Help with Children’s RCIA

Team RCIA has a great guide to help you Improve Your Children’s RCIA. Go to the link and enter your email and a copy of the booklet will be sent to you for free!

How the RCIA Evangelizes the Parish

Now that the Vigil is over, you may find your phone and email messages about how to become Catholic increase. Read this article by Forum Member, Terry Zobel about the power of the RCIA to evangelize the entire parish.  It will make you stop and consider the importance of doing RCIA well knowing that the effects of RCIA reach way beyond the candidates and catechumens.

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Mystagogical Sessions Outside of the Eucharist

by Terry Zobel

The Rite does not have a whole lot to say about this period and it doesn’t really give us much in the way of how-to instructions for its implementation. What is does say can be found in paragraphs 244-51—a mere eight paragraphs. Those paragraphs give us the flavor, the tone, the mood for this rich period. For me, this period has three distinct elements.

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Mystagogy: Looking back to move ahead

by Kathy Kuczka

The period of Mystagogy offers the newly initiated the opportunity to deepen their grasp of the paschal mystery by participating in the Eucharistic life of the parish community. It also offers the community the opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the new life in their midst.

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The Scrutiny Rites: The Presider’s Role

Turner bookby Kathy Kuczka

In Celebrating Initiation: A Guide for Priests author Paul Turner, a priest of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, leads priests through twenty-six rites of initiation, including adaptations for the baptized candidates, the various infant baptismal rites, and so on. With the Lenten season upon us, we will look at what he says about the scrutiny rites for unbaptized adults and children and the penitential rite for the baptized.

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It’s Lent! Sessions for the Period of Purification and Enlightenment

Archbishop Wilton D, Gregory, second from left, returns the Book of the Elect to Ray Hines, the RCIA coordinator at Mary Our Queen Church, Norcross, during the Feb. 22 Rite of Election at the Cobb Galleria Centre. Photo By Michael Alexander
Archbishop Wilton D, Gregory, second from left, returns the Book of the Elect to Ray Hines, the RCIA coordinator at Mary Our Queen Church, Norcross, during the Feb. 22 Rite of Election at the Cobb Galleria Centre. Photo By Michael Alexander

by: Tina Harding

“The goal and focus of the catechesis during the period of purification and enlightenment is different from that during the period of the catechumenate. During the period of the catechumenate, the focus of catechesis was immersion into the fullness of the Christian community as expressed in the Catholic Tradition – scripture, doctrine, worship, community and service. The period of purification and enlightenment presumes such immersion and the readiness to make the commitment of baptism.

NOW THE FOCUS IS AKIN TO A RETREAT!

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The Lenten Rites – Involving the Community

During the Feb. 21 Rite of Election and the Call to Continuing Conversion at the Atlanta Civic Center, Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory acknowledges the names in the Book of the Elect with a prayerful kiss of peace.
During the Feb. 21 Rite of Election and the Call to Continuing Conversion at the Atlanta Civic Center, Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory acknowledges the names in the Book of the Elect with a prayerful kiss of peace.

by Kathy Kuczka

Lent is laden with rites for the Catechumens and Candidates.   But, the rites aren’t only for the benefit of those in the process of initiation.   The Rite of Christian Initiation tells us that rites should be executed so that the “entire community benefits.” Here are some ways to involve the initiating community.

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Archbishop Gregory’s Statement Regarding the Annulment Process

Archbishop Gregory has released a statement regarding Pope Francis’ changes to the annulment process. For more information on the annulment process changes, please see this article on the Georgia Bulletin website: “After study by special Vatican commission, Pope Francis simplifies annulment process for some cases.”

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