It was well-received by faith communities: A pretty typical review follows:

In The Miracle Maker, the film’s makers have a small miracle of their own: a simple, modest retelling of the gospel story of the ministry and passion of Christ that does little more than present the bare events of the gospel narratives, without adornment or invention, without idiosyncratic “explanations” or editorial spin, without elaborations for the sake of amusement or excitement.

It’s so straightforward, it’s practically revolutionary. Adapting a story for the screen substantially as it was written is a lost art nowadays. It’s easy to see why, in a way; storytellers are just naturally attracted to projects to which they feel they have some creative contribution to make; some special angle or insight to offer.

http://artsandfaith.com/t100/2005/entry.php?film=52

You might wonder about the claim that there is little adornment or invention – remember Tamar – but she operates more as a narrative device to help the viewer engage with the story of Jesus than a distraction or dumbing down.

The Miracle Worker is a rather beautiful creation – most of the narrative shown through stop-go animation; but others through painted cell work. And it is an engaging presentation – with much of the credit for this going to the somewhat stellar cast, led by Ralph Fiennes as Jesus.

We’ve been using it in our parish over the past weeks – a ten minute section as a time, as a way of familiarising the group with the outline of the story of Jesus, and as a ‘safe’ way of giving them matter for discussion reflection. Last year we had a very quiet group who rather resisted discussion. It’s a different group this year but there’s much discussion and I think the film is to credit for that.<

I’d recommend the film as a most useful aid for first evangelisation, for the pre-catechumenal time. And I am happy to share below the  discussion sheets we used to to give you an indication of the sort of conversation starters we’ve used.

• 1-Values.pdf
• 2-Kingdom.pdf
• 3-Call.pdf

From living stones, your chosen people,

You have built an eternal temple to your glory.

Increase the spiritual gifts you have given to your Church,

So that your faithful people may continue to grow

Into the new and eternal Jerusalem.

You are God’s building. By the grace God gave me, I succeeded as an architect and laid the foundations, on which someone else is doing the building. Everyone doing the building must work carefully. For the foundation, nobody can lay any other than the one which has already been laid, that is Jesus Christ.

Didn’t you realise that you were God’s temple and that the Spirit of God was living among you? If anybody should destroy the temple of God, God will destroy him, because the temple of God is sacred; and you are that temple.

(1 Cor 3:9-11,16-17)

As I looked at the readings for this week, I was led in a variety of directions. Rather than trying to make them fit neatly together, I offer a little mosaic of random thoughts. Hopefully something will grab you!

First image:

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been leading a course called Know Your Faith in one of our deaneries. On the way to the parish venue, I pass through a former mining village with a rather dark, bleak looking church building. A notice board outside the building has several peeling signs outside asking “Is this it?” I don’t know if it refers to the church, the village or life in general. But it is a striking image. Every week when I pass, I wonder what the people who pass make of the sign and also what it says about the Christian community that gathers there. Is it a question people ask on arrival or exit?

A course participant a few years back asked those gathered “If our parish closed down tomorrow and nobody went there again, would anybody else notice? Would they miss us? Would it make a difference?”

The images in the readings this week also offer very striking images of the Church. Ezekiel talks to us about the water flowing from the sanctuary, the water which brings life wherever it flows. Bearing new fruit that never withers and never fails. Is that an image which captures the spirit of our Catholic community in whichever parish we find ourselves? Do we bring life to all we meet and all we touch?

If you think about your parish community, which image would capture its spirit?

What image of Church runs through the catechesis you offer? Is it true to life?

Would anyone outside the community notice if nobody gathered there again?

Second image

The second reading is again quite striking – certainly for our ministry of catechesis. We are building on foundations already laid. It is a good reminder that when we meet people, they are already part of God’s building and we aren’t starting from scratch. Something brought them here. Just as Paul reminds us that Jesus Christ is the foundation, the GDC reminds us that the purpose of catechesis is communion and intimacy with Christ. Our ministry is to nurture that communion and intimacy. But we do need to proceed carefully – our role is not to tell people who Christ is but to create the space and opportunity for people to encounter Christ. And that includes us. The problem is, when it comes to Jesus the Christ, we all have our own experience, our own relationship. We need to be careful that we don’t impose or overlay our experience of Christ on someone else. Communion and intimacy grow more through prayer, liturgical experience, and encountering Christ in scripture. Creating these opportunities is skilful, it demands that we must be vulnerable and intimate with each other if we are to be intimate with Christ. We also have to be prepared to encounter Christ anew and for our intimacy with Christ to deepen and be changed. Talking about Christ or what the catechism says is much easier.

