The RCIA is a training process. If we look at other training processes, we begin to see how the RCIA is perfectly designed to train seekers in the Christian life (see RCIA 75 and Decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity, 14).

Three levels of training

Let’s take running for example. If you are a running coach, you find yourself training people at different levels. Someone who has never run before needs to be convinced that they should be exercising regularly. People who want to run, but don’t know how to get started, need an introductory training program. Everyone else is already a “runner.” Maybe they jog on weekends, or maybe they run track competitively.  Maybe they used to run and quit for a while. All of these people are runners, even though their skill and commitment levels vary.

Training for Christian living has similar levels. The General Directory for Catechesis identifies these levels as:

• Primary or first proclamation and catechesis (evangelization)
• Catechesis at the service of Christian initiation (initiatory catechesis)
• Catechesis at the service of ongoing formation in the faith (lifelong catechesis)

To learn more about how the RCIA uses levels of training, watch the recording of our online workshop, “Learn how to use the RCIA to train for Christian life.” Click here for more information.

RCIA training levels

You can no doubt already see how the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults is designed as a training program for each of these levels.

The first period of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults is the Period of Evangelization and Precatechumenate. This entire period is designed to introduce people to Jesus Christ and the benefits of living a Christian lifestyle. We Catholics can be a little shy about this. We don’t want to seem to impose our beliefs on anyone. We have to get over ourselves a little bit when it comes to evangelization. We have a great gift, and we are obligated to share it. It is not a burden to bring love, liberation, and peace to those who need it.

To learn more about how the RCIA trains evangelists, watch the recording of our online workshop, “Learn how to use the RCIA to train for Christian life.” Click here for more information.

Fitness coaches are not shy about telling complete strangers how they will benefit from regular exercise. We have to stop being shy about telling people how they will benefit from having Christ in their lives.

Practical steps for the first period of the RCIA

• If your current period of evangelization and precatechumenate has a set start date (for example, the first week in September every year), proclaim a year of liberation. Free your evangelization process from the calendar. Make every day of the year a day for announcing the good news of Jesus Christ to those who most need to hear it.
• Starting this September (or whenever your Period of Evangelization and Precatechumenate is scheduled to start), determine that you will accept inquirers any day of the year from that day forward. Think of inquirers who come later in the year as gifts from the Holy Spirit. You cannot turn inquirers away.
• Starting this September (or whenever your Period of Evangelization and Precatechumenate is scheduled to start), add a quarterly or monthly Questions and Answers night to the parish calendar. Be available for seekers who want to learn more about the Catholic Church.
• As a team, read together paragraphs 36-38 and paragraph 42 of the RCIA. Ask yourselves if your evangelization and precatechumenate period is a true training process or if it is classroom education program.
• As a team, read together paragraph 9 of the RCIA. Ask yourselves how you can involve the parish more deeply in the Period of Evangelization and Precatechumenate.
• Research creative ways to evangelize.  Start with Paulist Evangelization Ministries, EvangelismCoach.org, and Church of the Nativity in Timonium, Maryland. Also, click here to read “Three extremely easy evangelization skills every RCIA team can master”.

What’s next?

In a future post, we’ll look at the next two levels of training. For now, however, please share your own experience. How do you evangelize? What does the period of evangelization look like in your parish? Is it linked to the calendar or does it happen every day of the year?