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6 reasons you need to read the RCIA

This is going to shock you. I don’t like to do it, but somebody has to tell you. There are a few of you out there who are “doing the RCIA” without having read the book!

What book? The RCIA. The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. The book.



How people learn how to do the rite
So if you haven’t read the book, how do you know what to do? Here are the top six answers people give. (Okay, I don’t really know if these are the top six, but they are the ones I hear all the time.)

1. Gloria taught me. (Gloria is the former RCIA team coordinator or DRE or Very Important Person in the parish.)
2. Father taught me. (See “Gloria” above.)
3. I went to a workshop.
4. I read a book by a Very Important Person.
5. I read a magazine article by a Very Important Person who didn’t have time to write a whole book.
6. I went through the RCIA myself, and I just do what they did to me.

Now, again, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but relying on Gloria (or any of the other resources on the list) is not enough. How do you know Gloria was implementing the full vision of the rite? How do you know if she ever read the book? How do you know if what she was doing is really what the rite (the church) asks us to do? Only one way. Gotta read the book!

Why people don't read the RCIA
So then, let’s look at the top six reasons most catechumenate team members have not read the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.

1. It’s really long and boring.
2. That’s it. There are no more reasons.

I get that. I’m sorry it’s long and boring. I wish somebody would write a “plain English” version of it. But you still have to read it. Here’s why.

1. Reading the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults is the only way to understand the big picture.

This is a big deal. The RCIA process is meant to help people through a profound conversion experience. It is the most important thing that will ever happen to them. It’s more important than getting married. It’s more important than having a baby. It’s more important than losing your job. It’s more important than losing a loved one. “Conversion” means meeting Jesus for the first time and giving your life over to the mission of the Gospel. Everything else in life is…well, everything else. So if it is that big of a deal, all of us who serve as catechumenate ministers have to be committed to understanding as much as we can about how the process works. And there is only one way to do that. You gotta read the book.

2. Reading the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults is the only way to understand the small picture.

One reason the RCIA is “really long and boring” (besides the lack of a good editor) is there is no “one size fits all” conversion process. Each person is different and each faith journey is different. Catechumenate teams have to be flexible and versatile in adapting the rite to the specific needs of each individual. There is only one way to know what all the possible variations and adaptations are. You gotta read the book.

3. Reading the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults is the only way to speak with authority.

If you have spent any time at all in initiation ministry, you have probably been challenged about something you are doing. Someone doesn’t think he or she needs to come to all the sessions. Someone on the staff, maybe the pastor, doesn’t think all the steps of the rite are necessary. Someone on the team thinks we are imposing too much on the initiates. Someone thinks this is all fine and good for people over 18 but it doesn’t apply to children. How do you stand your ground if your source of authority is “some workshop I went to last year”? In order to speak with the voice of the church and to ensure the best possible pastoral practice in your parish, you gotta read the book.

4. Reading the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults is the only way to be able to train new team members.

Right off the bat, you want to empower the members of the catechumenate team to understand the vision of the church and to be able to implement the fullness of that vision in your parish. Only one way to do that. (Fill in blank here.) You _____ ____ ___ ____.

5. Reading the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults is the only way to remember what you forgot.

I have read my copy of the rite so many times the cover fell off. I got my current copy almost 20 years ago, and I’m still reading it. Every time I read it, I see something or remember something that hadn’t stuck in my head before. Now, those of you that have more brain cells than I (which is most of you) won’t miss or forget as much as I do. But you will miss some things and forget some things nonetheless. In order to really absorb the subtleties, fine points, and beauty of the rite, you need to read it. Lots.

6. Reading the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults is the only way to get me and people like me to stop bugging you.

I don’t want to bug you. I really don’t. I know you are busy. But think of this as a discipline. Like playing the piano. Or daily prayer. This ministry is something we were called to do, and part of the call is self-sacrifice. Let’s just put on your calendar a 15 minute time slot everyday when you will sit down in a comfortable chair with a nice cup of tea and read a page or two of the rite. For now, let’s just say you are committing to reading the introduction and Part I: Christian Initiation of Adults. In my version of the rite, that’s 152 pages. If you read two pages a day, that’s about 11 weeks. You have to read the small red type too, so no cheating. But some pages are mostly blank so that makes up for it. You can write notes on those pages.

I can help. E-mail me
Once you start reading it, I’ll bet you won’t find it as boring as you thought. Some parts are really, really exciting. Even so, some parts are also really, really confusing. It’s like my high school chemistry text book in places. I had to read and re-read some paragraphs to get it. If you hit one of those spots and need some help, e-mail me. I’ll be glad to help out. And if I can’t help, I’ll find someone who can. Good luck. Let me know how it goes. (If you don't have a copy, click here to order one.)

