You know who they are. They’re the ones who keep coming back week after week long after the Easter Vigil and Pentecost are over. They light up anytime someone mentions the RCIA or the catechumenate or becoming Catholic. They want to be sponsors even before they’ve gotten the Chrism smell off their pillow case.

They’re the neophyte evangelist, those newly-initiated who are not only living breathing proof of the resurrection but also walking billboards for the RCIA. They are your greatest fans and your number one supporters.

The RCIA process is not a one-way street that shapes only the catechumen into a disciple. It’s a mutual formation in the life of Christ that changes both the catechumen and the parish. That mutual relationship is evident when a neophyte feels called to share his experience of transformation with others. Essentially, this neophyte is doing faith-sharing, exactly what the catechumenate taught him to do and what all the baptized are called to do.

Some parishes invite neophytes to share their experience with the rest of the parish some time after their initiation. It’s best to give a neophyte time to process for himself or with a small group what he experienced and what it meant (mystagogy) before you ask him to speak to the assembly at a Sunday Mass about his experience. They might speak during the announcements or before Mass begins or even at coffee and donuts after Mass.

But don’t limit yourself to just the Sunday gathering as the venue for evangelization. Neophytes who are more comfortable writing their thoughts can provide a brief reflection for the bulletin or your parish Web site. Or better yet, record their reflection and put it on your parish Web site or blog just like Saint John the Evangelist Parish in Davison, Michigan, did with their neophytes.

Click the audio button above to listen to one of their neophytes, Michael McCarty, talk about his initiation experience.

(Thanks to Michael McCarty and Elaine Ouelette, Director of RCIA and Family Faith Formation for their permission to include this testimony on TeamRCIA.com. Go to Saint John the Evangelist’s RCIA Web site to hear more testimonies.)

Imagine an entire CD filled with reflections like Michael’s from your neophytes, sponsors, team members, and parishioners who witnessed the transformation taking place in your catechumens and in themselves!

Do you have other ways you invite your neophytes to share their experience with the community? Have you included reflections from your neophytes on your Web site? Click the comment link below and share your ideas.

A song Rory Cooney wrote, called “Christ the Icon” (WLP 2005), is well worth listening to and meditating upon. The first time I heard it, on the CD of the same name, I didn’t take much notice of it, to tell the truth. The music was fine, but I didn’t really hear what the song was saying. Then, some time later, I listened to it again with attention, and now I’m finding it thought-provoking.

It’s a hymn to Christ, the image of God. Beginning with the Philippians’ hymn, and moving through Jesus’ ministry, passion, death and resurrection, the composer shows us “the image of the unseen God” in a way that is true to the revolutionary core of the Christian message. He captures bits of the scriptural witness that testify to Christ’s humility and to the divine mystery hidden in people and things that are lowly, poor and forgotten. God remains “unseen” not just because God is “pure spirit” or some such thing, but because the lowly with whom he has chosen to identify himself are themselves “invisible” in this world.

The gospel ought to direct our gaze to things we would otherwise miss, and our hearts to things we would not otherwise long for. The gospel is revolutionary. Yet the core of it is so easy to forget as we get caught up in the institutionalization of the message. Most of us—and I include myself in this—have either consciously or unconsciously integrated the gospel into the way things are—arranged according to human priorities that create and reinforce the established order. The announcement of God’s reign is about reversals. It turns our assumptions upside down, if we let it. But sometimes we listen to the gospel and don’t really hear it. Or, hearing it, we don’t quite believe it. This is why so many people, when faced with the uncomfortable need for evangelization, would much prefer a process of education.

Listen to “Christ the Icon,” and let its gospel message percolate in you. See if it doesn’t make you rethink a few things about your catechumenate process. Click on the play button below (the large black triangle) and listen to a bit of “Christ the Icon.”

Was your liturgy memorable today? Chances are, there was someone in the assembly who was visiting your parish for the first time. If not this week, then next week or the week after, for sure. When they get home, will they remember your parish? Will they return?

It’s not difficult to create a lasting memory among the visitors and potential inquirers, but it does take a commitment to a consistent effort. The trick is to get everyone in the assembly thinking about what they can do to create a memorable experience. It can start with everyone on your RCIA team and gradually extend out to the rest of the parish. Take a look at this inspiring video to see what one bag boy did to transform the grocery store he worked in.

[via Your best just got better]

I signed up for a new wiki an hour ago. If you don’t know what a wiki is, click here. But that’s not what I want to tell you about. I just got an e-mail from Kristine at PBwiki introducing herself as “the community evangelist” for PBwiki. Her reason for writing is to help me get involved and to provide assistance if I get stuck.

Then she gave me ten links I could click on to find out more about my wiki and the PBwiki community. She also promised to respond if I sent her a reply e-mail. (Click on the image for a little better view.)

How simple would this be to implement in our parishes? What if we made a habit of collecting e-mails from any of these folks:

• Couples who inquire about wedding preparation
• Parents who want to baptize their babies
• Anyone who calls the parish office “looking for a priest”
• Families that register for religious education
• Anyone who calls the parish school to get information
• People who call requesting a baptismal certificate
• Folks who call to ask about Mass times
• Newcomers to Mass on Sunday (or Christmas or Easter)

Then, within an hour of receiving their e-mail address, send a note similar to Kristine’s. This can be a template so you don’t have to compose it new each time. But you might have a few different templates on hand to relate more closely to the person’s needs (for example, a template for engaged couples and another for new parents).

