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 …
Sponsors don’t need to know everything in order to be a sponsor. This is a relief for many. But you and they do need to know a few things about being a sponsor. Here are nine must-know facts about the role of sponsor. Free download: 5 essential elements of an RCIA sponsor’s job description Click …
In their book, Teaching as a Subversive Activity, Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner propose a new system of education that is driven and directed by the students. They engage students in creating a fictional but real “Quo Vadimus High School.” As the students go about creating their school, several questions come to mind. I wondered …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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: What have the catechumens been asking about? What issues came up during the dismissal reflections? What, in your opinion, …
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: What have the catechumens been asking about? What issues came up during the dismissal reflections? What, in your opinion, …
