By Lori Smith
“And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all that were in his house.” Acts 16:32
In part one we established the rationale for the wise process of the RCIA to move to the forefront of our endeavors for evangelisation and catechesis of entire families. Taking guidance from the Directory for Catechesis, our focus is on a “catechesis of catechumenal inspiration for those who have received the sacraments of initiation but are not yet sufficiently evangelised or catechised or for those who desire to resume the journey of faith.”1 This article explores the elements involved in developing a process incorporating post-baptismal evangelisation and catechesis for parents, inspired by the RCIA model.
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First Things First
A warm welcome with time set aside for conversation with the parents is essential as we begin our relationship with them. In other words, the more familiar model of “signing up” or “registering” the child for sacramental prep does not work in this situation. At this point we are most interested in meeting the parents and establishing a relationship.
Once a rapport has been developed, it is essential to determine why the parents believe it is important to bring their children of catechetical age to be baptised now and where they are in their faith journey. It is critical to begin looking into what their lived experience of “church” has been to determine what (if any) relationship they have with the person of Christ. Often, we find a bridge of trust with the Church itself through reception of sacraments as children, through relatives, etc., but not with Jesus Christ. They somehow sense God’s call but are often unable to articulate it. Our mission is to take them from where they are, bring them into the merciful arms of Jesus, and form them to be his disciples so that they, in turn, can form their children.
Experience with the thresholds of conversion: trust, curiosity, openness, seeking, and intentional discipleship2 is essential in these conversations because it assists us in finding out where the parents are in their faith journey. We need to discern this in order to know where to begin accompanying them on Christian Initiation Australia Network – RCIA Network News Summer 2022 the path to meet the risen Lord and become his disciples. This helps us tailor our evangelisation and catechesis to the particular threshold in which we find them.
The RCIA Adapted for Children parallels the adult RCIA with the application of the four periods of conversion: evangelisation and the precatechumenate, catechumenate, purification and enlightenment, and mystagogy. Applying the thresholds of conversion to the four RCIA periods, we see that the period of evangelisation and the precatechumenate generally coincide with the passive thresholds of trust, curiosity, and openness.3 This is when the participants (the family in this case), begin to develop a sense of trust with the disciples who are evangelising them (you and your team). As they witness your love for and trust in the Lord, they hopefully begin to develop trust, initially in you, which then extends to Christ as they progress. Having gained sufficient trust, they begin to feel safe enough to become curious about the Lord and his life. As they witness you in relationship with him, they wonder if this might be possible for them. The stage here is very passive in that they are observing and testing to see if the disciples who are catechising “walk the walk” as well as “talk the talk.” In other words, are you asking them to jump through a series of hoops in a certain period of time to receive a certificate, or are you a disciple of Christ who can show them the path to eternal life?
As their curiosity is stoked, the precatechumens, along with their parents and godparents, begin to cross into the threshold of openness, meaning “I might be open to the possibility of change.” This stagencontinues to remain at a level of passive openness, for the future disciple has not yet decided to change; he is simply open to the possibility that he might need to change. The older the person is, the more frightening this can be, often becoming a kind of crisis as he encounters the truth that a decision needs to be made, which will cost him either way. This threshold requires prayer and accompaniment on the part of the disciples who teach and accompany, as well as prayer from the participant. Precatechumens who have begun to learn the habit of prayer tend to move with less drama into an active openness which precedes and carries over into the threshold of seeking, where formal instruction in the faith is most effectively received.
The Call and the Promise
As disciples, we are privileged instruments of Christ. We are to make his call audible to those he sends us. What do they receive if they answer yes? Attached to his call is the promise of the Covenant our Lord offers and which we are responsible for presenting as promised directly to each individual: you will live, have eternal life, and have a friend who will be with you always. If the precatechumens do not hear the Lord’s call, they cannot be curious about the promise, and if they do not hear the promise, they will not respond to formal instruction because they will not hear it. The same naturally applies to the parents. Perhaps they have never heard the call and the promise, maybe they gave forgotten it, or possibly it lies buried in the past, deep in their subconscious.
Once disciples in formation establish a bridge of trust through our witness and invitation, and by extension hear the Lord’s call, they can begin to move into curiosity. Could God be calling them into relationship with him, sinners that they are? What might that look like? When they see disciples in their midst securely in relationship with God and continually giving witness to their journeys, they begin to see that it may be possible for them as well. It is important to note that although the promise of the Covenant has been presented personally, it must also be received personally so the person may respond. “Only a catechesis that strives to help each individual to develop his own unique response of faith can reach the specified goal” (DC 3).4 They now proceed toward the threshold of openness, which as was pointed out above, begins as passive receptivity to the possibility that they might need to change. No decision has yet been made, and curiosity continues as they test the waters to see if change may even be possible, let alone desirable.
Once the call and the promise of the Covenant are both heard and received, with God’s grace they may become open to engage in prayerful dialogue with God. Crossing the threshold into the seeking phase disposes them to receive formal catechesis. Formal instruction in the faith can be counter-productive if the participants are still trying to build trust with the catechists, the Church, and the Lord. Keeping in mind that the parents have received formal instruction before reception of their sacraments as children, they may not have been seekers at the time of instruction. Now they have the opportunity to make the decision as adults and begin actively working on the changes needed in both head and heart to respond to their call by the Lord. The decision comes with great cost since it involves sacrifice, which can be uncomfortable; yet, the growing desire renders their hearts open to hear what they must do to respond to God’s call.
