Did you know Christmas carols are a rich source of catechesis for your RCIA groups? A good carol has the power to “teach” the theology of Christ’s birth, death, and resurrection—the paschal mystery.

A cosmic dance between Divine and human

For example, Charles Wesley’s 1739 text, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” has several verses paschal-preaching verses:

Come, Desire of nations, come,
Fix in us thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conquering seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Now display thy saving power,
Ruined nature now restore;
Now in mystic union join
Thine to ours, and ours to thine.

Here in this text, the meaning of the word becoming flesh is not simply a Hallmark-card image of a baby in a manger or a sweet-sounding lullaby.

• It is the great exchange—the cosmic dance—between the Divine and the human
• It is the primordial clash between light and dark
• It is the serpent in the garden and the empty tomb that shouts, “Death, where is your sting?”

RCIA Without Meetings: Forming Faith over the Holidays

One-hour webinar

Is your life too busy for RCIA this holiday season? Maybe your planning to take a break. Or maybe you plan to slog through, hoping the catechumens will show up for your sessions.

What if there were a third way? What if you could continue forming faith without having to hold formal sessions?

• Discover four ways to teach catechumens about the Blessed Virgin
• Connect Santa and last-minute shopping with Eucharist—in a good way
• Learn about two major ethnic traditions that are all about the journey of faith
• Uncover the catechetical riches of Christmas carols

Presenters: Nick Wagner and Diana Macalintal
Date: Thursday, December 1, 2011
Time: 2:00p to 3:00p Eastern Standard Time

Click here for more information

The divine exchange

God becomes one of us so that we may become more like God. In this lover’s exchange, God is clothed in human skin and takes on the mortality of earthly life so that we may be clothed with Christ and wear the garment of immortality.

This mystical union is the nuptial dance between God and creation, the weaving together of death and life, the push and pull of sadness and joy, and the counterpoint of our earthly song with the heavenly choir.

The definition of a carol is “an old round dance with singing.” It is the dance that comes first. Our carols teach us that Christian life is not about remaining at Bethlehem, frozen in winter snow, but about dancing together through the seasons of life to Jerusalem, to the cross and the empty tomb, dying and rising and thus birthing new life.

The dance of life and death

Another fine carol is “Tomorrow Shall be my Dancing Day.” William Sandys’ 1833 text conveys that Christmas is “merry” because God dances with us even through death.

Then was I born of a virgin pure,
Of her I took fleshly substance
Thus was I knit to man’s nature
To call my true love to my dance.

Then on the cross hanged I was,
Where a spear my heart did glance;
There issued forth both water and blood,
To call my true love to my dance.

The crèche and the cross

There are two little-known verses of “What Child is This?” that have disappeared from almost all of our hymnals. These lost stanzas by William Chatterton Dix (1837-1898) invite us to go deeper into the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, even in the middle of our celebration of Jesus’ birth. They remind us that the paschal mystery is the “theme” of every season. Next time you see an image of the baby Jesus or hear the angels’ “Gloria,” see, too, the wood of the cross and the lance at the side, and hear, also, the song of the Easter Exsultet, “Rejoice, O heavenly powers, sing choirs of angels!”

Why lies he in such mean estate where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christian, fear. For sinners here,
the silent Word is pleading.
Nails, spear, shall pierce him through,
the cross be borne for me, for you.
Hail, hail the Word made flesh, the Babe, the Son of Mary!
So bring him incense, gold, and myrrh.
Come, peasant, king, to own him.
The King of kings salvation brings.
Let loving hearts enthrone him.
Raise, raise the song on high. The Virgin sings her lullaby.
Joy, joy, for Christ is born, the Babe, the Son of Mary!

Three more catechetical carols for your RCIA group

Here are three more carols that have the power to teach Christ’s birth, death, and resurrection.

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

This is probably not listed in the Christmas section of your hymnal, but this 5th century text is an extraordinary image of the Word made Flesh.

Of the Father’s Love Begotten

This simple chant sings of the Incarnation as salvation history.

Good Christian Friends, Rejoice

This 14th century text answers why Christ was born: that we may no longer fear death.

What carols can you think of?

What carols have you used to catechize with? Or which ones might you use this Advent and Christmas to teach the paschal mystery?