The Business of RCIA

In Teaching as a Subversive Activity, Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner make some interesting observations that could very well apply to initiation catechists. For example:

The trouble is that most teachers have the idea that they are in some other sort of business. Some believe, for example, that they are in the “information dissemination” business....

There are some teachers who think they are in the “transmission of our cultural heritage” business....

Unless our schools can switch to the right business, their clientele will either go elsewhere (as many are doing) or go into a severe case of “future shock”....

What if the authors had been talking about catechists and churches instead of teachers and schools? Would their observations strike a chord? Do we believe we are transmitting information or a cultural heritage to the catechumens? If that's not the business we should be in, what is?

Our business
There is a number out there that bothers me. The number is 50. (And not just because this year will be my 50th birthday!) About 50 percent of those baptized at the Easter Vigil do not remain active in their parishes. On the one hand, that's good news. That's about 10 percent higher than cradle Catholics. On the other hand, in what other parts of our lives do we accept a 50 percent failure rate?

And we don't really accept the failure here either. We tend to say things like, we told them this was a lifelong commitment, and we told them community life was central to Catholicism, and we told them this was initiation not graduation.

Some do accept the failure and respond by saying things like, I guess we didn't tell them enough, or maybe we didn't tell them often enough, or maybe we didn't go into enough detail.

Either response is missing the point. We are not in the information business. We are in the conversion business. Our job is to convert hearts to Jesus. If the catechumens are not remaining committed, it is because their conversion we weak or non-existent.

Conversion never happens through the transmission of information or the transmission of a cultural heritage. Conversion happens when the Holy Spirit quickens the heart of a seeker and the Christian community surrounds that person with love. Conversion happens through relationship, not education.

We need to get down to business for the sake of the 50.

Handy handouts on RCIA

QI'm trying to find some sort of brochure or flyer to be able to hand out to anyone who's interested, to explain what RCIA is. Do you know where I could find something?

ASt. Anthony Messenger Press publishes a "Catholic Update" that is just the thing you are looking for. It is titled "An New Look at the RCIA," and it is written by Rita Burns Senseman. Rita is a terrific writer and knows just about everything there is to know about RCIA. Click here for more info.

For some handouts that are a little more in-depth, maybe for the team, you might want to check out the "Seek the Living God" series by J. Michael McMahon. You can see a sample here.

Also take a look at "How Does a Person Become Catholic" from Liturgy Training Publications.

Finally, check out this summary I wrote, posted here.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

Teaching secrets from the ancient church

Love of God does not spring from study. It is not from others, after all, that we learn to enjoy the light, to yearn for life, and to love our parents and those who nourish us. Much less, then, does love of God arise from external teaching. Rather, as soon as people exist they have the germ of reason, and this contains the power and impulse to love. In the school of divine instruction, therefore, we but cultivate this power and wisely nourish it; thus, with God's help, it is brought to full development. For our part, we shall endeavor here, as far as the Holy Spirit enables us, to fan into flame this spark of love for God that is hidden within you.

From the Longer Rules by St. Basil the Great (as cited in Benedictine Daily Prayer, p. 521)

Wickedness and grace

Sometimes a sense of futility creeps upon us. We despair that “they don’t come back for mystagogy.” Or we fret that “we can’t find enough sponsors.” We bemoan the lack of participation among the members of the assembly. And now the diocese wants us to run the catechumenate “year round” when we are already stretched too thin.

How do we even begin to think about solving these and similar problems? If you are like me, you fantasize that there is “an answer” out there. Some parish or some person smarter or more experienced than I am must have solved all this already. But down deep, we know that really is a fantasy, don’t we?

Wicked problems

10 characteristics of wicked problems

1. There is no definitive formulation of a wicked problem
2. Wicked problems have no stopping rule
3. Solutions to wicked problems are not true-or-false, but good-or-bad
4. There is no immediate and no ultimate test of a solution to a wicked problem
5. Every solution to a wicked problem is a "one-shot operation"; because there is no opportunity to learn by trial-and-error, every attempt counts significantly
6. Wicked problems do not have an enumerable (or an exhaustively describable) set of potential solutions, nor is there a well-described set of permissible operations that may be incorporated into the plan
7. Every wicked problem is essentially unique
8. Every wicked problem can be considered to be a symptom of another problem
9. The existence of a discrepancy representing a wicked problem can be explained in numerous ways. The choice of explanation determines the nature of the problem's resolution
10. The planner has no right to be wrong (Planners are liable for the consequences of the actions they generate)

These kinds of problems are what Horst Rittle, a pioneering theorist of design and planning, and late professor at the University of California, Berkeley, called "wicked problems." Rittle figured out that many problems cannot be solved by “experts” dropping in and delivering a ten-point plan, even if they have experience in your specific area of difficulty. This is, in fact, the very type of solution most of us go looking for. We go to a workshop or buy a book or hire a speaker to just tell us what to do. The thing that makes your problem “wicked” is there is no one solution. And each potential solution raises other problems. And, this is really key, each problem is unique. The reason your neophytes don’t come back for mystagogy is essentially different than the reason other neophytes in other parishes don’t come back. In fact, the reasons among your own neophytes are all unique as well.

