RCIA Ministers and their formation

A summary of Fr Tony Chiera’s Keynote Address 2012 ACN Conference in Brisbane

The starting point for Fr. Tony Chiera’s keynote address was the Rite:

“The rite of Christian initiation presented here is designed for adults who, after hearing the mystery of Christ proclaimed, consciously and freely seek the living God and enter the way of faith and conversion as the Holy Spirit, opens their hearts”. (RCIA #1)

The Rite, in speaking of the precatechumenate as a time of evangelisation, describes the goal of this period in these terms: “Thus those who are not yet Christians, their hearts opened by the Holy Spirit may believe and be freely converted to the Lord and commit themselves sincerely to him”. (RCIA #36)

The keynote address explored the following questions:

1. What are RCIA ministers working for?
2. What are the challenges for RCIA ministers?
3. What are the key principles of RCIA ministry?
4. What are the key questions about specific ministries?

What are RCIA ministers working for?
We are doing God’s work and inviting enquirers to enter into the circle of Trinitarian love: the love of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The RCIA gives them the chance to explore who they really are.

Who am I? “Trying to find God without opening yourself is a futile journey” … St Augustine.

The heart has seasons … God calls us to explore and to celebrate these seasons of the heart. God does not want us to live in shame, guilt and fear. The Scriptures become the source

empowering and offering freedom and fullness of life. We know that candidates are truly interacting with the Scriptures when they are more alive.

Through rituals, community, etc., the RCIA nourishes the infinite variety of shades and colours of each human heart. This is the power of the rite of the signing of the senses … that Christ may dwell therein.

It is within the heart that we encounter the Divine Trinity. … The Trinity in the act of self-gift to each other … totally and holding nothing back … is encountered in the human heart.

The work of RCIA ministers comes truly alive within this Trinitarian encounter. It is an encounter that always leads to a process of conversion.

“Conversion… is the change that happens when we allow God to love us enough that God reforms us, refashioned into men and women who value each other and our relationships in self-sacrificing love”. ((Morris RCIA: Transforming the Church pp26-27)

What are the challenges for RCIA ministers?

• ‘The best on-going and effective formation for RCIA ministries is a vital Parish life.’ Word, Worship, Community and Service. Questions to ask about the local Parish:
  • Is the Word of God central to the life of the Parish?
  • Is the Liturgy well celebrated and lifegiving? Are real relationships being formed between Parishioners?
  • Is there a strong sense of service and care for others?
•  To provide the Parish and ministers with accurate and basic information about how the RCIA process works. Read, teach and practise the Book!
• Challenges and temptations:
  • ‘re-shape it into my image and likeness.’
  • ‘leave out things and make it easier for people.’

Fr. Tony concluded this section with a very challenging quote:

“On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of the conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? … It is madness for ladies to wear straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping God may wake some day and take offence, or the waking God may draw us out to where we can never return”. (Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk, 1982)

What are the key principles of RCIA ministry?

• “The catechumenate is not a mere expounding of doctrines and precepts, but a training period for the whole Christian life. It is an apprenticeship of appropriate length, during which disciples are joined to Christ their Teacher”. (Decree on Missionary Activity #14)
• ‘The catechumenate is an extended period during which the candidates are given suitable pastoral formation and guidance aimed at training them in the Christian life”. (RCIA #75)
• “This comprehensive formation (initiatory catechesis) includes more than instruction: it is an apprenticeship of the whole Christian life”. (GDC #67)
• Apprenticeship and Training
  Not only teaching what Catholics believe, how they pray, how they are formed in community and how they work for the Reign of God; but have catechumens actually do these things during their formation. “… one learns how to fast, pray, repent, celebrate, and serve the good of one’s neighbour less by being lectured on these matters than by close association with people who do these things with regular ease and flair”. (A. Kavanagh Made, Not Born p122)

What are some of the key questions about specific RCIA ministries?

The Community

• How to awaken the sense of responsibility that comes with being baptised?
• How can each member of the Parish help those searching for Christ?
• How can we develop and deepen the quality and vitality of our Parish life?
• How can the whole Parish come to know, welcome and support catechumens?
• How can the whole community actively and enthusiastically participate in the rituals of initiation?

Sponsors

• How to develop awareness of the journey of faith, and the nature of conversion?
• How does one ‘accompany’ someone on the journey of faith?
• What does it mean to ‘share faith’, and give support and example to catechumens?
• How do we identify ‘signs of growth’ along the journey?
• How do we cultivate generosity, sensitivity and openness to receive?

Godparents All the above for sponsors, plus:

• How do we prepare people for this ‘life-long’ relationship/friendship in the Lord?
• How do we assist godparents to be an example and help in the daily life of new Christians?

Priests and Pastoral Teams

• ‘The initiation process needs to hold priority for the staff or else it will not hold priority for the Parish Community’ (Morris p 69). How do we assist our Pastoral leaders to recognise this pastoral priority?
• How do we support and encourage them in their roles of presider, homilist, leader and pastoral carer?

Catechists

• How do we prepare catechists for ministry with adults?
• How do we help catechists to make connections: life story – scripture story – community story?
• How do we open up for catechists the riches of the liturgical year and the lectionary?
• How do we develop the skills of listening, discernment and sensitivity so as to respond to the needs of individuals?
• How do we ensure an authentic understanding of the Christian story and Catholic Tradition?

Initiation Team

• How do we introduce (and keep introducing) the Team to the ‘basics’ of the RCIA journey and process?
• How do we foster sensitivity in team members of the dynamics of conversion and faith in their own lives?
• How do we develop the art of ‘telling-our-story’ of meeting God?
• How does the team work within the parish and for the parish?
• How does the team cultivate skills of listening, partnership, challenge, affirmation etc.?
• How does the team care for its members? ‘the RCIA tends to engender enthusiasm and high levels of commitment from team members … (hence the need for the team to) reflect on realistic expectations and develop skills for stress …’. (Morris p74)

Conclusion
Fr. Tony concluded with the poem “When Death Comes” by Mary Oliver

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn
when death comes and takes all the bright coins
from his purse
to buy me, and snaps his purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox;

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering;
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth
tending as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened or full of argument.

I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.