Rita Ferrone is an award-winning writer and speaker on issues of liturgy and renewal in the Roman Catholic Church. She is a former parish and diocesan RCIA director and served for more than 20 years as a team member with the North American Forum on the Catechumenate. Rita is author of the monograph On the Rite of Election (LTP), and co-author of the Foundations in Faith series for RCIA teams (RCL). Her commentary on the liturgical reforms of Vatican II, Liturgy: Sacrosanctum Concilium (Paulist), is used in teaching worldwide. Rita is a blogger here and at Pray Tell, and a columnist at Commonweal Magazine. She also edits The Yale ISM Review, a publication of the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. She lives in Mount Vernon, New York.
Keep your eyes open when you attend the Rite of Election. Notice what happens. Here are ten questions (in no particular order) to help you sharpen your observations. 1. Did each catechumen have a godparent? They should. The godparents have an important role in this rite. No group godparents, please. Each catchumen should have somebody […]
Ten Questions about the RCIA Election Rite
A blog post at Whispers in the Loggia drew my attention to Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana. I had never heard of him, but I’m glad now that I have. Turkson is Ghana’s first cardinal and was the spokesman for October’s Synod of Bishops for Africa. He may soon be heading up the Vatican congregation
Notional Christianity vs. radical conversion
In June, New York’s new Archbishop, Timothy Dolan, came to welcome the participants at a Forum Institute held at the Passionist Center in Riverdale. (I was there.) He said a lot of positive things about the RCIA. (Click here to read his comments.) Archbishop Dolan is a church historian as well as a pastor. He
Sometimes talk about the RCIA process falls prey to generalizations based on “well, at my parish” or “everybody says.” It’s a good thing to balance one’s personal experience or hearsay with some objective information. If you haven’t already read the U.S. Bishops’ study on the implementation of the RCIA, Journey to the Fullness of Life,
The Paschal Triduum is the center of the liturgical year, and the Easter Vigil is its high point. It is the liturgy at which night turns into day, and death into resurrection. Why vigil? St. Augustine had a pithy insight into this question: “We now need not wait for the Lord to arrive…. And yet
One of the fabulous images for Holy Saturday is that of Jesus—after his descent into death—pulling Adam and Eve out of their tomb, their prison, and into the light and air. Their shackles fall away. Their eyes blink at the light. It’s the so-called “harrowing of hell” theme (it’s not really hell of course, but
Today’s Triduum liturgy includes a proclamation of the Passion according to John. Whether sung or spoken, this scripture passage is powerful. The symbolism in John’s account gives us much to meditate on-especially those of us engaged in the ministries of Christian initiation. Here is one example: “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom
The event of central importance on Holy Thursday will be the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper—the liturgy which begins the Triduum. I hope everybody is going to take part in this wonderful celebration! I won’t try to anticipate what takes place. Better to experience it for yourself. Perhaps Holy Thursday is also a good
This altarpiece (1508-17) is the work of the sculptor, Master Paul, in the church of Saint James in Levoča, in Upper Hungary (now part of the Slovak Republic). A good deal of individual character is written into each of the faces and figures. Look at Judas, seated across from Jesus, a moneybag slung over his shoulder
