Is your RCIA open all year-round? Throw out your syllabus!

3 thoughts on “Is your RCIA open all year-round? Throw out your syllabus!”

  1. Theresa Kelley

    Thank you for continuing to say this in as many ways as possible. Each group of seekers is different and the process should have that flexibility to meet each person where they are on the journey. We shouldn’t know 6 months ahead what we are “covering” on the second week after Christmas. Over a five year period of co-ordinating RCIA I have come to grasp this model more fully each year. Being able to tell a candidate that we are not taking roll but rather looking for those outward signs of conversion of heart…a turning toward Christ. They will want to be there and not miss a thing. As it turns out you don’t have to be able to spell ciborium or even know what it is to be a Catholic. A blessed Holy Week to you and yours.

  2. Cathy Airdrie, Alberta

    I believe we are moving in this direction a bit more every year. We get together weekly for “sessions” or our “RCIA group” with a rotating facilitator, not a teacher. We meet around a rectangular table but when the group gets too large it is made square, its better when there is more face to face contact. Sometimes we use a day chapel. We welcome seekers in anytime of the year, the mixture of experience is healthy. We serve coffee and tea and begin sessions by talking about our week at work, with our families. We invite parishioners to share their journey – recent RCIA members, those working in the parish ministries, the deacon tells us how he was called, those volunteering for the Food bank. We also involve our group in making and serving coffee after Mass and try to hold Breaking Open the Word at each of our 4 weekend Masses at least once a year, each one has.a different “flavor”. The entire parish knows our catechumens from this as well as having a poster with their pictures on it in the lobby during Lent and Easter.
    Some of us attended a TeamRCIA conference and continue to use your articles. You have been very inspirational. Our team is united in our joy in being involved in RCIA!

  3. We started a year around program in 2016 after Easter. We have four distinct types of sessions: Inquiry, RCIA, Purification and Enlightenment(which is in addition to the RCIA) and Mystagogy.

    We are still making changes to the program to accommodate people who can’t make regular session by starting a Mentor program for one on one training.

    We video all the weekly sessions for RCIA which cover short topics of about 30 minutes so something can be preserved of the class that night. to be used by the Mentors if needed.

    We have even videoed Mystagogyt topics in the event we have a one-off person so they don’t miss anything of the RCIA experience.

    We have a small group at the Vigil this year, but we have had one baptism and 10 professions of faith since Oct. 22, 2017/.

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