Ever have one of those days? Ever have a string of them? Last week, I thought I should have just stayed in bed for most of it. I wish I’d have seen Mike St. Pierre’s post, 6 Ways to Rebound from a Tough Week, earlier. Here’s my favorite from the list:

Don’t give up by Wednesday. I find that if I can tough it out through Wednesday, my week is salvaged. This is a pivotal day so hang in there on hump day.

I’d add one more to Mike’s list. I saw it at the bottom of somebody’s e-mail, and I can’t remember to whom it was attributed:

Plan ahead. Noah didn’t start building after it was raining.

One of the complaints I sometimes hear from catechumenate teams is that the parish isn’t really the full expression of church that the catechumens-now-neophytes might have come to expect. It is one thing to catechize them fully and correctly about how word, worship, community, and service are fully realized in the Body of Christ as it gathers around the Table of the Lord. It is another thing to shove the new Christians out of the small-group nest and into the less-than-perfect, not-quite-open arms of our fellow parishioners.

The disconnect is not difficult for catechumenate team members to spot. We, for the most part, have taken seriously the church’s mandate for ongoing, lifelong faith formation. Sometimes our fellow parishioners and sometimes even parish staff members haven’t quite embraced that vision of church.

A vision of parish

What if you could get the whole parish to engage in the kind of ongoing faith formation that we shape the catechumens in? What if the entire parish were undergoing a lifelong conversion process that led to a full implementation of the ministries of word, worship, community, and service? What if our parishes were so committed to growing in faith that the neophytes could leave the catechumenate thinking, “This is exactly what I signed up for!”?

Well, I can’t promise that’s going to happen in your parish, but I can tell you the way to get there. Or rather, Bill Huebsch can. He’s written a book called Dreams and Visions: Pastoral Planning for Lifelong Faith Formation. The book is deceptively simple. It provides a blueprint for how to move from zero to a fully realized parish, actively involved in lifelong formation. Bill’s blueprint is ten easy-to-understand steps. Easy to understand, but perhaps not so easy to commit to. The first one is the doozy:

1. Decide to do this and commit yourself to the vision.

The pastor, senior staff members, and key volunteers have to be on board. Once that’s accomplished, the rest is going to be a piece of cake by comparison. Fortunately, Bill’s book provides lots of support, suggestions, ideas, and even meeting agendas. And he has an even deeper level of support on his Web site, PastoralPlanning.com.

If you want to hand off the neophytes to a parish that can help them continue to grow in their new faith, you have to check out these resources.

All of us here at TeamRCIA.com are active team members with the North American Forum on the Catechumenate. We serve on Forum institutes to provide ministers-volunteer and paid, full and part-time, lay and clergy-with deeper understanding of the vision of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and the skills to implement the Rite.

If you or the members of your team have never been on a Forum institute, why not take advantage of the opportunity this year? I guarantee you’ll love it.

Beginnings and Beyond

The “foundational” institute is called “Beginnings and Beyond,” and it gives you the full experience of the Rite, covering vision and skills needed to implement a process for catechumens.

Because the B&B is five days long, and not everyone can get away for that much time, there is a compressed version (four days), called a “Beginnings Plus.” If you can possibly do the longer version, it is definitely worth it. But if you can only give up four days, the B+ is your option.

Other institutes

The foundational institutes deal strictly with the catechumens, part 1 of the RCIA. There is a two-day institute called “Concerning the Baptized,” that deals with, well, the baptized. The focus of the institute is on how to implement the Rite of Reception into Full Communion.

The Forum also sponsors Vision of Initiation Ministry Conferences in partnership with local dioceses or formation institutions. These intensive two-day events cover evangelization, pastoral formation, the roles of the initiation process, and the connections between liturgy and catechesis.

There are several other institutes as well (which you can read about here), but these are the ones that members of TeamRCIA.com will be serving on over the next several months. Come join us!

