As a way to move to a year-round process, I recommended last time that you should throw out your syllabus. And while I feel there’s good reasons for doing this, it does create something of a problem: What do I do now? How do I convey to our catechumens and candidates everything they need to […]
Is your RCIA open all year-round? Let the liturgical seasons be your guide (Part 1)
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
Should baptized candidates celebrate their sacraments at the Easter Vigil? Probably not, but there are exceptions. The National Statues for the Catechumenate tell us that baptized candidates should not celebrate their sacraments at the Easter Vigil so there won’t be any confusion between them and those who are being baptized (see no. 33). Within the
Six common RCIA questions about Easter Vigil
A question that keeps popping up for RCIA teams is how to get more parishioners involved in the initiation process. The best answer to this is the liturgy. If you think of where most of the parish gathers most often, it is the Sunday liturgy. So it makes sense that would be the place to
How to use the power of the liturgy to involve your parishioners in the RCIA
I teach an eight-evening course on liturgy in my diocese every year. The students are parish volunteers who serve on liturgy planning committees or in music ministry or in some other pastoral role. They show up on the first night with their empty vessels, expecting me to fill them to the brim with liturgical knowledge.
Is your RCIA team just filling vessels?
Some time ago, I was giving a workshop on how parishes could improve their liturgy. A man in the back row stood up and told us all that we were wasting our time. As long as we had a validly ordained priest who was consecrating the Body and Blood of Jesus, that was all that
Four reasons Mass matters for your catechumens
The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults intends the period of the catechumenate to be “aimed at training [the catechumens] in the Christian life” (RCIA 75). An essential component of that training is our liturgical life. Our participation in the worship of the church is so important that it is the first reform that was
How to teach catechumens the meaning of liturgy
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?
Diana and I recently attended the 2014 Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions, and we heard a presentation by Fr. Paul Turner on the current status of the implementation of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults in the United States. Fr. Turner was commenting on a report by the Center for Applied Research in the
How to know what we can (and should) adapt in the RCIA rites
Last Sunday, the pastor of the church I was visiting stood up during the announcements and asked everyone to exchange name tags after we finished the closing song. The point, he said, was to find someone we did not know, introduce ourselves, and share one thing we would like the other person to pray for
Use the liturgy to teach RCIA catechumens how to live