1. Sing these 6 carols in RCIA for strong holiday catechesis
2. 5 ways to lead your RCIA participants from the North Pole to Jesus Christ this Christmas
3. Simbang Gabi: How to put stars in the eyes of your RCIA participants this Advent
4. Be a dreamer this Advent

Have you ever heard anyone tell you that you weren’t supposed to do these things in Advent? I have heard all of them. I’ve even said a few of them in the past:

• Don’t sing Christmas carols before Dec. 24
• Don’t get too busy; Advent is a time of reflection
• Don’t go to the mall (or Amazon.com) too often; don’t commercialize the season
• Don’t up a Christmas tree or Christmas lights before Dec. 24
• Don’t pay too much attention to Santa Claus; focus instead on the “real” St. Nicholas

RCIA Without Meetings: Forming Faith over the Holidays

One-hour webinar

Is your life too busy for RCIA this holiday season? Maybe your planning to take a break. Or maybe you plan to slog through, hoping the catechumens will show up for your sessions.

What if there were a third way? What if you could continue forming faith without having to hold formal sessions?

• Discover four ways to teach catechumens about the Blessed Virgin
• Connect Santa and last-minute shopping with Eucharist—in a good way
• Learn about two major ethnic traditions that are all about the journey of faith
• Uncover the catechetical riches of Christmas carols

Presenters: Nick Wagner and Diana Macalintal
Date: Thursday, December 1, 2011
Time: 2:00p to 3:00p Eastern Standard Time

Click here for more information

Here’s the thing, though. No matter how much we try to keep Advent pure, everyone around us will be celebrating “the Christmas season” beginning about the time the last trick-or-treater goes to bed. This is especially true of catechumens and uncatechized candidates who have no tradition of celebrating Advent and Christmas liturgically. For those who come to us with a strongly secular background, things like Christmas shopping, house decorating, and gift wrapping might be the most spiritual activities of the year. I remember a fallen-away-Buddhist neighbor I had once who had the best Christmas tree on the block. It went up every year on the day after Thanksgiving and came down on December 26. She couldn’t tell me much about Buddhism, but she had a story for every single ornament she placed on her tree.

So as I’ve gotten older, I’ve stopped trying to fight the secularization of the Advent-Christmas season. Now I try to find the kernel of spiritual truth in what people find meaningful about all the frenzied activity that goes on during the holidays.

Joy to the World

As a result, I’m okay with the catechumens singing a few Christmas carols before Christmas day. And I also expect them to know when Advent begins and ends and that it is a season of preparation.

Silent Night

I don’t even try to tell catechumens to slow down during Advent—especially if they have children. But I do ask them to plan some extra time for prayer during the season.

Jingle Bells

It strikes me as completely futile to tell catechumens not to commercialize the season. In fact, in the face of the worst economic slump since the Great Depression, it is almost patriotic to go shopping. So I don’t rail too much against all the ads and the time we spend in the mall. But I do ask the catechumens to spend some of their gift budget on the poor.

O Christmas Tree

If you come to my house in Advent, you’ll see a tree and Christmas lights. But you’ll also see an Advent wreath, and I encourage the catechumens to also have a wreath in their homes.

Jolly Old St. Nicholas

Dealing with Santa Claus is harder for me. I bear the name of one of the greatest, most-loved saints in church history. Whenever I see the fun-house distortion of St. Nicholas that was cemented into our secular holiday traditions by Coca-Cola in the 1930s, I get a twinge in my stomach. But I can’t even get too upset about Santa. (Just please, please, please don’t bring him into the liturgy.) For those who have never heard the good news of Jesus Christ, Santa Claus may be the most stable image of hope and joy they have ever had. It’s not too difficult to draw a line from the North Pole back to St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra, and from there to Christ.

How about you? How do you and your RCIA team handle secular vs. sacred traditions when forming the catechumens?

