Today we’ll examine three places we can adapt from where the norm is given, three places where we can and should make adaptations, three places where you must adapt the text, and three places where you cannot adapt or divert from the norm provided. How does this sound like what happens in your parish? Share …
Even if you’re not the music coordinator or liturgist for your community, you can still engage your parish community in this significant and important first ritual for your seekers on their journey of faith. The role of the assembly is what will bring this ritual alive! Free download: The parish is the RCIA catechetical plan
The Rite of Acceptance into the Order of Catechumens instructs that a group of the faithful go outside to gather with those who will become catechumens. How do you convince your entire assembly to move and go out?
Have you ever wondered about how to help your parishioners and new catechumens understand better the meaning of the Rite of Acceptance? Then just take a look at your church doors. In this short video, Diana walks you through three moments in the Rite of Acceptance where the church doors play a significant role …
The short answer is yes. Perhaps because we are just now emerging from our COVID stay-at-home isolation, parish teams seem to be asking about the rites of initiation and if all of them are mandatory. Some seekers may have a pressing need to forgo the normal sacramental process and be baptized without delay. This pastoral …
Is the Rite of Acceptance into the Order of Catechumens mandatory?
Earlier in this series on the rites of the catechumenate process, we discussed liminality. To live in a liminal state is the live betwixt and between, neither here nor there. The Rite of Acceptance into the Order of Catechumens is the first and clearest rite that puts seekers into a liminal life. There are two …
The Rite of Acceptance — the beginning of a paschal journey for the RCIA seekers
Some of the RCIA rituals can be complicated. The Rite of Acceptance into the Order of Catechumens, for example, takes place in several locations, requires at least one procession, includes multiple gestures, and has many different moments of ritual dialogue. Our first inclination might be to write out a script for the seekers so they …
Mollie Muntefering is the coordinator of liturgy and music at St. Mary Catholic Church in Waverly, Iowa. Does your parish have a year-round RCIA process? Do you have a story you’d like to share? If so, please send about 1,000 words to Nick Wagner, nick@teamrcia.com. On the first Sunday of Advent this year, St. Mary …
Q: During the pandemic, how should we handle the signing the senses in the Rite of Acceptance into the Order of Catechumens? Is it permissible to sign without touching the person? In other words, to make the sign of the cross in front of the eyes, the mouth, etc. rather than actually on them? A: …
Celebrating liturgy well is important. It is especially important in the rites of the catechumenate. The U.S. bishops said, “Good celebrations can foster and nourish faith. Poor celebrations may weaken it” (Sing to the Lord, 5). What makes one liturgy good and another poor? Most people who are trained in liturgy can tell us, but …
