Q: Is there a possibility that a seeker would come to faith before the Easter Vigil… and how do you proceed with that scenario? A: This is a great question. The answer is a bit complicated, but if we dig a little deeper into the question, the answer becomes simpler. There is a caveat however. […]
Can RCIA seekers celebrate their sacraments outside of the Easter Vigil?
Inspired by an angel, Philip went out onto the road to preach. While on the road, he met a court official from Ethiopia. The Ethiopian was reading from the prophet Isaiah, but he didn’t understand what he was reading. Philip began to explain it to him and also to proclaim the good news about Jesus.
Why a year-round RCIA is important for baptized seekers
Let’s be honest—many of our parishes do a poor job of connecting with and communicating with their communities. Not just with regular their parishioners, but especially with those whom we want to attract and bring into our communities—our seekers, our catechumens, and our candidates. One of the inadvertent gifts of COVID-19 was bring this challenge
Q: We have the people, support, space, everything needed to make a continuous initiation process happen. But exactly how do we proceed with the actual logistics of having people at different places, and how you speak to them individually but also as a group? How do you integrate new people without repeating yourself over and
Q&A: Multiple seekers on the journey of faith—how to start a year-round RCIA
Like all of you I’ve been hard at work at finding ways to keep our initiation processes going while our churches have been closed and social distancing has become the norm. But even as challenging as that can be, the greater challenge has been working with those elect and candidates who were expecting to be
Is your RCIA open all year-round? Managing expectations in a changing world
The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults envisions the initiation process as a journey of faith (see RCIA 1). As soon as a seeker takes the first step on that journey, the reality of time changes. This shift in time, however, is not always obvious to either the seeker or the parish initiation team. Often,
Two kinds of time in an ongoing (year-round) initiation process
At our recent Community Chat on moving to a year-round initiation process, it seemed there were two types of comments. On the one hand, lots of folks were excited about moving to a continuous initiation process and couldn’t wait to get started. On the other hand, while also excited, other folks were a bit stumped
Rethinking the core Catholic content as we move to ongoing initiation (year-round RCIA)
Fr. John Farley, a priest in the San Diego diocese, commented on our video, “RCIA, the Triduum, and Coronavirus.” Based on the guidelines in the Ceremonial of Bishops and in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, he proposed a possible schedule for celebrating the rites of initiation at a time later this year. In
An RCIA calendar for celebrating the initiation rites outside the usual times
Many parishes organize their catechumenate ministry on a school-year model. While this is not the vision of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, it is nevertheless a reality in many communities. However, the isolation and distancing requirements of the coronavirus outbreak have disrupted that model. And now, we’re feeling a little panicked. What in
What do RCIA teams do with the elect now that baptisms are postponed?
Training is an essential part of every profession. Not only do many professions require a certificate or college degree, but many professions and trades are tested and monitored by state boards. Further, many of these professions require ongoing training or the earning of CEU’s (Continuing Education Units) in order to maintain their credentials. Why all
Is your RCIA open all year-round? Team training is key