Where you can find TeamRCIA

Aug. 22-23, Concerning the Baptized, Monterey, CA, Nick Wagner

Aug. 1-2, Concerning the Baptized, Boston, Rita Ferrone

Sep. 8-11, Beginnings Plus (with children’s focus), San Francisco (Menlo Park), Diana Macalintal

Sep. 19-20, Concerning the Baptized, Gaylord, MI, Rita Ferrone

Aug. 22-23, Concerning the Baptized, Los Angeles, CA, Nick Wagner

Oct. 7-9, Vision of Initiation (for clergy), Dodge City, KS, Rita Ferrone

Oct. 10-11, Vision of Initiation (pastoral ministers), Dodge City, KS, Rita Ferrone

(TeamRCIA.com member, Miriam Malone, SNJM, is taking the season off from doing institutes so she can focus on her dissertation for her DMin.)

The folks over at Walking the Rite Way have posted a review for catechumenate teams to help us reflect on how things are going. They take the review to a deeper level than simply asking what worked well and what didn’t. For instance, one of their review points asks how we view our own baptism:

How do we talk about Baptism with our catechumens and candidates? In her recent book Living Baptism Clare Watkins reminds us that Baptism isn’t primarily for ourselves, it should make a difference to the world:

“…baptism is not simply about religious piety, about which group you belong to, or worship with. Baptism is not a private, devotional affair, but carries with it a demand for the transformation of life, and an empowerment to live in a changed way…baptism makes a difference to the world, a difference oriented to God.”

You can read the entire checklist by clicking here.

I just got back from Orlando where I was attending the Emerging Models of Pastoral Leadership conference. I was hoping to learn some things about how the catechumenate is handled in clustered parishes, but, regrettably, there wasn’t much discussion about that. Many years ago, I worked in the very rural diocese of New Ulm, Minnesota. (There was a priest from New Ulm at the conference. We were talking together for about five minutes before we recognized each other. I guess we’re both a little older and grayer!)

At that time, the diocese had several clustered parishes but not too many that were really doing the catechumenate. Most had something they called “RCIA,” but only a few were really implementing the full process. And those tended to be the larger, non-clustered parishes.

At that time, these were some of the challenges I thought the clusters would have to deal with once they moved closer to full implementation:

1. What do you do when you have no catechumens—sometimes for years? How to do keep a team together, or pull one together, when an inquirer shows up?
2. If you have two or three catechumens, spread out over two or three parishes in the cluster, how do you manage the catechetical sessions? Separate sessions in each parish? Rotate sessions among the parishes? Stick with just one parish? And in each of these examples, how do you make it clear to the community that they are the primary catechist?
3. Celebrating initiation itself is actually not much of a problem. If there is a single priest for two or three parishes, he can only celebrate the Easter Vigil in one of them, so the catechumens from all the parishes in the cluster will be baptized in whatever parish the Vigil is in. But what about the rest of the rites? Would the Rite of Acceptance and the Scrutinies be celebrated in a single parish or in the home parishes of the catechumens?

Click on the comments link to share your own questions or your experiences. I have another thought to share in the comments as well.

As you know, Pope Benedict XVII is in the midst of his first visit (as pope) to the United States. Realizing that America is one of the most religiously diverse countries in the world, one of the events he participated in was an ecumenical prayer service at Saint Joseph’s Church in Yorkville, New York. During his remarks, he said:

Only by “holding fast” to sound teaching (2 Thess 2:15; cf. Rev 2:12-29) will we be able to respond to the challenges that confront us in an evolving world. Only in this way will we give unambiguous testimony to the truth of the Gospel and its moral teaching. This is the message which the world is waiting to hear from us. Like the early Christians, we have a responsibility to give transparent witness to the “reasons for our hope”, so that the eyes of all men and women of goodwill may be opened to see that God has shown us his face (cf. 2 Cor 3:12-18) and granted us access to his divine life through Jesus Christ.

I think this passage raises several important questions for catechumenate team members, who are certainly working hard to “hold fast” to sound teaching. Here are some things that crossed my mind.

1. What does “sound teaching” look like? How do I know if it is sound?
2. What are some of the “challenges that confront us in an evolving world”? What is an actual challenge that I personally face every day that my faith helps me respond to?
3. Do I give “unambiguous testimony to the truth of the Gospel”? Hey, I went to graduate school. I excelled in ambiguity. But when I am talking with catechumens, how successful am I at giving a strong and clear testimony to the truth of the Gospel?
4. Am I giving a “transparent witness to the ‘reasons for hope’” to men and women of goodwill? What about that cashier who was chatting with her friend instead of ringing up my eggs and bread? What about that guy who cut in front of me to grab the lone floor person’s attention at Home Depot?

