Diana Macalintal and I spent two days in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan recently, where the temperature dipped to minus-20 degrees Farenheit! But while the temperature was frigid outside, the hospitality and enthusiasm were warm inside. We were there to meet with faith formation leaders from across the diocese to discuss ways to inspire active, committed, lifelong faith […]
Nick Wagner and I just landed back at TeamRCIA’s home base in San Jose, California, after spending five full days with 70 RCIA leaders from all over North America. We are exhausted yet energized by what we’ve experienced this past week. The Diocese of Saginaw in Michigan sponsors an annual leadership training for its parish
TeamRCIA goes “international” in Saginaw with 70 RCIA leaders and evangelists
Louise, the RCIA coordinator, was leading a reflection on the third scrutiny with the elect after they had been dismissed. John, one of the elect, began to tear up. Haltingly, he spoke about how Lazarus coming out of the tomb was like when he fell in love with Linda, his wife. “My divorce,” said John,
Annulment do’s and don’ts in the RCIA
In the last few posts, we have been exploring running as a metaphor for living the Christian life. We have been looking at the three levels of training that are necessary to “run” as a Christian: The General Directory for Catechesis identifies these levels as: In this post, we’re going to take a quick look
Six examples of catechesis that happen after RCIA is over
An old African proverb says: Every morning, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a lion or gazelle — when
Do your RCIA catechumens wake up running?
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
RCIA training level one: evangelization
To order your copy of Year-Round Catechumenate, click here. Develop a Year-Round RCIA Process (webinar) Nick Wagner and Diana Macalintal Join us as we look at how moving to a year-round catechumenate process can begin to solve many common problems we encounter in the RCIA. Date: Thursday, October 25, 2012, 2:00p to 3:00p
Instant Review: Year-Round Catechumenate
Let’s try a thought exercise. Pretend for a moment that you are God on the day before Creation. What is going through your mind? Are you perhaps lonely and dreaming of what it would be like to have companions? If you had companions, what would they be like? What would they do? How would you
RCIA catechists: Are you good stewards of imagination?
Every once in a while, I meet an inquirer who is a Type A, goal-driven personality. He or she wants to know how many meetings we will have, how long they will last, and what book he should read. More often, however, it is the RCIA team that is goal-driven. We meet to create a
One month after my 16th birthday—and one month after I got my driver’s license—I made a date with a girl I had a crush on. When I got home from school, I asked my dad if I could borrow his sports car for my date. He said no. We had just had an ice storm,
Five powerful discernment practices for RCIA teams
