1: Catechumens have a job to do The reason catechumens are dismissed for the Mass after the homily is not because they cannot yet share in Communion. It is because they have a specific role in the worshipping assembly. As soon as a person enters the order of catechumens, they have two important liturgical responsibilities. […]
Five things to know about dismissals
There are two dismissals in the Sunday liturgy. The one Catholics are most familiar with is the second one, the dismissal of the faithful at the end of Mass. The other is becoming better known. That is the dismissal of the catechumens at the end of the Liturgy of the word. Both dismissals are sometimes
The symbolic importance of the RCIA dismissal
Your catechumens had been participating in the Liturgy of the Word for months, maybe even for years, and they pretty much know the routine. But now that they’re neophytes and are no longer dismissed from the Mass after the homily, some of them might be feeling a little lost in their new experience of the
How neophytes learn to participate in the Mass
One article that has received a lot of comments here on TeamRCIA is “Why dismiss the catechumens before Jesus becomes present?” (Scroll down to the end of the article at the link to see all the comments so far!) Dismissal is such an integral part of the formation of catechumens that the rite lists it as one of
Looking again at why the dismissal is important
At a recent TeamRCIA Institute, a participant was flummoxed about the dismissal of the catechumens after the homily. Why, he wanted to know, would we dismiss people who are learning about Jesus before Jesus is made present in the Mass (at the moment of consecration)? Free download: 8 ways to make mystagogy work in your
Why dismiss the catechumens before Jesus becomes present?
After you dismiss the catechumens from the liturgy, what happens? I’ve heard lots of folks refer to “dismissal catechesis.” Are you doing catechesis during the dismissal session? Are you doing breaking open of the word? Do you ever “break open” anything besides the word—the opening prayer or the opening song, for example? Click here for
What happens during dismissal?
Here is a quote that might surprise you: If the eucharist is to be celebrated, the catechumens are normally dismissed at this point…. Why is that surprising, you might wonder. Isn’t it normal to dismiss catechumens before the Eucharist? It is surprising, for some of us, because the statement comes at the end of the
A powerful conversion process for baptized candidates in the RCIA
When I first heard about the dismissal of the catechumens from the Sunday Mass, it was an “I-could-have-had-a-V8-smack-on-the-forehead” moment. I instantly saw the catechetical value for parish communities. If mid-pew Catholics saw people processing out of church in the middle of Mass, what would they think? How would they deal with the disruption? Who would
Time to recover the prophetic power of the RCIA dismissal
The very first time I heard about the RCIA was at a diocesan information meeting in St. Louis in 1982. I don’t remember a lot about the meeting, but the one thing that really grabbed my attention was when the presenter said that we would be dismissing the catechumens from Mass after the homily. At
Five things your RCIA team may not know about the dismissal