Jim Conklin, author of Dialogue Mapping: Creating Shared Understanding of Wicked Problems, went on to develop Rittle’s ideas further. Conklin says wicked problems have these characteristics:

1. The problem is not understood until after formulation of a solution.
2. Stakeholders have radically different world views and different frames for understanding the problem.
3. Constraints and resources to solve the problem change over time.
4. The problem is never solved.

Don’t you just hate that last one?

There is no "solution"

But think about it for a minute. Isn’t the lack of a “solution” the very thing that makes the conversion process an encounter with grace? The catechumenate is not a puzzle. There is no final answer. It is a mystery—a mystery of love. How do we solve that mystery? We can’t. We can only enter into it.

Conklin says:

Because of social complexity, solving a wicked problem is fundamentally a social process. Having a few brilliant people or the latest project management technology is no longer sufficient.

We might paraphrase that to say that because of the radical, loving relationship of the Father and the Son (in which we are immersed through the power of the Holy Spirit), solving a wicked problem is fundamentally an ecclesial process. Having a few brilliant theologians or RCIA experts is insufficient.

The answer is the community

In other words, the initiation process, from start to finish

…is the responsibility of all the baptized. Therefore the community must always be fully prepared in the pursuit of its apostolic vocation to give help to those who are searching for Christ…. Hence, the entire community must help the candidates and the catechumens throughout the process of initiation. (RCIA 9)

This means that all the multiple, complex, disjointed, busy and distracted parts of the Body of Christ must share a commitment to entering into the messy process of conversion together (with each other and with the catechumens). And they must share a commitment to love and support one another in that process. This won’t “solve the problem.” But it will bring us all more fully into the love of Christ.

[This post was inspired by Jim McGee. See his post on Solving puzzles or framing mysteries for more information on wicked problems.]

Awe Inspiring Rites?

I recently conducted a catechetical session for a parish that is planning to build a new baptismal font. To begin, I asked those who came—a rather large group of about ninety adults and teenagers—to recall a memorable experience of baptism they either took part in or witnessed. Everybody had one! They shared warm, enthusiastic memories with each other, and some of the stories were shared with the large group too. This was clearly a group of people who loved their parish and had a high regard for the sacraments and for the church.

Their response to the next exercise, however, was telling. I asked for a show of hands in answer to the following questions: What stood out in their memory? The people? The action? The words? The emotions? The water? Hands went up for each and every item—except the water. The water did not stand out for anybody in that room, among all the good memories they cherished.

Clearly, they needed a new font.

But their response to the exercise got me thinking. Where are our powerful memories of baptismal water—that primary “sign” of the foundational sacrament of the whole Christian life? If our sacramental system is going to survive in this century as a living organism and not just a museum piece, there has to be a core of real-life experience at the center of it. Are we etching the sacraments in the deep places of the soul, in today’s church?

Water has been for me the centerpiece of a whole liturgical experience that qualifies as “awe-inspiring” or “spine-tingling” as Edward Yarnold, SJ, once called it. I can still see the light shimmering on the water of the glorious font at St. Paul the Apostle church in New York as we gathered around it for Easter Vigil baptisms. The completely drenched appearance of the newly-baptized at St. John Cathedral in Milwaukee comes to my mind; I can see them dripping, smiling, triumphant. I remember the astonishing depths of the water in which my husband-to-be was baptized at St. Ignatius Loyola church in New York—he was immersed in the water three times, each time diving in deeper than the last, until finally the pastor and sponsor thought they’d lost him! These are powerful memories. For me, the stories of creation and crossing the Red sea found a touchstone in the waters of these fonts—waters that were breathtakingly beautiful, dangerous, and a place where miracles happen.

You don’t get the same effect standing around a punch bowl. Yet I’m afraid that something the size of a punchbowl, or even smaller, is what most Catholics call the font.

What do you remember of baptism at this year’s Easter Vigil?

Catechetical Session, Easter 6C

May 13, 2007

Sixth Sunday of Easter, C

Core beliefs

You can discuss one or more of these teachings of the church today. Use your powers of discernment to make your choice based on three criteria:

1. What have the catechumens been asking about?
   
2. What issues came up during the dismissal reflections?
   
3. What, in your opinion, needs clarification for the catechumens?

• Apostolic nature of the church
  
• The Holy Trinity
  
• The Mystical Body of Christ

Readings

Acts 15: 1-2, 22-29
Revelation 21: 10-14, 22-23
John 14: 23-29

Catechist Wisdom

Strengthen your wisdom powers by reflecting on the readings yourself before the catechetical session.