Here’s my attempt at something for couples asking about getting married in your parish:

[PARISH LOGO]

Hi from St. Nicholas Parish,

Thanks for getting in touch.

My name is Nick, and I’m the information contact person for St. Nicholas Parish. I’m here to answer any questions you have about getting married at St. Nicholas or anything else you’d like to know about the parish. I thought I’d send you our top tips for finding your way around the parish and discovering who’s who.

If you have any questions, just reply to this e-mail.

Wedding procedures at St. Nicholas Parish

Why marriage is a sacrament

10 tips for a great wedding liturgy

Should we have a wedding with or without a Mass?

People of the parish

Meet our pastor

Other helpful staff members

Couples who were recently married at St. Nicholas

What we do around here

Young adult Mass

Theology on Tap

Parish Festival

What Do Catholics Believe? discussion group

Get help

If you need any help along the way, preparing for your wedding or participating in the parish, check out these great resources.

Our parish receptionist
(she knows everything and everybody!)

Our wedding preparation team

St. Nicholas Parish Web site

FAQs about St. Nicholas Parish

Thanks!

Nick

QDo you have any guidelines or suggestions for recruiting inquirers? After a somewhat small group this last year, we are looking to extend our reach.

AWhat your question really implies is, how do we get parishioners to be more active evangelizers? Catholics are can be a little skittish about “evangelization.” So it is always important to keep in mind what we mean by Catholic evangelization. In his booklet, The Rural Catechumenate, Michael Clay identifies six characteristics of evangelization that are particularly Catholic.

1. Catholics make every effort to foster a deep conversion to the Gospel in the one being evangelized. This means, of course, we must be deeply converted to the Gospel ourselves and be willing to share it with others.
2. Catholics don’t proselytize. We invite without manipulating.
3. Catholics think local cultures are fascinating, especially those we don’t understand very well. We can always find something in someone else’s culture that is a good starting point for talking about our faith.
4. Catholics don’t steal sheep. That is, we don’t try to get people to change Christian denominations if they are fruitful and happy where they are. Of course, we are always open to Christians of any denomination who have questions about us or an interest in us.
5. We accept people exactly where they are in life, even if their lifestyle is difficult for us. That’s what Jesus did, and that’s what we do.
6. Maybe most importantly, we become companions. We listen well, we empathize, we support, and we are loving toward everyone we encounter.

Those are the broad strokes. For more specific and programmatic steps, I suggest you get a hold of two resources. One is Pope Paul VI’s letter, “On Evangelization in the Modern World.”

The other is “Invite!”—a program from PNCEA.

Good luck with this. Please stay in touch and let us know how your year progresses.

The following is Part 1 of a brief overview by Diana Macalintal of the initiation process for adults considering becoming Catholic. Based on material originally written for the Diocese of San José website, you are welcomed to use or adapt it for your own parishes.

Click here to download a formatted handout (pdf) of this article which you can copy for free.

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How Do I Become Catholic?
Part 1: God is calling. Now what?
by Diana Macalintal

© 2007, Diana Macalintal.
All rights reserved.

Learning to Respond
God works in many different ways. Most of the time, God works through ordinary people and events—a parent, a friend, a beautiful sunset, a song, an inspiring story. Other times, we hear God’s call during crisis moments or major life-changes—a birth, an engagement, a sickness, a death. Sometimes, we just have a feeling that something is missing. No matter what your reason for thinking about becoming Catholic, our hope and prayer is that when God calls, you will respond. (If you’re reading this, you’ve already begun to respond!)

One part of the Catholic Church’s mission is to help people respond to God as best they can. For Christians, initiation and on-going participation in the life of the Church are the primary responses to God’s call. Through the process of becoming Catholic, we try to help people learn how to respond to that call not just for the moment of baptism but for everyday of their lives. The way we learn how to respond is by actually doing what Catholics do. So the process of becoming Catholic is not so much about learning things as in a classroom but learning a way of life as an apprentice learns from a master and that master’s community.

Becoming an Apprentice
Becoming Catholic is like an apprenticeship. In the art department of a university I attended, there was a “master potter” who was the teacher for all the pottery students. But his students didn’t really have classes in a classroom like you would have at a school. What they did have was a lifestyle, or a discipline, and they all agreed to live by that lifestyle. In their discipline, the master potter agreed to teach them everything he knew, and the students agreed to watch the potter and follow his example. In a way, they became his disciples.

Every so often, the potter showed them a new skill, like making a tiny tea cup, while the students watched. Then he told them, “Make 100 tea cups like this every day for the next month. When you can do that, then you’re ready to go on to the next step.”

Yet the potter wasn’t only teaching skills; he was also introducing them to the lifestyle of a being a potter. So he had them eat together (using the plates and cups they made), talk about life with each other, take walks together looking at nature for inspiration, and even chop wood together for the kiln that fired their pottery. Little by little and day by day, the students were becoming potters themselves, learning by watching the master, doing as he did, and living as he lived.

Becoming Catholic is a lot like this. There are stages to follow, benchmarks to watch for, and disciplines to be learned and lived before moving on the next step. The process is called the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (often called RCIA). In Part 2: Beginning the Process of Becoming Catholic, we’ll look at the first stage of this apprenticeship into Christian life.