Sister Kate O’Neil, IHM, sent me an e-mail recently, telling me about her parish’s plan to begin catechizing the baptized candidates and the catechumens separately. As you know, in most parishes, that would take a whole bunch more person-power. Well, Sister Kate has what it takes. She told me she’s recruited seven new team members. […]
The secret to recruiting RCIA team members
One of the reasons often given for doing only a partial RCIA process is a lack of volunteers. So let’s look closely at how you can redeploy your current volunteers more efficiently. I’m going to imagine you have a team of three people, plus sponsors or godparents as needed. You may have fewer than that,
Expanding yourself for a continuous RCIA process
Whenever we lead an RCIA institute, we tend to ask how many of the teams present are using a year-round process for the catechumenate in their parishes. Typically, about a fourth to a third of the hands go up. That seems like an awfully low percentage to me. Now in all the time I’ve been
The team you need for a year-round RCIA
We don’t often think of the acolyte or server as a team member, but this minster’s role can be important in the smooth flow of the rites. Perhaps because most parishes have someone who schedules and trains servers, we don’t think it is our place as catechumenate leaders to step in. Every parish has its
5 characteristics of a key RCIA team member—the acolyte
The ideal sponsor is someone fully immersed in their Catholic faith, and it’s wonderful when you have sponsors like this. In my experience, however, sponsors are sometimes not much more catechized than the catechumens. When that is the case, the sponsor coordinator is really a sponsor to the sponsors. If you find yourself working with
How do you train sponsors for the RCIA?
I love stories, especially stories about how people got started in ministry. And more especially about how people got started in catechumenate ministry. We are, after all, a pretty specialized group. Sure, if we all showed up at a convention, it would look like there were a lot of us. But next time you are
How did you get started in RCIA ministry?
Diana just created TeamRCIA’s essential reading list for catechumenate teams. It’s a work in progress, and there are more resources we want to list. But here’s a start. What’s missing? What resources does your team depend on? Click on comments, and share your secret sauce with the rest of us.
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
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
What happens after the catechumenate?
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:
Spring checklist for RCIA teams