1. Sing these 6 carols in RCIA for strong holiday catechesis
2. 5 ways to lead your RCIA participants from the North Pole to Jesus Christ this Christmas
3. Simbang Gabi: How to put stars in the eyes of your RCIA participants this Advent
4. Be a dreamer this Advent

Have you ever walked a road at night with your path lit only by starlight? In the barrios of the Philippines, stars are the lamps that guide the nighttime traveler. During the Advent and Christmas seasons, one will find parols (star lanterns) hanging from windows. Bamboo sticks and rice paper form a three-dimensional star in which a light bulb or candle is placed so it may glow. (In import stores such as Cost Plus, you might find some variations on these parols for your own home.)

Parols come from the Filipino celebration of Simbang Gabi or “church in the night.” The Catholic missionaries in the Philippines in the 16^th century, conscious of the work schedule of the townspeople, began celebrating Mass early in the morning before farmers began their work in the fields and after the fishermen came in from their night’s work. This allowed the whole community to gather for Eucharist, catechesis, and fellowship. Parols lit their way to the church.

These Masses came to be known as Misa Aurea or “golden Mass” or Misa de Gallo (“Mass of the rooster”) because they were celebrated at dawn. The Masses celebrated the Incarnation of the Word through Mary’s “yes.” They were festive celebrations with Christmas carols sung before Mass, catechesis, faith sharing, and of course, lots of food afterward. These nine days embodied God’s desire to be human and the Filipino’s joy for that humanness.

RCIA Without Meetings: Forming Faith over the Holidays

One-hour webinar

Is your life too busy for RCIA this holiday season? Maybe your planning to take a break. Or maybe you plan to slog through, hoping the catechumens will show up for your sessions.

What if there were a third way? What if you could continue forming faith without having to hold formal sessions?

• Discover four ways to teach catechumens about the Blessed Virgin
• Connect Santa and last-minute shopping with Eucharist—in a good way
• Learn about two major ethnic traditions that are all about the journey of faith
• Uncover the catechetical riches of Christmas carols

Presenters: Nick Wagner and Diana Macalintal
Date: Thursday, December 1, 2011
Time: 2:00p to 3:00p Eastern Standard Time

Click here for more information

Teach your RCIA participants the secret of a joyful Advent

Filipinos in the United States and Canada are constantly inculturating our traditional rituals into our parishes. Simbang Gabi, in particular, is a popular tradition that is celebrated in almost every diocese. What can RCIA teams, catechumens and candidates learn from Simbang Gabi to better prepare for the Incarnation?

Filipinos don’t have the same strict boundaries between Advent and Christmas that some other cultures do. Perhaps our parishes and our RCIA groups can learn from that. For example, if refraining from singing Christmas carols during Advent is creating more tension than joy, then perhaps we need to reassess why we do that. Do our liturgies and attitudes during Advent express an overly penitential posture? Or rather do we live as we pray, waiting in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ?

Simbang Gabi as the basis of RCIA catechesis

An important component to Simbang Gabi is the intergenerational and catechetical opportunity that flows from these nine days. Filipino families and communities span several generations, and gatherings always include all ages.

• How can these liturgies speak to the both the adult and the child catechumens in the parish?
• What corporal works of mercy can be planned around these celebrations—a visit to an elder-care home or a retreat for single parents?
• Can you plan a discussion of the church’s teaching on social justice and its seamless garment understanding of life sometime during these nine days?
• What take-home activities can you send home with your catechumens to help bring more joy and less stress into these hectic days?
• Can you or someone on your team create a reflection question for each day, based on the gospel of the day, that your catechumens and candidates can discuss in their families?
• Is there a familiar Christmas carol you can use as a springboard for mystagogical reflection, reading the words and looking at the theology behind those lyrics? (For example, what does Jesus’ birth teach us about Christ in the lyrics for “What Child is This?” Can we answer that question that the title suggests—who is and what is this child for me?)

Simbang Gabi can be not only a welcome liturgical tradition in our parishes, but can also be a significant formation opportunity for everyone in the RCIA process.

1. Sing these 6 carols in RCIA for strong holiday catechesis
2. 5 ways to lead your RCIA participants from the North Pole to Jesus Christ this Christmas
3. Simbang Gabi: How to put stars in the eyes of your RCIA participants this Advent
4. Be a dreamer this Advent

I have one of those weight-lifter art books that nobody really reads. You know, the kind you get one of the kids to help you drag off the bookshelf onto the coffee table when company is coming over. Well, in this tome is a picture of a painting by a 15th-century painter, Domenico Ghirlandaio, titled Adoration of the Shepherds. It’s a nativity painting in which the whole world is coming to adore the newborn Christ child. Seriously, this painting looks like it could have been inspired by the crowds at LAX the day before Thanksgiving. And every one of the throng is focused on Jesus. Everyone, that is, except Joseph. (Click on the image for a larger view.)