I read a story a couple of months ago about a soldier who is going back to Iraq for his fourth tour. He volunteered. When a reporter asked him why he is going back, he said it was because he felt loved there. He knew the other soldiers in his unit would give their lives for him, and he for them. He said that when he was home, here in the U.S., he felt like people on the highway would just as soon run him into the retaining wall as look at him.

Sure, his story may be a little extreme, but how many others like him do we encounter everyday? People who don’t see the “reasons for hope” that we do? The questions Pope Benedict raises, it seems to me, are the kinds of question that should be most on our minds and hearts as we try to teach the faith.

If you want to comment on any of my questions or raise some of your own, hit the comment link. And I’ll be the first one to comment!

(Thanks to Whispers for the text of Pope Benedict’s address.)

Rita Ferrone, one of the team members here at TeamRCIA, recently published Liturgy: Sacrosanctum Concilium (Rediscovering Vatican II). It’s an excellent resource for catechumenate ministers who would like more background about the meaning and purpose of the liturgy. I wrote a review of the book on Amazon, which begins:

Rita Ferrone’s brief examination of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy could not be more timely. As the Vatican II generation moves toward its sunset years, we are obligated to pass on to our successors what we can of the fervor and passion that so energized the liturgical reform in the twentieth century. It is important that the church remembers what was intended and what still needs to be done.

You can read the entire review by clicking here.

I need your help. I’m currently writing a comprehensive guide to the catechumenate for parish RCIA teams. And I’m stuck trying to think of a name for it. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far. Do any of the titles strike you? Or do you have another suggestion? I’d love to know what you think.

Here are some of the folks that should be on your team. And the strengths they need to have.
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Team Leader

Characteristics of a good team leader:

1. Enthusiastic. There are a lot of ups and downs in developing an initiation process. A good leader has to see the upside a lot more than the downside.
2. Confident. There is plenty of opportunity for second guessing and self-doubt in a fledgling initiation process. A team leader needs to be confident of her abilities and the abilities of the rest of the team. She needs to be able to instill confidence in them.
3. Flexible. Something will go wrong. Some days, everything will go wrong. A good leader is flexible enough to take whatever is “wrong” and turns it into a learning opportunity.
4. Excellent. Being flexible does not mean being lax. A good leader will strive for excellence in every aspect of the catechumenate process.
5. Passionate. The pastoral care of the inquirers and catechumens should be the number one driving force for the team leader.
6. Prayerful. A team leader understands that she is a servant. The discipline of regular prayer, both personal and liturgical, is what keeps her obedient to her call to service.

Ambassador of Welcome (Inquiry coordinator)

If you only have one other person on the team besides the assembly, the pastor, and the team leader, I would find this person. These are some of the qualities you will want to look for:

Read the rest of this entry »

To be a sponsor is to make a big commitment. Believe it or not, there are many people in your parish who are looking to make a big commitment. Sometimes we undersell the commitment people have to make. All that does is say to the volunteer, “I’m not really going to ask very much of you because I don’t think you’d really want to do this anyway.” Try the opposite. Emphasize the important contribution the sponsor must make to the lives of the catechumens and how essential it is to the gospel mission that people like him make a sacrifice for the sake of the faith.

Also, ask the people who are likely to say yes. A sponsor is not someone sitting at home with nothing to do. That person has already said no a thousand times. That’s why he has so much free time. Here’s a list of 20 kinds of people to ask to be sponsors.

1. Those who have completed their neophyte year.
2. The spouses of the newly initiated.
3. The parents of the newly initiated.
4. The in-laws of the newly initiated.
5. The president of the parish council, six months before his term expires.
6. A Catholic school teacher, six months before her retirement.
7. A retired priest.
8. A retired sister.
9. The chairperson of last year’s banquet committee.
10. All the communion ministers.
11. All the lectors.
12. All the ushers.
13. The parish’s top ten financial contributors.
14. All the single mothers who had a baby baptized within the last five years.
15. All the grandparents of those babies.
16. All the ex-teenagers who were confirmed five years ago.
17. The parents of all the children who have celebrated first communion within the last five years.
18. The grandparents of those children.
19. All the “Protestants married to Catholics” who were received into the Catholic Church in the last five years.
20. All of the choir members.

Click here to read “Sponsors: Nine must-know facts”