Leading RCIA
I thought that I'd share a bit about one thing that's going on in my life right now.
One of my long-term "career" goals is to lead the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults for a Catholic parish -- perhaps even a diocese. Currently I'm a sponsor and catechist for RCIA at my parish, the Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes, which is a significant start. My candidate -- coming from the Nazarene denomination -- works unusual hours so he often cannot come to RCIA classes on Sundays. So, Sr. Judith, the director, has entrusted me to see to his initiation when he can't come on Sundays. Consequently, he and I are meeting privately this evening to make up for two missed classes.
RCIA is actually made up of several rites, the primary rites being intended for unbaptized adults seeking Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist in the Catholic Church. These people are called catechumens are ordinarly receive all three sacraments on the great Easter Vigil. But most people, in my experience, who go through RCIA have already been baptized in a Protestant denomination and so instead go through the rites appropriate for those seeking "full communion" with the Catholic Church, i.e. Penance, Confirmation, and Eucharist. These people are called candidates and their experience is (supposed to be) very different from that of catechumens, since they are already Christians who, hopefully, know and live the Gospel.
Unfortunately, as actually practiced, candidates are often treated like catechumens, which is insulting and time-wasting. There is no reason to belabor the essentials of Chrisitanity to people that already know them. Consequently, I am determined to make sure that when my candidate and I meet privately, I don't waste his time telling him stuff he already knows and believes. As a result, I am expecting that tonight we will only spend a small amount of time talking about the creation of humanity and the fall and a lot more time discussing differences between Protestantism and Catholicism and apologetic questions -- something he expressly told me he wants to talk about. So I guess that I'd better be ready to explain -- and help him to learn how to explain to those questioning him -- purgatory, Mary, and the Pope, along with whatever else he finds difficult about Catholicism. I'm prepared a stack of resources to help me in this and hopefully they won't intimidate him, as panache62 fears.
On a related note, Sr. Judith has entrusted an upcoming class to me! I'm very excited as it will be my first time teaching. The topic: Jesus Christ (the part of the Creed that begins: "We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ..."). How to explain Jesus Christ in an hour? Of course, everything we teach in RCIA is the teaching of Christ, but in this instance I'll be teaching what Christ taught about himself. I've decided to make up a list of Bible verses pertinent to the topic and correlate it with a list of major points about who Jesus is. I'm going to start with Jesus' question in Mt., "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?", then have people answer it. After that I will give St. Peter's response, "You are the Christ...", then use their answers as a jumping-off point for engaging my list of points and verses. In accordance with what I said above about not telling people what they already know, I will try to focus on those things they seem to be lacking in. If everyone already knows it, then I don't know what I'll do. A song and dance, perhaps.
One of my long-term "career" goals is to lead the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults for a Catholic parish -- perhaps even a diocese. Currently I'm a sponsor and catechist for RCIA at my parish, the Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes, which is a significant start. My candidate -- coming from the Nazarene denomination -- works unusual hours so he often cannot come to RCIA classes on Sundays. So, Sr. Judith, the director, has entrusted me to see to his initiation when he can't come on Sundays. Consequently, he and I are meeting privately this evening to make up for two missed classes.
RCIA is actually made up of several rites, the primary rites being intended for unbaptized adults seeking Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist in the Catholic Church. These people are called catechumens are ordinarly receive all three sacraments on the great Easter Vigil. But most people, in my experience, who go through RCIA have already been baptized in a Protestant denomination and so instead go through the rites appropriate for those seeking "full communion" with the Catholic Church, i.e. Penance, Confirmation, and Eucharist. These people are called candidates and their experience is (supposed to be) very different from that of catechumens, since they are already Christians who, hopefully, know and live the Gospel.
Unfortunately, as actually practiced, candidates are often treated like catechumens, which is insulting and time-wasting. There is no reason to belabor the essentials of Chrisitanity to people that already know them. Consequently, I am determined to make sure that when my candidate and I meet privately, I don't waste his time telling him stuff he already knows and believes. As a result, I am expecting that tonight we will only spend a small amount of time talking about the creation of humanity and the fall and a lot more time discussing differences between Protestantism and Catholicism and apologetic questions -- something he expressly told me he wants to talk about. So I guess that I'd better be ready to explain -- and help him to learn how to explain to those questioning him -- purgatory, Mary, and the Pope, along with whatever else he finds difficult about Catholicism. I'm prepared a stack of resources to help me in this and hopefully they won't intimidate him, as panache62 fears.
On a related note, Sr. Judith has entrusted an upcoming class to me! I'm very excited as it will be my first time teaching. The topic: Jesus Christ (the part of the Creed that begins: "We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ..."). How to explain Jesus Christ in an hour? Of course, everything we teach in RCIA is the teaching of Christ, but in this instance I'll be teaching what Christ taught about himself. I've decided to make up a list of Bible verses pertinent to the topic and correlate it with a list of major points about who Jesus is. I'm going to start with Jesus' question in Mt., "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?", then have people answer it. After that I will give St. Peter's response, "You are the Christ...", then use their answers as a jumping-off point for engaging my list of points and verses. In accordance with what I said above about not telling people what they already know, I will try to focus on those things they seem to be lacking in. If everyone already knows it, then I don't know what I'll do. A song and dance, perhaps.