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There was also modeling and celebrating of the liturgies of the catechumenate, including the Rite of Acceptance, Rite of Election or Call to Continuing Conversion and Rite of Scrutiny. A Eucharist was celebrated which incorporated various elements from an Easter Vigil celebration.
Team leaders for the institute were among North America’s most experienced pastoral ministers, liturgists, catechists and theologians.
Rick Goodwin of the Diocese of San Jose, Calif., has been a religious education, adult education and catechumenate director and an adjunct professor at the Los Angeles Biblical Institute, as well as serving on catechumenate and liturgy diocesan committees. He is also manager in a national retail store and a diocesan and parish speaker.
Sister Gael Gensler, OSF, a pastoral associate in the Archdiocese of Chicago, has been involved in adult initiation for 25 years, plus served on the Forum staff and is a Forum team member. She is co-author of the Foundations in Faith series and presents and writes on initiation topics.
Father Steve Lanza has served as an associate pastor, an administrator and a pastor in parishes of the Archdiocese of Chicago. Currently a pastor, he is also a contributing author to Catechumenate, A Catechumen’s Lectionary and the Foundations in Faith series.
Dolores Martinez, director of the Office of Worship for the Archdiocese of San Antonio, has worked in liturgy and liturgical music since 1980 at both parish and diocesan levels. She previously served as worship office director for the Diocese of Lubbock and Holy Spirit Parish in Duncanville.
Local coordinator for the event was Mark Banasau, associate director of the San Antonio Archdiocese Office of Worship.
Today’s Catholic attended several of the sessions, with selected highlights being featured in this and succeeding issues.
Overview of the Rite of Initiation
Sister Gael Gensler began with an overview, describing some of the guiding principles in working with the ritual text, The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. “In terms of approaching this book, it’s important to know it’s not a recipe book,” she said, noting it will not tell you exactly how long each period will be in terms of weeks/months/years. “Those of you who do recipes know that the longer you work with a recipe, the more you kind of adapt it to your own,” she said. However, she pointed out that one needs to really understand the whole ritual text and not adapt until the principles underlying the process are thoroughly understood.
She noted that liturgy and catechesis work hand in hand and together they invite the community to evangelize. “It’s the responsibility of all the baptized to welcome and help those who are seeking God,” she said. Our religious growth does not end with our Catholic schooling or CCD, but continues to grow. “We are a people on the move,” said Sister Gensler. “We’re not finished until we’re finished.”
She described the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults and the Rite of Infant Baptism as the over-arching introduction for initiation. The RCIA process can be abbreviated or expanded, and Sister Gensler elaborated on the various situations it accommodates. Particular to the United States are Combined Rites, which include both the baptized and the unbaptized, who may be catechized or uncatechized. The church advises that for those already catechized “no greater burden than necessary” be placed upon them in attaining full communion with the church.
She noted that Catholics who have been baptized and received Holy Communion, but have not received confirmation, do not belong in RCIA, as Eucharist is the ultimate culmination of the process. Neither is this rite for alienated Catholics returning to active practice. “They’ve already been initiated,” said Sister Gensler. “This is initiation, not ‘welcome home.’” If a program for such individuals does not exist in a parish, she recommended area parishes band together to offer such programs.
Sister Gael Gensler likened the precatechumenate to the dating process where “Some enchanted evening, across a crowded room, your eyes will meet and you find your way over there and say, ‘Hi, my name is ____. Who are you?’” Like dating, the length of time before making a lifetime commitment will vary, depending on the persons and circumstances involved. “This is a process paralleling falling in love with God in Christ,” she said.
Stressing the importance of vision in developing RCIA in a parish, Sister Gensler recommended, “Don’t settle for a program, when it’s a process you’re after.”
Precatechumenate — Time of Evangelization
Father Steve Lanza noted there are three important things to remember in the evangelization stage of the precatechumenate. “First of all,” he said, “grace is already at work in peoples’ lives before they come to us.”