Joseph is oblivious to the commotion, gazing far off into the distant sky, looking, in fact, in the opposite direction of his adopted son. He is depicted as an elderly man, and, when I saw the painting, I thought he’d already slipped off into dotage.

We know from Matthew’s gospel that Joseph is a man of dreams. And we know that a guy who dreams up the kind of stuff Matthew tells us about—angels appearing right and left with life-changing exhortations like flee to Egypt—isn’t a guy who only has three or four dreams in a lifetime. This guy lives in a dream.

How did Joseph get to be saintly? After all, when he found out Mary was pregnant, he planned to divorce her (Mt 1:19). Not shocking, but also not what you’d expect from a saint. It was his dreams that changed him. Because he was a dreamer, he was able to welcome Mary into his home and into his heart.

I took another look at the picture. In Ghirlandaio’s painting, Joseph is not an addled old man. He is a man of purpose. His hand rests firmly on a sarcophagus that serves as the Christ-child’s crib in the painting and a foreshadowing of his fate. That is to say, Joseph is grounded in the paschal mystery. With that foundation, he looks to the sky, far off in the distance, focused on what everyone else is too busy to see.

The challenge that Advent poses for us is to dream. And to teach our children to dream. But what are we to dream of? Joseph teaches us: A messenger of God, bearing good news.

1. Sing these 6 carols in RCIA for strong holiday catechesis
2. 5 ways to lead your RCIA participants from the North Pole to Jesus Christ this Christmas
3. Simbang Gabi: How to put stars in the eyes of your RCIA participants this Advent
4. Be a dreamer this Advent

In the current TeamRCIA newsletter, we announced two Advent resources for faith formation—one for adults and one for children. What we neglected to do was give you link where you could find the resources!

So here is the offer, with the appropriate links!

(If you didn’t get the newsletter and you’d like a copy, sign up here.)

If you’re not already a SuperBundle customer, then here’s your chance to get a taste of what so many catechists have been raving about! Order the Faith, Life, & Creed Advent Bundle (Year A).

• Breaking Open the Word sessions for the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Sundays of Advent
• Catechetical Session: Overview of Advent
• Catechetical Session: Incarnation
• Catechetical Session: End Times and Heaven, Hell, and Purgatorgy
• Catechetical Session: Mary, Model Disciple

Each session includes clear, complete notes for the team and group leader. Each session also includes appendices filled with outstanding sample stories to help you prime the pump.

The usual price for all this material is: $36.74

But from now until November 30, 2010, your price is only: $30.99.

And here’s a bonus! If, after experiencing Faith, Life, & Creed during Advent, you would like to purchase the entire year, the amount you paid for Advent will be credited to your full-year sale.

 

Click here to order your Advent Bundle of Faith, Life, & Creed.

 

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Another Advent special: Children’s catechesis

Order the Friends on the Way: Children’s Catechumenate Resource Advent Bundle (Year A).

The FTW Advent Bundle includes all dismissal and catechetical sessions for children for all four Sundays of Advent.

Each session is self-contained and includes:

• A dismissal/breaking open the word segment based on the Sunday readings
• A lesson plan that also flows from the Sunday readings and a link to a doctrinal teaching from the Catechism of the Catholic Church
• An optional intergenerational activity that can be done on-site or at home with the family
• A handout to give to families to help them reflect on their faith together

Friends on the Way is usually sold as an annual unit of 52 Sundays for $130.00.

However, from now until November 30, you can order just the four Sundays of Advent for just $7.69.

And here’s a bonus! If, after experiencing Friends on the Way during Advent, you would like to purchase the entire year, the amount you paid for Advent will be credited to your full-year order.

Click here to order your FTW Advent Bundle.

