Tuesday
Feb162010

You are invited! RCIA team members, sponsors, inquirers, catechumens, candidates, neophytes, and all interested people of faith.

You are welcome! To continue the RCIA process by reading and reflecting further on our weekly sessions.

You are reminded! That each one of us is called to ongoing conversion and transformation as we actively help each other discover how we can be better disciples of Jesus Christ.

You are included! “That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” - Ephesians 3:17 -19

   Lord, we pray for all who journey to you. Strengthen our faith. Open our hearts to the fullness of your love. Deepen our understanding. Set our hearts afire for the kingdom. We ask this through Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life for all. Amen.                                                               

Tuesday
Feb162010

What is RCIA?

September 10, 2008

A new look at the RCIA, journey for the entire parish

by Rita Burns Senseman

It’s been nearly 30 years since the Catholic Church first gave us a “new” way of initiating people into the Catholic Christian community. And it’s been over 10 years since the bishops of the United States mandated that this new way of initiating adults and older children be implemented in the parishes of the United States. This new way of initiating Catholics is called the RCIA—Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.

Not long ago our U.S. bishops took a closer look at how well the RCIA is working in our local parishes. The results of the bishops’ study on the RCIA were published in October 2000 in a report entitled Journey to the Fullness of Life. The bishops found that in some parishes the RCIA is working very well, yet in other parishes it doesn’t even exist. Nonetheless, the bishops say that the RCIA is “renewing the life of the Church in the United States” and that it must continue to be a priority in our parishes.

That’s a pretty strong endorsement! Why do our bishops want the RCIA to be a priority in our parishes when there is so much else going on in parish life? How does it renew a parish? And what’s it got to do with each of us? This Update will address these questions about RCIA as well as give a step-by-step explanation of the rite itself.

Read the rest of this article:  http://www.americancatholic.org/Newsletters/CU/ac0502.asp