Using the catechumenal model, we have now paralleled the adults through a period of evangelisation and accompanied them through the thresholds of trust, curiosity, and openness as we extended God’s call and the promises of the Covenant to them. Once they have crossed over the seeking threshold, which parallels the catechumenate, we can begin teaching to the Rites of Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist for their children and from these rites for the parents. As their children prepare for upcoming RCIA rites, the parents are prepared concurrently, so they understand what their children are receiving. In this way, they can participate more deeply, and along the way make the choice to give their yes to God and to respond to him as we move through the stages of conversion with them.
It is critical never to shame the parents because their children are over the age of reason and have yet to be baptised. Rather, they are warmly welcomed as we share with them joy and excitement that they have heard God’s call now and are responding, emphasising the beauty of doing this all together as a family! Encouragement and guidance are key elements as we give them tools to become the primary teachers of their children in the faith. As parents learn their faith from an adult viewpoint, they may become excited and confident to share it with their children as well as other adults in their circle of influence. The goal is to move them in the faith from head to heart and into life as they build the kingdom of God in their families and in the world.
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The Stipulation and the Sign of the Covenant
As noted above, seeking is the appropriate threshold to begin formal instruction in the faith and it corresponds with the period of the catechumenate. Here, the disciple in formation learns the stipulation concerning the call and promise of God. In other words, he learns what he must do to keep the faith and remain in the Covenant relationship with God.
During the period of purification and enlightenment, the children enter into proximate preparation for reception of the Sacraments of Initiation.5 During this penitential time, all “formal” catechesis ceases as the catechumens, who have now become the elect of God, dive deep into their souls for interior Christian Initiation Australia Network – RCIA Network News Summer 2022 reflection to bring their sins to the surface to be washed away in the waters of Baptism. Paralleling this for the parents allows them to examine their consciences and see what needs to be purified in them as they confess and do penance during the Season of Lent.
By the time the children approach the sacraments of Initiation, the entire family has had the opportunity to make their commitment to become intentional, committed disciples of Jesus Christ. This is not the time to cease learning their faith! On the contrary, formal instruction continues. Now they develop a deeper and more intimate awareness of the mysteries of the faith by living a sacramental life. The period of mystagogy and the neophyte year are all about learning to live the life exemplified in the Acts of the Apostles in the midst of the community (RCIA 234–237). The young people are prepared to make their first Confessions during mystagogy and the families celebrate this Sacrament of Mercy with them. The entire family is now capable of better understanding the sign of the Covenant—the sacrifice of our Lord—as well as the offering of sacrifice we make as participants in Christ’s royal priesthood. As they pray together and make a gift of self to one another in their families, they begin bringing this out into their daily lives in the parish, at work, in study, at play, and in missionary discipleship to others. In addition to frequent reception of the sacraments, ongoing formation both in the home and in the parish is essential. Continual learning will nourish and sustain these families as they follow the Lord on the path of holiness to eternal life.
In the Mission Field of the Family
Application of the catechumenal model in an RCIA adapted for families process is a mission that desperately needs to be developed in this time of salvation history, for “the future of the world and of the Church passes through the family.”6 Accompanying these spiritually starving parents into relationship with Christ and his Church is building the kingdom of God. As Pope St. John Paul II exhorted in Familiaris Consortio, “Each family finds within itself a summons that cannot be ignored, and that specifies both its dignity and its responsibility: family, become what you are.”7 Much work needs to be done in this area of the vineyard to assist families to become what they are: a community of life and love imaging the relationship of the Holy Trinity as God intended. In this way, “all believers are active participants in the catechetical initiative, not passive consumers or recipients of a service, and because of this are called to become authentic missionary disciples” (DC 14).8
In summary, what we are doing in our parish is using the catechumenal model and adapting it for the benefit of the entire family using age-appropriate criteria, content, and methodologies. As the Directory for Catechesis emphasises, “Catechumenal inspiration also makes it possible to reconsider the primary role of the family and of the entire community with regard to children, activating processes of reciprocal evangelisation among the different ecclesial subjects involved” (DC 242). Wise use of the RCIA model allows “reciprocal evangelisation” to occur naturally in the family, enriching the soil in order that the seeds planted take root, grow deep, and produce much fruit.
May we continue to develop this process under the direction and guidance of the Church as we light the way for families to navigate through these challenging times. As the light of Christ flows through us as catechists into the families he brings to us, it then flows through the families out into our world, which is so badly in need of God’s mercy and love.
Lori Smith is a mentor and task writer for the Catechetical Institute’s RCIA Track at Franciscan University. She lives in Chico, CA, where she is RCIA Director for St. John the Baptist Parish and Formation Chair of the RCIA Committee for the Diocese of Sacramento. Christian Initiation Australia Network – RCIA Network News Summer 2022
Reprinted with permission, original article: Smith, L., RCIA & Adult Faith Formation: RCIA Adapted for Families—It’s All About the Parents, Part Two: Developing a Process, The Catechetical Review , Issue #7.2, Apr-Jun 2021, (Online Edition) ISSN 2379-6324. Part One of Smith’s article was reprinted in Network News Spring 2021.
- Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation, Directory for Catechesis (Washington, DC: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2020), no. 62 (hereafter cited in text as DC); emphasis original.
- Sherry Weddell, Forming Intentional Disciples (Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 2012). An excellent description of the thresholds of conversion and their application in evangelisation and catechesis can be found in chapters 5–8.
- The correlation between the periods of the RCIA and the thresholds of conversion with the corresponding stages of covenant theology is attributed to Michael Sweeney, O.P., Lay Mission Project, Faith Formation Course, https://laymission.net/courses/faith-formation.
- Emphasis original.
- National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (Chicago, IL: Liturgy Training Publications, 1988), 138, 277 (hereafter cited in text as RCIA).
- John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, no. 75.
- Familiaris Consortio, no. 17; emphasis original.
- Emphasis original.
