Two-and-a-half steps to powerful faith formation in the
RCIA

 
Step 1: Liturgy
 
The secret effective faith formation is to balance the complete coverage of doctrine and the varied, grace-filled lives of the candidates and catechumens.
To do this, we need to use the Sunday liturgy as the starting point. Faith, Life & Creed provides a Breaking Open the Word session for every Sunday of the year. Through these sessions, the catechist reflects with the catechumens and candidates on the doctrine of the church that flows from the celebration of the liturgy over the course of a complete liturgical year.
 
 
Half-step: Connection
Every celebration of the liturgy is an encounter with Christ. And every encounter with Christ stirs up questions of faith and belief within us. Faith, Life, & Creed provides several examples of possible teachings that might respond to the questions raised in your session. And it provides a simple, clear connecting statement that ties the experience of the catechumens and candidates directly to the teaching of the church. It couldn’t be simpler!
 
 
Step 2: Catechesis
Faith, Life, & Creed provides forty possible easy-to-use doctrinal sessions that flow naturally from the celebration of the liturgy and the liturgical year. Each session has enough solid material for two hours of teaching. But what if your sessions are shorter than that? No problem. The material is easily adaptable to whatever length you need. Each doctrinal session is keyed to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. And Faith, Life, & Creed provides helpful resource handouts—with complete copying permission—for your catechumens and candidates.
And that’s not all. Faith, Life, & Creed features a scope and sequence chart (pdf download) that provides the topic, the basic bulleted themes inherent in each topic, where it might be used in the liturgical cycle, where it is accommodated to the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the United States Catholic Catechism and the popular Growing Faith series from Bill Huebsch and Twenty-Third Publications.
If you put this resource in the hands of your catechists, they are going to love you for it. Here’s why.