In our Diocese of San Jose, we have dancing books for the Rite of Election. Now hold on before you start groaning as you imagine young waifs in tights and leotards flitting about the altar. Our Scriptural tradition has many stories of dancing—but the kind of dancing that comes out of ordinary, everyday people. David […]
Have you ever seen dancing books at the Rite of Election?
I read a blog post on delegating that has some interesting ideas for busy RCIA team leaders. Sometimes the leader is the whole team, and there is no one to delegate tasks to. Michael Hyatt lists seven strategies for distributing or reducing your workload. I’m going to reframe three of them for the work we
3 ways to delegate when you have no RCIA team
Keep your eyes open when you attend the Rite of Election. Notice what happens. Here are ten questions (in no particular order) to help you sharpen your observations. 1. Did each catechumen have a godparent? They should. The godparents have an important role in this rite. No group godparents, please. Each catchumen should have somebody
Ten Questions about the RCIA Election Rite
Virtual Learning Community posted an excellent video of Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk speaking about the faith of the church. Archbishop Pilarczyk makes the claim that we can give a full summary of everything the church teaches in less than five minutes. And then he goes on to prove it! Don’t miss this excellent catechist in action.
Church teaching in less than five minutes
What is the meaning of the symbol of ashes on Ash Wednesday and where do the ashes come from? What are the fasting regulations for Lent? Should we empty the baptismal font for Lent? But aren’t we fasting from water during Lent? Like Jesus did in the desert? Who signs the Book of the Elect?
17 frequently asked questions about Lent
There is a great and somewhat ironic convergence happening in our calendars. In the midst of the earthquake that struck Haiti on January 13, 2010, the Church celebrated National Migration Week (January 3-9), starting on the Feast of the Epiphany, a week when it focused on the situation of migrants and refugees. The Church also
A prayer for dreamers amid the nightmare in Haiti
Diana Macalintal and I will be copresenting a workshop in Orlando this weekend at the Fashion Me a People conference. Our topic is the Liturgy of the Word as a source of catechesis. Our goal is to help participants learn techniques for drawing out and extending the catechetical content of the Liturgy of the Word.
Liturgy as source of catechesis
For Christmas, a friend gave me The Complete Robuchon, which is 800 recipes for “French home cooking for the way we live now.” My friend and I both love to cook, although she is much more serious about it than I am. She takes classes from important chefs, stocks her pantry with sea salts from
A French chef’s guide to the RCIA
You might think the week after Christmas Day is a little early to be talking about emptying the baptismal font. Actually, it’s late. I walked into a local church during the fourth week of Advent to see what they had done with their environment. You guessed it. The baptismal font was bone dry and covered
Seven reasons you should never empty the baptismal font
This is a guest post from Father Robert Duggan. It’s one of the longer posts we’ve featured on the site, but it is well worth your time. Father Bob is a presbyter of the Archdiocese of Washington, DC, and a frequent speaker and author on topics related to Christian initiation and liturgical and sacramental renewal.
RCIA: Program or process? And does it matter?
