the implications of conversion for us as Christians today, he said “We can touch Christ’s heart and feel him touch ours. Only in this personal relationship with Christ, only in this encounter with the Risen One do we really become Christians. And in this way, our reason opens, the whole of Christ’s wisdom opens and all the richness of the truth. Therefore, let us pray to the Lord to enlighten us, so that, in our world, he will grant us the encounter with his presence, and thus give us a lively faith, an open heart, and great charity for all, capable of renewing the world.”

( http://www.zenit.org/article-23546?l=english)

As it is probably a general view of this blog that an all year round catechumenate is a good things, if not an easy thing. It seems appropriate that the blog does continues all through the year. As with a year round catechumenate it does not mean that the same level of offering is present but contact and support is kept up.

In this Sunday’s Gospel (Matthew 14:13-21):

• Jesus withdraws to a lonely place
• The crowd catches up with them and he has pity for them
• It is evening and the disciples want to send people away for some food
• Jesus tells the disciples — give them something to eat themselves
• They have 5 loaves and 2 fish — Jesus takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it and gives it to them
• There is more than they wanted.

A Paradox — perhaps

The disciples are told to provide the food themselves and find they have more than enough. Often what we are looking for is already present whether it be new team members or sponsors. The resources, the people we need are present in our parish — in fact they can come from no where else.

However those we seek to evangelise we need to begin to seek from beyond our familiar boundaries. It is worth reflecting on where those who been through the RCIA process in the past have come from and wondering what might be done to widen our ‘net’.

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.

If the Rites of Initiation have a ‘new year’ perhaps it is now. Back in the cycle of Ordinary Time; Easter is now a memory.

One of the difficulties of RCIA is that feeling we could always be more whether it is celebrating more of the rites, providing a year-round catechumenate, identifying sponsors, distinguishing between catechumens and the baptised — and the list could go on.

One of the dangers of this is that it can create a ‘checklist of smugness’ — ‘did you hear he said programme doesn’t everybody know that it’s a process’. My guess is that this is one of reasons that the Rite has not yet found its proper place within the Church in England and Wales. It is that we, the practitioners, can give the impression that it is a complex and secret mystery, a true ‘disciplina arcana’, which other mere mortals may never attain. This is not to say that it isn’t complex but at its heart it requires commitment to a vision of Church, a Church of mission which meets people where they are and invites them to share a journey.

Before this gets too down hearted it is worth noting some basic signs of life:

• diocesan Rites of Election are steadily growing in numbers present
• the Easter Vigil is at the heart of initiation
• there is a gradual shift towards welcoming the unbaptised, something which we may not have conceived 20 years ago.

That’s on a large scale you may have other things you would add from your own experience.

An interesting book I read in the last year was Real Stories of Christian Initiation published by Liturgical Press. It tells the story of five parishes in the States where the authors stay with the RCIA group over a year. The parishes though in the same area are quite diverse in their approach and an impression it corrects is that in the US there are many wonderful parishes doing a wonderful RCIA. Here are 5 ordinary parishes doing there best; none of them were perfect (it might even inspire the ‘checklist of smugness’ in places!). What makes the book interesting though is that these are ‘real stories’. Sometimes what we need is not to be told how to do something but to see that it is possible. This was particularly true about the parish that offered what is referred to as the ‘3 ring circus’ — recognising that the needs of enquirers, catechumens and the elect are different and have to be met in different approaches.

It was question of the dismissal of catechumens that I found most surprising. All five of the parishes dismissed their catechumens after the Liturgy of the Word even if this meant only during Advent and Lent. This was another example of seeing that it is possible. More than that was the implication that this was normative practice — a necessary part of RCIA — if you ain’t dismissing you ain’t doing RCIA. In England and Wales my impression is that for the majority of parishes (though not all) dismissal of the catechumens is paragraph quickly passed over as ‘complex’ and not how we do things here.

Throughout this entry I have mentioned aspects of the Rite that make it what it is: not just dismissal but distinguishing between catechumens and the baptised, responding to the needs of enquirers when they come etc. There are probably many others my question is which one might you pick as your ‘new year’s resolution’. Whatever it is it may take a year to develop: understanding as team why and working what might be involved, maybe finding new people or communicating with others. Through such a process you will grow and you will better respond to the needs of those who come to you — the journey will be richer as you discover new paths.