The reading from Acts today describes one of the first crises the early church had to deal with. Some among them believed that Gentiles seeking baptism must first submit to the Mosaic practice of circumcision. Paul and Barnabas, among others, believed there was no need for non-Jews to take on Jewish practices in order to become Christians. What is important is not so much the dispute as is the method of resolving it. The question was submitted to "the apostles and elders" in Jerusalem. Since the very beginning, the authority of the church has descended through the apostles and their successors, the bishops.

The apostolic theme is carried through in John's vision. The holy city Jerusalem, which had been the center and foundation of the church in its earliest days, is now the jeweled Bride of Christ—the people of God, the church itself. The walls of the city, and the foundation of the church, rests upon "the twelve apostles of the Lamb." John also notes the city has no temple, no sun, and no moon. It may be difficult to understand the utter shock this would have been to John and his community. The sense of the imagery is that the holy city in which we will dwell with God is like nothing we have known before. We have some foretaste of it in Eucharist, and the full revelation awaits us.

We will dwell with God in fullness in the holy city, but it is not solely a future promise. God (the Father and the Son) dwells in the church here and now, through "the Advocate, the Holy Spirit." The radical love (the Spirit) of the Father and the Son inhabits us and lives in us. The Spirit makes us one with Christ, uniting us so closely that the church becomes the very body of Christ. The Spirit is the one who instructs the church, intercedes for us, and comforts us with Christ's peace.

Teaching Powers

Based on your discernment of the core belief(s) to emphasize today, connect one or more of these church teachings with what the catechumens experienced in the liturgy and what they have experienced in their daily lives this past week. Ask the sponsors to help the catechumens make these connections during the discussion.

Apostolic nature of the church

(see CCC 934-941)



• The church is made up of two groups, two parts of the Body, that together carry out the church's mission. They are the ordained and the laity.
  
• The church receives its mission from Christ, who first handed it onto the apostles. The bishops are the successors of the apostles. The technical term for this is "apostolic succession." Like the apostles, the bishops act in the person of Christ. They are the sign and source of unity in their own diocesan churches.
  
• The chief bishop is the bishop of Rome who is also called the Pope. The Pope is a successor to St. Peter, to whom Jesus entrusted the authority to lead the church.
  
• It is the job of the bishops to teach the faith, to lead the church in prayer, especially Eucharist, and to act as true pastors or shepherds. They are helped in these tasks by priests and deacons.
  
• Ordinarily, the laity carries out the mission of the church by living holy lives in the secular world.
  
• The word "priest" can sometimes be confusing. Lay people share in Christ's priesthood. Anyone who is baptized does. The ordained priesthood is a sacred role that is distinct from the rest of the baptized priesthood. Because all the baptized share in Christ's priesthood, we are all called to lives of holiness. That is, we are called to live the same kind of life of faith that the apostles did. All of the faithful share in the apostolic mission of the church.



The Holy Trinity

(see CCC 261-267)



• The mystery of the Trinity is the core belief of all our beliefs. It is foundational to all the rest of what we believe. Like the mystery of love, we can never fully understand it. However, with God's help, we will grow to know more and more about the Holy Trinity.
  
• One of the ways we grow to understand the Trinity is through Jesus' incarnation. Jesus reveals God to us, and we realize he is one with the Father.
  
• We also know that through Jesus' death and resurrection, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the church. The mission of the Holy Spirit is exactly the same as Jesus' mission. That understanding reveals to us that the Holy Spirit is one with the Father and the Son. "With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified" (Nicene Creed).
  
• We believe that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son. This was a very important controversy in the fourth century church. It simply means that the Holy Spirit is equally the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of the Son.
  
• We also learn more deeply about the Holy Trinity because, through the grace of baptism, we are drawn into the dynamic life of the Trinity. We learn about the Trinity "up close and personal." We are baptized "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."
  
• We do not believe in three Gods. This is important. We believe in only one God. And we believe that God is three separate persons, all equal in glory. It can be confusing to think about, but remember this is not about physical science. It is about an absolute unity of love.
  
• Because God is an absolute unity of love, all of God's actions are also one. We cannot assign different jobs to different persons as though the other persons are not involved. The Catechism says it this way: "Within the single divine operation each shows forth what is proper to him in the Trinity, especially in the divine missions of the Son's Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit" (267).



The Mystical Body of Christ

(see CCC 802-810)



• Jesus became one of us to save us and make us one with him. In the first letter of Peter we read: "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people."
  
• We become one with Christ and part of the People of God by faith and baptism. This unity is so complete that we call the church the Mystical Body of Christ. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ, who died on the cross and rose three days later, makes us part of God's family and makes his own Body. This reality is most clearly expressed in the sacraments.
  
