Christian Initiation Of Adults Research Articles

동일화 과정으로서의 기독교 입문식: RCIA를 중심으로

동일화 과정으로서의 기독교 입문식: RCIA를 중심으로

Catecumenado del Ritual de la Iniciación Cristiana de Adultos (RICA): un ejemplo de inteligencia sentiente

La filosofia realista de Xavier Zubiri apuntó una via liberadora de la “inteligencia concipiente”, en la cual el concepto y el juicio constituían el acto primario de intelección y no la aprehensión de la “realidad”. Este modo de conocer, desde los griegos, separó el sentir y el inteligir como dos facultades independientes e incluso opuestas. Al contrario, en la “inteligencia sentiente” tanto el sentir como el inteligir son momentos del único acto de conocimiento, en el que el primario y radical es la aprehensión de la “realidad” más que los conceptos. La recuperación del catecumenado de iniciación cristiana de adultos por el Concilio Vaticano II es una excelente demostración de la “inteligencia sentiente” al servicio de la fe.

New directions in adult baptism: Baptism in a secular culture

In this article I argue that the rise of secular culture demands a new approach to baptism, especially the baptism of adult converts for whom the claims of Christianity may be entirely unfamiliar and who will in consequence need extensive preparation to make the sacrament sensible and the Christian life meaningful. Towards that end, I review work done on the subject in the Church of Scotland and commend the Roman Catholic Rites of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) as a model for the development of a full catechumenate.

To All the World: Preaching and the New Evangelization ed. by Michael E. Connors

Reviewed by: To All the World: Preaching and the New Evangelization ed. by Michael E. Connors Thomas Lane Michael E. Connors, ed. To All the World: Preaching and the New Evangelization Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2016 ix + 167 pages. Paperback. $24.95. To All the World is a pleasant and inspiring read for anyone engaging in preaching. More than thirty years ago, Pope John Paul II summoned the Church to "a New Evangelization, new in its ardor, methods, and expression" (Address to CELAM, 9 March 1983). This volume, zealous for the Church's mission and message, displaying love of God and his people, is the result of a conference of the same name at the University of Notre Dame in June 2014. Chapter 1, entitled "Preaching: Conversation in Friendship," by Timothy Radcliffe, O.P. applies the encounter of the two disciples with Christ on the road to Emmaus to evangelization today. Conversation is the typical mode of communication and the communication should be joyful. There is prejudice against doctrine but there can be no effective evangelization unless we discover the beauty of our doctrine (4). Chapter 2, "La Virgen de Guadalupe as Mother and Master Icon for the New Evangelization," by Virgilio Elizondo describes Guadalupe as the most successful evangelization since Pentecost (13). "It is really the Gospel presented in native terms" (20). Guadalupe is the key to our task (21). Our Lady opened the doors to the first evangelization and will be the star leading us into the New evangelization (21). Chapter 3 by Honora Werner, O.P., "Forming Preachers for the new Evangelization," begins by calling attention to our duty to evangelize arising out of baptism. Each one must ask, "What is my pulpit?" Some are liturgical, most are not (22). The chapter considers the formation of preachers for the new Evangelization under three dimensions: forming ourselves; forming our students; forming the people of God (assemblies) and gives many examples for each dimension under this four-word practical guide: prayer, care, share, dare. [End Page 98] Chapter 4 by Jude Siciliano, O.P. is on "Preaching with Evangelical-Dynamism." The chapter focusses almost entirely on the preparation for preaching, emphasizing in many different ways the necessity of spending time in prayer and reflection on the word prior to preaching. Paul Turner in chapter 5, "Preaching and the Rites of Initiation," draws on wide priestly experience as he leads us through all the various rites of initiation, concentrating on the Christian Initiation of Adults and possibilities for preaching them. During many of the rites of initiation he preaches on the readings as he finds the rites themselves self-explanatory. Curtis Martin in chapter 6, "Made for Mission: Evangelizing Young Adults," clearly lets shine forth his enthusiasm for and joy in the Church, the Catholic faith, and evangelizing. The issue to be overcome now is apathy, "I don't care." If apathy is not addressed, no amount of teaching will change lives (53). The first step in overcoming apathy is getting into people's lives (57). David Garcia devotes chapter 7 to "The Bilingual Preacher, Catholic Social Teaching, and the Hispanic Community." A familiar saying in Spanish is Mi casa es su casa, "my house is your house." This attitude of welcome needs to be communicated to all who approach our churches. It is not enough to simply translate an English homily into Spanish. Because of the different cultures, in a bilingual parish, the preacher needs to prepare two homilies using different images and stories. Chapter 8 by Donald Senior, C.P. focusses on the document Preaching the Mystery of Faith published by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. "[T]he Sunday homily remains one of the most important personal encounters that the priest and deacon can have with our people. And for Catholics, participation at the Sunday Eucharist and hearing the preaching of the Sunday liturgy is where they most encounter the face of the church!" (76). Preaching with an eye on the New Evangelization is "with an eye toward illuminating and deepening the Catholic faith and identity of the congregation" (80). For most Catholics, the face of the Church is most [End Page 99] readily and frequently experienced...