Professor David F Ford n his book Self and Salvation talks about the ‘vague face of Christ’. I offer the quotation below. Its hard reading, but well worth the effort

“The most obvious problem regarding the face of Jesus is its apparent vagueness. Nobody can see this face. We do not even have an artistic or photographic evidence of it. So people might imagine any sort of face and project whatever they like onto it.

But the fact that we don know what Jesus looks like might be helpful to us:

“…the undetermination of (Jesus) face is intrinsically connected to both the mystery of God and relationship to every other face. It is the openness of the hospitable face, the good undetermination of not being self-contained. This face is alive with the life and glory of God, so its openness has all the capacity for innovation and surprise which belong to God. It is so oriented to others that knowing and loving this face means being called to know and love them. Its self-effacement constantly urges those who look to it that they should route their seeking the face of Christ through other people. This is the long detour of recognising Christ in others, not one of whom is irrelevant to knowing and loving him…”

(Adapted from David F Ford, Self and Salvation, CUP 1999:172-3).

Our other main area of concern was how to be much more faithful to including, or should it be allowing, the whole parish to take its due role in evangelisation and catechesis. That is, to “be always fully prepared in the pursuit of its apostolic vocation to give help to those who are searching for Christ”. Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, n9.  How do catechists, in the task of assisting an initiation process, avoid at best being the ‘yeast’ consciously working on behalf of the parish and at worst an exclusive group? We need to unveil more the role of parishioners as threshold companions.

If something like monthly opportunities to meet with, question and find welcome from catholics were to happen we had to involve all parishioners. Both objectives went hand in hand. We knew that perceptions and experience of RCIA could develop more with this process.

To begin with the discussion needed to be opened up for fresh dialogue…to start a ripple effect at least. Hence, parishioners representing some ministries, activities and interests, as well as different age groups were personally invited to come together to explore ways in which we could become an even more welcoming parish.

The Spirit of God doesn’t hang around waiting for our ideas to come to fruition, of course. We had thought that our hopes for regular welcome sessions may be our fresh way to being open to inquirers. The week before the exploratory meeting inquirers came seeking! The ventures happily became parallel sooner than anticipated.

Thankfully, when the invited group met they did not want to hear and then just rubber stamp the ideas proposed but responded to the questions raised and added their own. What happened was an appraisal of how welcome is experienced by all and how it could be. We prayed together, reflected and explored suggestions about who the people are whom we want to welcome. The list included: ourselves, new parishioners, the curious, those who may wish to re-discover a once familiar belonging along with those who have a wish to get to know the Lord and us better and may wish to begin a process towards initiation.

What has happened so far is that the discussion continues among parishioners as the group talk with others. The newsletter was used to alert all to the meeting beforehand and to give a brief account of the ongoing nature of the enterprise. One of the most heartening outcomes was a date in diaries to meet again as a steering group – one that is open and inclusive and listens. A decision that will be worked on initially is to use Christmas, with its customary visitors and ‘returnees’, as a first step in offering invitations to ‘come and see’. It is intended to offer a couple of dates for informal gatherings to be planned for soon after Christmas. Similar action was envisaged for Easter and September. We can work more then with suggestions of how this is to be done and explore materials like those available from CASE (Catholic Agency to Support Evangelisation).

Other questions raised were around how welcome is practiced weekly and how to utilise better our restricted entrance space. Work had begun some time ago on compiling information about the parish in the form of a parish booklet and action was decided on bringing that to fruition.

What we learned was a lesson in how listening and dialogue change and open up ideas – perhaps this is an affirmation of the principle that where even ‘two or three gather together…’ [After apologies, we were 12 or 13!]. We also learned something of the need to change pace in order to include the values and perspectives of others. One step at a time…and need for patience while ‘God gives the growth’!

The hope for yearlong group opportunities to welcome potential inquirers had started with two of us. It took a day or so to realise that this had not been rejected but transformed for the moment and may come in the future. However, there is a sense of shared growth, enthusiasm and responsibility that is enlivening.

Ultimately we have the Spirit of God prodding us to honour the pastoral cycle of continuously bringing ideas together, allowing new ones to be born and moving into action: to explore the mystery of Christ. We are conscious that those of us with leadership in Christian initiation in the parish have the task of keeping the vision of the Rite to the fore in all areas of parish life.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with our spirits!

Catherine D

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

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.

Those who have loved and lost know what Good Friday and Holy Saturday feel like – and know too the yearning for hope beyond them.  The Paschal Mystery at the heart of our faith offers that hope and our sharing of it may start with a simple invitation to come to Mass in November and light a candle in memory of a loved one.

Some seeds of ideas …

• This November, draw on some of the traditions of the Church and live them with catechumens and candidates.
• Consider ways of using this season of remembrance as a means of evangelising with those who plan the liturgy.