• Even though we are all one, however, we all have different roles. There is a lot of diversity in the Body. And still we are all linked to one another, especially to those who are suffering, to the poor and persecuted.
  
• The head of the church, the head of the Body, is Christ. Our life comes from Christ and Christ lives in us. We also say the church is the Bride of Christ because Christ loves the church so much.
  
• When Jesus left this physical earth, he sent the Holy Spirit to instruct the church, care for the church, and intercede for the church. Because the Spirit dwells in us, we say the church is the temple of the Holy Spirit. In a sense, Spirit is the soul of the Mystical Body, the source of its life, of its unity in diversity, and of the riches of its gifts.



Correlations with protocols from the Office of the Catechism




Saving the World

Ask the catechumens to reflect back what they heard today. Ask them to name one or two practical ways they will put their new learning into practice in the coming week.




Prayer

Close with a prepared prayer or a spontaneous prayer led by one of the team members or one of the sponsors.

Catechetical Session, Easter 5C

May 6, 2007

Fifth Sunday of Easter, C

Core beliefs

You can discuss one or more of these teachings of the church today. Use your powers of discernment to make your choice based on three criteria:

1. What have the catechumens been asking about?
   
2. What issues came up during the dismissal reflections?
   
3. What, in your opinion, needs clarification for the catechumens?

• God’s plan of salvation
  
• The unity of all Christians
  
• The dignity of all humanity

Readings

Acts 14:21-27
Revelation 21:1-5
John 13:31-33, 34-35

Catechist Wisdom

Strengthen your wisdom powers by reflecting on the readings yourself before the catechetical session.

The first reading reminds us that the mission of the gospel imposes hardships on the faithful. This isn’t a comfortable message to hear, and it isn’t always expressed powerfully enough to the catechumens. What must be stressed is that they are signing up for a mission to preach salvation to all nations. The travels of Paul and Barnabas are a metaphor for how far and to what lengths we must go to tell the whole world about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. God’s deepest desire is that all people be reconciled to God, and we are the agents of that reconciliation. God’s desire to draw all people into the Divine love is so strong that even the unbaptized can be saved if they have a sincere heart. Nevertheless, we find the fullness of God’s promise in complete union with Christ.

The reading from Revelation is a vision of the end of time when the Kingdom of God will be revealed in its fullness. John’s vision takes place on the Lord’s Day, and we can conclude this vision is a liturgical vision. In other words, the Sunday liturgy is always a vision of the fullness of God’s Reign of justice. John sees the full Divinity of God dwelling with the human race. If we believe in John’s vision of humanity, we cannot tolerate any injustice or oppression that would devalue the innate dignity with which we were created. Those who have been made in the image of God must always see themselves as godly.

Our god-likeness is a pure gift that flows from the love of God. In the gospel reading, Jesus makes this crystal clear to the disciples. In the context of the story, they might not yet know the full implications of Jesus’ exhortation: “As I have loved you….” However, John’s community certainly knew and we must make sure the catechumens know that Jesus loved us all the way to the cross. We are called to love others with as much commitment and passion. Jesus could love us that much because of the love he shared with the Father. At our baptism, we are drawn completely into the Divine love of the Holy Trinity and are thereby given the strength to love each other as God loves us.

Teaching Powers

Based on your discernment of the core belief(s) to emphasize today, connect one or more of these church teachings with what the catechumens experienced in the liturgy and what they have experienced in their daily lives this past week. Ask the sponsors to help the catechumens make these connections during the discussion.

God’s plan of salvation

(see CCC 777-780)



• The purpose of the liturgy is the gather those whom God calls. John’s vision in Revelation is just such a gather or a “convocation.” It is an assembly of those whom God's Word calls together to form the People of God. The gathering of God’s people is nourished with the Body of Christ and becomes the Body of Christ.
• In a very elegant way, the church of believers is both the means and the goal of God's plan of salivation. The church comes into being through the words and actions of Jesus Christ. The ultimate action of Jesus is his death on the cross and his resurrection. Through the subsequent outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the church becomes the Body of Christ and therefore the sacrament of salivation. The church is, however, still human and therefore imperfect. We will be perfected in death and in the resurrection of all believers into glory of heaven just as in John’s vision of the assembly of all the redeemed of the earth (cf. Rev 14:4).
• The assembly of believers is both visible and spiritual. The church is the Mystical Body of Christ both, human and divine.
  

The unity of all Christians

(see CCC 1271)



• All those who have been baptized, including those who are not yet in full communion with the Catholic Church, are part of the Mystical Body of Christ.
• All who have been baptized share in the promise of God’s eternal salvation.
  