Second, is the catechumen’s spiritual journey, which is a gradual process of stops and starts. “This journey varies according to the many forms of God’s grace, the free cooperation of the individual, the actions of the church and the circumstances of time and place,” he said. Lastly, is the action of the church, both the parish community and the larger church.
“Because of all this intersection of ‘stuff,’ this period of the precatechumenate has no set duration,” said Father Lan-za. “It takes as long as necessary.” He added, “This may mean a particular person might move on and others may not, because their needs are different. That also means this stage is pre-eminently ‘messy.’”
Comparing the pre-catechumenate to his favorite pastime of cooking risotto rice, Father Lanza noted, “You’ve got to keep going back to it. You might have other things that you’re preparing, but you’ve got to keep going back to that pan and stirring. ... eventually, you have a beautiful looking, tasty dish.” He continued, “Inherent in this stage, you’ve got all this good stuff coming together. And, as it comes together in peoples’ lives, we’re sharing in that, we’re helping to uncover ... that’s why it’s ‘messy.’”
Noting that we are the bringers of the “good news” to others, Father Lanza related, “We’re handing on something that’s been given to us from Jesus Christ, who was the first evangelizer ... which is the good news that we’re liberated from sin and eternal death and evil.” This salvation is a total gift from God, but, he pointed out, “When you accept the gift ... it could cost you later — as in the cross.”
He related that, as a result of Christ, the first evangelizer, a people were gathered into a community who in turn evangelized. “The whole reason for the existence of the church,” Father Lanza said, “is to spread good news. And that is why we do what we do in this initiation process.”
Precatechumenate — Time of Initial Conversion
Rick Goodwin unpacked the conversion aspect of the precatechumenate, noting this is a critical time for inquiry and evangelization leading to conversion.
“All of us have got to become good facilitators at listening to the stories that are going to be brought forth from the inquirers,” he said, “so that we can put God there, in their lives, which is always already there.” He added, “The task of evangelization is to link the ordinary human events with God’s presence.”
He noted it is the catechumens’ stories of change in their lives that we, the evangelizers, must connect to the larger story, Christ’s story, through Scripture and tradition. This creates an “aha” moment. When their stories are connected to the paschal mystery, it is the beginnings of faith. “We’re sharing the stories of salvation,” Goodwin said, “so that those people can be led to Christ.” As a result, they will become more Christ-like and disciples themselves.
He noted that, like many raised as Catholics, he never went through this questioning process. “None of us were ever trusted to have questions,” he said. “If I had a question, I got shut down with “It’s a mystery — forget it!” he joked.
In assisting the catechumens on their journey, he urged that we “let the spirit shine through them, by trusting their questions ... by accepting them for who they are and what they are, because what we’re leading them to is to Christ. Christ will do the changes in them.”
He added it is important to remember that evangelization does not take place only in the church or classes, but in our everyday interaction with the catechumens. Additionally, they must come to Christ of their own free will, with no push to initiation before they are ready. “If they get to the doors of the Rite of Acceptance and they do not have an ‘aha’ experience, you have picked the grapes before their time,” he reminded participants.
Elements of readiness to look for in the catechumen include: evidence of a firm faith, the beginnings of conversion, an intention to change their life and enter into a relationship with God, and evidence of a first stirring of repentance — repentance being conversion.
“There must be a start to the process of calling on God in prayer,” he noted, with the catechumens experiencing what the liturgical Rite of Acceptance really means. “It expresses what has gone on before in your life,” he said.
“Celebrate what has occurred in a person’s life,” said Goodwin, “because what you uncovered in that person’s life is going to be celebrated in the liturgy. Therefore, the liturgy is going to point them to a new direction ... It’s going to celebrate the cross of suffering or the cross of victory in their life. It’s going to celebrate the handing down of God’s word and tradition onto them in their life. It’s going to celebrate that they don’t walk alone in this life.” |