• Explore appropriate ways for those involved in bereavement support to act as evangelisers.

I love this reading because it is a great reminder that the chances are that their probably never was a community which totally lived the Christian life. This is true both then and now and that we are always in the process of becoming rather than in a state of having arrived. It also acts as a reminder, not to spend time dwelling on the faults and failings of any particular parish community but at the same time to avoid the danger of presenting any given community as the ideal.

At one time I spent a great amount of time visiting schools. I loved the fact that on a regular basis many of the teachers would voice their reflections on the difficulties they experienced yet when we met together as a staff suddenly the school was without fault. The danger of being without fault is, of course, that there is no place to go and nothing to learn.

This danger can also be found in an RCIA Group which can run the risk of acute disappointment when feet of clay are discovered in the community into which the enquirers have been received. St Paul acts as a fantastic reminder that we are always part of a community struggling to become a community. The second reading for the 26^th week of Ordinary Time is worth taking time over:

• Reading quietly,
• Hearing it read by different voices,
• Listening to the words or phrases which struck each person in the group,
• Hearing it again,
• Asking what it says to us now, what’s it inviting us to do.

A whole session could easily be spent letting these words speak:- Words which have come down to us from the first century of the Christian Church and are alive today as when they were written.

Recently I came across a reflection on the power of memory. It pointed out that there are two kinds of memory. Nostalgic Memory which usually confirms where we are and acts like a pat on the back and Dangerous Memory which acts as a critique of where we are and invites change and growth. St Paul’s letter is dangerous memory, particularly when he invites us to take on the mind of Christ Jesus. What kind of a mind is that? Well its one that has the capacity of letting go, of not clinging to power, to hurt, to revenge, to getting one’s own back, to have the capacity to identify with those on the bottom rung of the ladder. The image given is that of the cross.

I know that had I been on the receiving end of torture which led to the cross, I’d be with the two thieves shouting abuse at all in sundry and wanting those who had hurt me to at the very least suffer the same pains as I had suffered, especially being innocent. But that was not the way of Jesus the Christ instead of vengeance, forgiveness, compassion and mercy. “Father forgive them”. Blaming nobody holding all until all are changed.

No wonder we are in the business of helping enquirers and ourselves to continue to grow into the mind of Christ rather than thinking that we have arrived.

Recently I had the pleasure of visiting an ongoing, parish RCIA group which had just taken its summer break and was coming together once more with the expectation of welcoming two brand new enquirers. It’s quite a while since I was directly involved with a ‘live’ parish RCIA group and I had forgotten the sheer joy a good group can generate: the power of its relationships; the adrenalin rush as new people take those first tentative steps of formal enquiry; the exuberance of newly received Catholics; and the wonder at the diversity of gifts active within a community.

After a warm welcome and a gentle round of introductions, the leader for the night invited two new Catholics to share highlights from their own, very recent journey …

And the words just tumbled out, with an evangelising force that I have rarely experienced before. The two new Catholics were very different: but both mesmerising. I watched the reactions of the new enquirers and they were both inspired and affirmed as some of their own questions and hesitancies were named and the strong support of this community was applauded. These two ‘latest arrivals in the vineyard’ witnessed to a radical conversion centred on the Rite of Election and the unfolding story of the Holy Week. The younger of the two, spoke of her fear that next year’s experience of Easter would somehow disappoint and openly rejoiced in the difference this journey and made and was making to her life and the life of her young family. Throughout this testimony, the other parish accompaniers who share responsibility for the group, listened attentively, nodded in recognition and smiled proudly.

On Sunday we were invited to celebrate Home Mission Sunday and to consider our call to evangelise ‘at home’, on our own doorstep and in our own communities. The gospel parable of the labourers in the vineyard reveals a God who sees things differently to us: who is not concerned with the economics of labour, or market forces; but with the scandal of gifts and talents not being used. A God who has not time for idleness and who rewards all efforts with unbounded generosity.

My visit to this lovely, local group reminded me of the importance of the ministry of the newly received especially in the context of peer evangelisation. It prompted me to give thanks for the work of so many parish RCIA groups up and down our countries and for the contribution they make to the mission of the church ‘at home’.

“The eyes of faith behold a wonderful scene: that of a countless number of lay people, both women and men, busy at work in their daily life and activity, oftentimes far from view and quite unacclaimed by the world, unknown to the world’s great personages but nonetheless looked upon in love by the Father, untiring labourers who work in the Lord’s vineyard. Confident and steadfast through the power of God’s grace, these are the humble yet great builders of the Kingdom of God in history.”

CHRISTIFIDELES LAICI  Pope John Paul II1988