The dignity of all humanity

(see CCC 380-384)



• The very purpose of human existence is to be the image of God in the world. The fullness of this purpose is made manifest in Jesus, the “image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15).
• Integral to becoming the image of God is entering fully into our relationships with other humans. God did not create us to be solitary being. From the beginning, we were intended to be in relationship, just as the Holy Trinity is in relationship (see Gen 1:27).
  
• The original holiness and justice of the first man and woman before sin flowed from their friendship with each other and with God. That is the “paradise” our faith journey leads us back to.
  

Correlations with protocols from the Office of the Catechism

Saving the World

Ask the catechumens to reflect back what they heard today. Ask them to name one or two practical ways they will put their new learning into practice in the coming week.

Prayer

Close with a prepared prayer or a spontaneous prayer led by one of the team members or one of the sponsors.

Five Ways to Preach Mystagogically

These approaches to preaching mystagogically are defined by Jan Michael Joncas in Forum Essay, Number 4: Preaching the Rites of Christian Initiation (Chicago, Illinois: Liturgy Training Publications, 1994) 95-117.

The five approaches outlined by Joncas are:

1. hallowing cosmic symbols;
2. exploring anthropological patterns;
3. celebrating biblical history;
4. analyzing beliefs and behaviors; and
5. revealing the future present.

According to Joncas, these are general techniques used by the majority of mystagogical preachers from the 2nd to the 5th centuries of the church. These preachers looked to the phenomenology of the heavens and nature to find correlations with the symbols of the rites. They were keen observers of human ways of life, social structures, and secular activities. They wove images and references to various scriptural passages that evoked the same symbols, whether or not the context of the passage related to the context of the rite. Their catecheses and homilies were often pointed critiques of beliefs and behaviors that went against their understanding of the Christian lifestyle. Finally, they employed a realized eschatology in the use of their images, placing the event of the rite within the vision of the eschaton so as to lead the hearers to praise of God and conversion of heart.

Joncas cautions that the use of these approaches to craft initiatory homilies for today must take into consideration that the world of the 4th century is much different from ours. Advances in our understanding of society, cosmology, scripture, medicine, and even demonology would make a direct translation of these approaches inappropriate for contemporary hearers. Nonetheless, if interpreted and translated into a contemporary style, these approaches can give preachers today some guidelines for crafting mystagogical texts in the patristic tradition.

Five Principles for Mystagogical Preaching and Catechesis

In the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, only two pages of texts are given to describe the period of mystagogy and post-baptismal catechesis. Below are the five main things you need to know about mystagogy during this period of the initiation process (from RCIA 244-247):

• Mystagogy and mystagogical preaching leads the neophytes and the community to a deepened grasp of the paschal mystery and helps them make it part of their lives through



• meditation on the Gospel


• sharing in eucharist, and


• doing works of charity.


• Mystagogy and mystagogical preaching introduces the neophytes into a fuller and more effective understanding of the mysteries through the Gospel and the sacraments.



• The main setting for mystagogy is the Sunday Mass.



• At Masses during the Easter season where neophytes are present, it is recommended to use the readings for Year A.



• Mystagogy and mystagogical preaching renews the inspiration and outlook of the faithful and brings them closer to the neophytes.

What is Mystagogy?

Below is part of the unformatted text from a bulletin insert that you can download, print, and copy for FREE for use in your parishes to help you catechize about mystagogy. Please include the author and copyright information on any copies you make.

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Mystagogy: Savoring the Mystery of God

by Diana Macalintal
© 2007, Diana Macalintal.
All rights reserved.

Whodunit? Secret? Science?

God is a mystery, but not like an Agatha Christie novel, or a secret reserved only for special people, or a math problem to be solved.

God is a mystery in the way that grandma’s love is a mystery; in the way you look at your child and can’t imagine anything more beautiful; in the way you marvel at how deeply you still love your spouse even after so many years of being together.

The mystery of God is something that makes us feel so immensely close to God and at the same time so in awe of the tremendous, incomprehensible wonder of God. There is no way to completely, fully express this feeling or describe it to another person. We can only say the same thing we tell children who ask us how they will know when they’re in love—“you’ll know it when it happens to you.”

The word “sacrament” comes from the same Greek root for the word “mystery.” Often, at the beginning of Mass, the priest will say, “to prepare ourselves to celebrate these sacred mysteries….” Every time we gather to celebrate the sacraments, we enter deeply into the mysterious love of God.

We experience this divine mystery most fully in the Eucharist—that intimate act of eating and drinking together with those named after the one we love the most: Christ.

Reflecting on the Mysteries

Those who have been preparing to be initiated into the Church and are then baptized, confirmed, and welcomed to the Eucharistic table at the Easter Vigil are the newest members to be “christened,” that is, named “Christ.” They are those who have most recently and fully been hit by God’s mysterious love. Now, they know what it means to be a member of the Body of Christ because they have experienced it for themselves.