Spiritual Conversation as Religiously Educative

This article proposes spiritual conversation as a religiously educative activity. Revelation as the relational activity of speaking–listening between the human and the divine in daily life, and education as an activity to show someone how to live and die, are key concepts for this study. This work includes a study of narrative at the heart of spiritual conversation. By uncovering the two contrasting processes of religious education, namely teaching religion and teaching how to be religious, this work identifies the contexts in which these processes may take place. This article explores spiritual conversation in two settings: Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and biomedicine.

Implementation of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA)

Implementation of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA)

The Diocesan Bishop and the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults

After many years of celebrating the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA), it is opportune to reflect on the role of the diocesan bishop in its implementation and execution. The unique lead...

An Exploration of the Communal Enactment of the RCIA Scrutinies

The celebration of the scrutinies in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) could well be described as the lifetime journey of conversion encapsulated in ritualized prayer. Unfortunately, these intense rites, usually celebrated at the conclusion of the Liturgy of the Word on the third, fourth, and fifth Sundays of Lent, are also often some of the most misunderstood and poorly enacted in contemporary liturgical praxis, at least in the U.S. context. The scrutinies’ purpose is to call people to recognize their need for ongoing conversion. Helping leaders of liturgical prayer and others to avoid misunderstanding and malpractice of them—two characteristics that are often integrally interrelated in contemporary liturgical celebration in general—is this essay’s purpose. The scrutinies are offered to “enlighten” both the elect and the assembly about the need to name realities of sin and brokenness in our lives, communities, and the world, while recognizing the power of God at work in Jesus Christ to transform these hurtful situations into the beginnings of liberation and salvation. They are thus ritual acts that are a deepening of the conversion experience that each of the elect is experiencing through prayer, self-searching, reflection on the Scriptures,

Christian Initiation at Easter: For “Joiners,” Not “Switchers”

In their case studies of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) in actual parish settings in the Midwestern United States, Real Stories of Christian Initiation, David Yamane and Sarah Ma...

The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and Social Justice

As I worship in my church community I am surrounded by current and recent catechumens and candidates. An African-American couple, a twenty-something gay man, a young woman just scraping by in a min...

‘The catechumenate for adults is to be restored’: Patristic Adaptation in the Rite for the Christian Initiation of Adults

At the end of the third session of the Second Vatican Council in 1963, the bishops were able to make a beginning to their legislative work by promulgating two documents which they fondly hoped would be uncontroversial: the unremarkable Decree on Mass Media, and the much more consequential Constitution on the Liturgy. Among the principles for the revision of the Roman Catholic Church’s sacraments contained in the second of these documents, instructions are given for the revision of the rites of initiation, including the following: The catechumenate for adults is to be restored [instauretur] and broken up into several steps [gradibus], and put into practice at the discretion of the local ordinary. In this way the time of the catechumenate, which is intended for appropriate formation, can be sanctified through liturgical rites to be celebrated successively at different times. In mission territories, in addition to what is available in the Christian tradition, it should also be permitted to incorporate ceremonies [elementa] of initiation which are found to be customary in each society, provided they can be adapted to the Christian rite.