Articles
Do you know what the RCIA is waiting for?
The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults is filled with understated little phrases that, if you scratch them a bit, you discover they are packed with meaning. For example, look at the very first sentence: The rite of Christian initiation presented here is designed for adults who, after hearing the mystery of Christ proclaimed, consciously
Do you know what the RCIA is waiting for?
RCIA is flourishing in Western Canada
Ninety enthusiastic RCIA leaders gathered recently in Edmonton, Alberta, to explore the deep structure of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and how we can use that to make disciples. We began on Friday evening and discussed the underlying principles of the RCIA. These six principles can be used to guide any formation process,
RCIA is flourishing in Western Canada
Top five RCIA resource materials for your team
1. Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults Why is this book important? The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults is the authoritative teaching of the church on the purpose and process of initiation. It is the Vatican II vision of the initiation process that answers the mandate of Jesus Christ to go and baptize. What
Top five RCIA resource materials for your team
Get to the heart of the RCIA
In RCIA ministry, there are 1,000 things to do. There are things you want to do, things you should do, things you could do, and things you have to do. Start with what you have to do. Start at the heart. For example, if you are planning a dinner party, you might focus on cleaning
Keeping the Easter Season: Help your catechumenate team “live into” the liturgical year
Catechists for initiation know well that they need to introduce newcomers to the fullness of the Christian calendar. Yet, depending on their own formation, they may not really “live into” the liturgical year very deeply themselves. If this is the case, the presentation of the liturgical year, despite good intentions, may be fairly weak. It’s
Keeping the Easter Season: Help your catechumenate team “live into” the liturgical year
Embrace your RCIA constraints
After “our team is too small,” the next-biggest complaint I hear from RCIA teams is “we don’t have enough.” Enough budget, enough space, enough training, enough resources. I learned a lesson about this a long time ago. My first parish job involved helping with a long-term church renovation project. The renovation took several years because
Embrace your smallness: the advantages of a lean RCIA team
Is your RCIA team too small? Do you long for more help? Do you wonder why more people won’t volunteer? Maybe you need to think about smallness differently. There are advantages to having a small team. Once your team grows past a certain size, you might have to become more of a manager and do
Embrace your smallness: the advantages of a lean RCIA team
What a Catholic nun and a group of Evangelical teenagers taught me about the Bible
I was standing in a bookstore with my mother; we were looking at Bibles. Who knew there were so many? I expected to find “The Bible.” The choices between “leather” and “leatherette” alone were enough to confuse me. We also had to consider paper and hardcover, red-letter and family, amplified and…I don’t know. Quiet? And
What a Catholic nun and a group of Evangelical teenagers taught me about the Bible