Anyone who is new to love and the overwhelming nature of it needs time to reflect on what happened to them. This “looking backward” to a specific moment when they experienced God’s mysterious presence gives them direction and renewed commitment for moving forward. Just like looking back at wedding pictures can give us more hope and joy for the future, reflecting on the experience of the “mysteries”—the sacraments—can renew our commitment to live according to Christ’s name which was given to us at baptism.

The neophytes are those who were recently initiated into the Church through the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist. During the Easter season, and often throughout the year after, they spend time reflecting on the mysteries. This process is called “mystagogy.” But their practice of mystagogy is simply a participation in what all baptized Christians are called to do. All of us who are baptized, whether last year or many years ago, are called to constantly reflect on our experience of God, discern its meaning, renew our commitment to our baptismal promises, and commit ourselves to living those promises in the ordinary events of our daily life.

Click here to read a step-by-step way to do mystagogy.

Mystagogy My Mother Could Do

The content of faith is the content of my mother’s or any mother’s life. That is because faith happens in and through our daily life. What we do on Sunday is simply one expression of our faith. We need to connect the messy un-“holy” events of daily life with God and all the things we call “holy.” But the most common mistake people make when trying to make sense of life and faith is they go into “Hallmark greeting card” mode. That is, when they talk about faith, they give religious platitudes like “God loves me,” or “Jesus answered my prayer.” Though these may be true, they won’t necessarily lead to conversion. In other words, it won’t change the world; but mystagogy will. This way of reflecting makes faith relevant to daily life, and makes daily life an expression of faith. But you don’t need a theology degree to be a “mystagogue.” Here are some simple steps to uncovering the mystery of faith that even my mother could do.

Step 1: Choose an event
Sharing faith starts with an event that engages us or makes us feel deep emotion. Family reunions, Easter dinner, graduation, a child’s birth, friend’s death, the shared experience of watching a movie or hearing a song—all these are ripe with moments in which the mystery of faith can be uncovered. During the event, pay close attention to all your senses (what you see, hear, touch, taste, smell) and to what you feel. Engage fully in the experience.

Step 2: Remember what happened
After the event, gather with others who experienced the same thing. Ask these questions: What did you see? What did you hear? What do you remember most? How did that make you feel? Be very concrete in your memories. For example, “I smelled bread baking when I came in the door, and that made me feel welcomed, like I belonged there.”

Step 3: Reflect on the bigger picture
What else is going on in your life that needs to be connected to this concrete experience and memory? What issues is your family dealing with? What concerns do you have at work? What are some major events happening in your community or in the world? For example, “That smell of bread baking makes me think of my own family and how I worry about making sure they have enough to eat. I worry about my job and if I’ll still have it next month. I think also of the man I see every morning on the street corner asking for money for food.”

Step 4: Connect with your faith
In this step ask what this memory teaches you about God, about Christ, about church, about community. For example, “My feeling of belonging when I smelled that bread baking teaches me that family can be anyone I share food with. It reminds me of all those Bible stories of Jesus eating meals with others and how we share bread and wine with strangers at Mass every Sunday. These strangers we call brothers and sisters because we eat together. It teaches me that no matter what, I can depend on my family, my community.” Find out what the Church and your parish teach about your insight. Connect it to a story in the Bible, and find out what scripture teaches about this.

Step 5: Make a change
This is the “so-what” step. What will you do differently in your life now that you’ve made these connections with your faith? Perhaps you might decide to participate in Communion with different eyes, really looking at each person in the Communion procession as your family. Maybe you’ll choose to begin each dinner with a simple prayer. You might get others in your family or parish to talk more about issues of homelessness and hunger. You can start a support group for those who have lost jobs or are looking for work.

When we reflect on our everyday life experiences in this way, our faith can and will change the world, one mother at a time.

This article by Diana Macalintal originally appeared in Eucharistic Ministries #233, August 2003.

Catechetical session, Easter 4C

April 29, 2007

Fourth Sunday of Easter, C

Core beliefs

You can discuss one or more of these teachings of the church today. Use your powers of discernment to make your choice based on three criteria:

1. What have the catechumens been asking about?
   
2. What issues came up during the dismissal reflections?
   
3. What, in your opinion, needs clarification for the catechumens?

• The Holy Trinity
  
• Apostolic mission of the church
  
• Salvation of all creation

Readings

Acts 13:14, 43-52
Revelation 7:9, 14-17
John 10:27-30

Catechist Wisdom

Strengthen your wisdom powers by reflecting on the readings yourself before the catechetical session.

Through the story of Paul and Barnabas, the first reading highlights the church’s universal mission to preach the Good News of salvation to all the world. The “Gentiles” are a metaphor for all those in the world whom God loves. We, as members of the church, take the energy, passion, and courage of Paul and Barnabas as our inspiration.