Yesterday, as I celebrated Eucharist with the members of my religious community as well as friends and neighbors who regularly join us, I noticed a beautiful new family of five in the assembly. They were, I learned later, relatives of one of our sisters. The two “big sisters” were about five and eight years old and the little boy looked to be about two-and-a-half years old. All were very well behaved-well, until the little one began to get restless and tried entertaining his sisters. He was quieted with a big red apple that his Mom had tucked into her purse.

As the liturgy progressed and we entered into the Eucharist Prayer, I noticed that the parents and young girls were very focused on the movement of the liturgy. It became clear to me that this is a very devoted and faithful Catholic family, thoroughly engaged in the work of the people! It was inspiring. The little one, however, decided at the very moment of the institution narrative, that he would share his apple. “Take and eat,” said the presider, as the boy offered a bite of the apple to his mother. “Take and drink,” he continued, and Dad was offered a bite. “Do this in memory of me,” accompanied the child’s offerings to his sisters.

Unfolding before me was what seemed to be an orchestrated drama that had been designed to express the full meaning of Eucharist! Word, sacramental action, and apostolic witness were all taking place simultaneously in the midst of the community! For a brief time I was an apprentice to the little child who was leading me into the four pillars of the catechumenate articulated in paragraph 75 of the RCIA. It was a great way to begin Advent having heard the gospel’s admonition to “watch!” I watched this touching reminder of how being a eucharistic person goes far beyond the church doors and even the liturgy itself to the daily thanksgivings, self-givings and communions that take place when we reach out to nourish each other.

Happy Advent. Watch. There may be a child in your midst ready to lead you!

Benedict XVI released his new letter, “Saved by Hope,” a couple of days ago to coincide with Advent, the church’s great season of hope. In John Allen’s summary of the letter, he makes the point that a major concern of this pope is reasserting Catholic identity in a world dominated by earthly values. The theme of Benedict’s first letter was love. This latest one, focused on hope, continues to outline what Pope Benedict would have us—and the catechumens—understand as the core of the Catholic life.

If you don’t have time to read the entire letter today, at least read paragraph 3. The pope asks what does hope consist of, and how does hope save us? He answers his own question:

The essence of the answer is given in the phrase from the Letter to the Ephesians quoted above: the Ephesians, before their encounter with Christ, were without hope because they were “without God in the world”. To come to know God—the true God—means to receive hope.

The pope then makes what I think is a critical point, a point that is somewhat the theme of his papacy:

We who have always lived with the Christian concept of God, and have grown accustomed to it, have almost ceased to notice that we possess the hope that ensues from a real encounter with this God.

I find this is less true with those of us who work in initiation ministry. Our faith—our hope—is continually renewed when we see those who have been without hope for so long begin to “walk in the light of the Lord” (first reading, First Sunday of Advent, A). Nevertheless, many of us and many of our fellow parishioners can seem to the catechumens to be much like the rest of the world, tending to despair. Or at least not letting our joy spill over into the day-to-day affairs of our lives. Pope Benedict would ask each of us: do the catechumens and those in the world who are not walking in the light see the bright light of hope in us? Are we a beacon that draws the world to Christ our Hope?

In the rest of that brief paragraph, Benedict goes on to describe the journey of faith of Josephine Bakhita, canonized by Pope John Paul II. She would not have been called a catechumen since the rite had not yet been restored in her lifetime. (She was born in 1869.) Yet, her journey, as described in the pope’s letter, is certainly the story of an inquirer who found the first glimmer of faith, who claimed that faith, and who went on to share that faith with others who were without hope.

[B]esides her work in the sacristy and in the porter’s lodge at the convent, she made several journeys round Italy in order to promote the missions: the liberation that she had received through her encounter with the God of Jesus Christ, she felt she had to extend, it had to be handed on to others, to the greatest possible number of people. The hope born in her which had “redeemed” her she could not keep to herself; this hope had to reach many, to reach everybody.

This Advent will be an opportune time to teach the catechumens one of the central tenants of Catholic identity—we are a people of hope. Stay close to the Sunday readings and the opening prayers for the Sundays of Advent. Ask the catechumens to connect their personal stories with the Scripture stories. And tell them the hope-filled story of Josephine Bakhita.

For more on Catholic identity, see:

• Prayers every catechumen should know
• The Four Essential Doctrines the Liturgy Teaches

Spe Salvi