The second reading gives us a vision of the “destination” of our salvation. The goal of salvation is complete love and unity, with no divisions, among all the nations and races of people and with God in heaven. This is a reflection of the unity of the Holy Trinity.

The gospel reminds us that it is the love of Christ that is the source and cause of our salvation. It is an intimate love, a love that is shared between Christ and the Father. The dynamism of their love is a creative Spirit, so real and powerful that it makes them (and us) one.

Teaching Powers

Based on your discernment of the core belief(s) to emphasize today, connect one or more of these church teachings with what the catechumens experienced in the liturgy and what they have experienced in their daily lives this past week. Ask the sponsors to help the catechumens make these connections during the discussion.

The Holy Trinity

(see CCC 261-267)



• The mystery of the Trinity is the core belief of all our beliefs. It is foundational to all the rest of what we believe. Like the mystery of love, we can never fully understand it. However, with God's help, we will grow to know more and more about the Holy Trinity.
  
• One of the ways we grow to understand the Trinity is through Jesus' incarnation. Jesus reveals God to us, and we realize he is one with the Father.
  
• We also know that through Jesus' death and resurrection, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the church. The mission of the Holy Spirit is exactly the same as Jesus' mission. That understanding reveals to us that the Holy Spirit is one with the Father and the Son. "With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified" (Nicene Creed).
  
• We believe that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son. This was a very important controversy in the fourth century church. It simply means that the Holy Spirit is equally the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of the Son.
  
• We also learn more deeply about the Holy Trinity because, through the grace of baptism, we are drawn into the dynamic life of the Trinity. We learn about the Trinity "up close and personal." We are baptized "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."
  
• We do not believe in three Gods. This is important. We believe in only one God. And we believe that God is three separate persons, all equal in glory. It can be confusing to think about, but remember this is not about physical science. It is about an absolute unity of love.
  
• Because God is an absolute unity of love, all of God's actions are also one. We cannot assign different jobs to different persons as though the other persons are not involved. The Catechism says it this way: "Within the single divine operation each shows forth what is proper to him in the Trinity, especially in the divine missions of the Son's Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit" (267).

Apostolic mission of the church

(see CCC 866-870)



• The church is one Body. We become part the church and part of the one Body through baptism. In baptism, we are given new life by the one Spirit for one purpose: to bring hope to the world.
  
• The life given to the church by the Spirit through baptism makes the church holy. The fact that we are still sinners and yet made holy is what gives the world hope.
  
• The holiness we have and the hope we offer is universal. It is for everyone. That's what "catholic" means. We are sent to the whole world, even our enemies, even sinners greater than ourselves, to offer the one hope.
  
• This universal sending, and the work we do to proclaim the message of hope, is what we mean when we say the church is apostolic. We follow the example of the apostles and we continue the work of the apostles. We do this under the leadership of the Pope and the bishops who are the successors of the apostles.

Salvation of all creation

(see CCC 315, 374, 384)



• God is the source of all creation and has a plan for creation. Creation itself is a witness to God's love for us. Through the death and resurrection of Christ, God effects the salvation of everything in the cosmos.
  
• The salvation of Creation through Christ is so transformative that it is a glorious new creation. Christ restores Creation to it's original holiness before sin entered the world.

Correlations with protocols from the Office of the Catechism

Saving the World

Ask the catechumens to reflect back what they heard today. Ask them to name one or two practical ways they will put their new learning into practice in the coming week.

Prayer

Close with a prepared prayer or a spontaneous prayer led by one of the team members or one of the sponsors.

Holy Saturday

Today there is a great silence over the earth, for the King sleeps. The earth has trembled and fallen still, for the Lord sleeps in his fleshly nature; in the netherworld he is arousing those who have slept for ages. God is dead in the flesh, and has shaken Sheol to its foundtions.

—From an ancient homily for Holy Saturday

Bulletin Inserts on the RCIA

Are you looking for some bulletin insert material to help explain the catechumenate process to your parishioners? The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has a press release on their Web site that details the steps of the initiation process in question and answer format. The text is written in clear, simple English.

Click here to read all the bulletin inserts from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

One example from the USCCB's website is below:

What is the RCIA?

The RCIA, which stands for Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, is a process through which non-baptized men and women enter the Catholic Church. It includes several stages marked by study, prayer and rites at Mass. Participants in the RCIA are known as catechumens. They undergo a process of conversion as they study the Gospel, profess faith in Jesus and the Catholic Church, and receive the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and Holy Eucharist. The RCIA process follows the ancient practice of the Church and was restored by the Second Vatican Council as the normal way adults prepare for baptism. In 1974 the Rite for Christian Initiation for Adults was formally approved for use in the United States.