From Curiosity to Communion: A Joy-Filled Journey of Accompaniment, Incorporation ​and Celebration

First impressions are powerful and long-lasting. Within seven seconds of encountering someone new, the human brain makes a thousand computations that lead them to decide whether that person is competent, trustworthy and likable. How important, therefore, is the moment of first contact when an enquirer expresses interest in becoming a Catholic. How privileged is the role of the one who receives this request and who then responds to the enquirer at this pivotal moment in their faith journey.

​Each enquirer arrives with their own story and their own reason for seeking initiation into the Church. Some may have attended a parish celebration of the Easter Vigil and, having been moved by the liturgical richness of the community celebration and the witness of those initiated at the Vigil, experience a desire to learn more. Others will have been feeling the movement of the Spirit in their lives for some time and finally build up the courage to approach a nearby parish. Others will want to join the Church after attending Mass with their Catholic spouse for some years or after helping to prepare their school-aged children for the sacraments. Though the backgrounds may be diverse, the required response in each case is identical – each enquirer needs to experience a joyful, welcoming and supportive response from the first moment of their initial enquiry.

Sadly, the initial enthusiasm of some enquirers is dampened when they are told that the RCIA process begins in September or, worse still, the parish is not running the RCIA this year due to a lack of volunteers. Sometimes they get the same response from several parishes in their area. Understandably, many are disheartened by the perceived lack of welcome and the apparent difficulty of the process. Their curiosity fades and they do not feel compelled to return several months later to join a formal RCIA group.

Yet, it would have been simple to welcome these enquirers with joy and set them on quite a different trajectory of exploration. The process of warmly welcoming an enquirer is not onerous. It does not place extra demands on parish volunteers and is not a recipe for ‘burn-out’. It does not require an RCIA team working all year round and does not presume scheduled catechetical discussion groups.

Welcome, Accompaniment and Incorporation into Parish Life

Quite simply, the parish secretary or priest can offer a warm welcome to enquirers by connecting them with a parishioner who might invite them to coffee, have an informal conversation with them and get to know them. The parishioner who makes this first contact with the enquirer begins with an informal pastoral conversation. Tell me your story… What brought you here… What are you looking for… How can the parish help you…?

This parishioner may become the sponsor or may alternatively be able to suggest someone more appropriate from within the parish.

The sponsor has a pivotal role, although not a burdensome one. The sponsor connects an enquirer to the activities within the parish community and introduces them to other members of the parish. Sponsors would ideally offer to accompany the enquirer to Mass, perhaps picking them up and bringing them to church. This might lead to a conversation on the way home about the Sunday readings. What did you make of the gospel reading today? What do the readings mean for your life?

Depending on the life stage and interests of the enquirer, they might be invited to go with the sponsor to sing in the parish choir, to help the St Vincent de Paul group, or contribute to the social justice group. A young mother may be invited to join the parish playgroup while a teenager may be introduced to others in the parish youth group.

A sponsor might invite the seeker to their home for dinner, or to a parish event. They might introduce the enquirer to others who have recently been baptised and invite the sharing of testimony. They will share insights about the liturgical celebration and the parish. The sponsor might also share personal encounters or moments of conversion from their own life. As the rite provides:

The initiation of catechumens is a gradual process that takes place within the community of the faithful. By joining the catechumens in reflecting on the value of the paschal mystery and by renewing their own conversion, the faithful provide an example that will help the catechumens to obey the Holy Spirit more generously (RCIA 4).

Some parishioners may not want to commit to a year-long process as a sponsor, or may not be able to take part in weekly or monthly RCIA meetings. However, many will be willing to be involved for a shorter time in a less formal capacity as a companion to one who is journeying towards initiation. It is about extending a hand in friendship and drawing a new member into the life and activity of the local church. The key to a year-round RCIA process is recognising that the Holy Spirit calls seekers on their schedule, not ours. Therefore, our processes must be designed to accommodate them throughout the entire year.

It's important to be clear about what a ‘year-round’ RCIA process means. It is not about artificially stretching the catechumenate journey to fill out an entire year in all cases, but rather being open ‘year-round’ to receive enquirers and adapting the process of initiation to each candidate who comes forward. It involves meeting each enquirer where and when we find them. One catechumen, for example, may have been coming to Mass with their spouse for many years and might already be, to some extent, integrated into the parish community. They may have a rather deep level of understanding and commitment to the Catholic faith already and require only a short period of preparation. To insist that they wait until the Easter Vigil the following year to be initiated would be unnecessary. Conversely, another catechumen may require more than a year in their journey of faith before being ready for initiation into the Christian life. RCIA 76 clearly provides that nothing of the catechumenal process can be settled a priori.

Formal Catechesis and the Ritual Steps

Eventually, there may be some learning sessions or discussion groups. This is where the catechist has a role. For the formal part of learning about the Catholic faith, neighbouring parishes can cooperate to share resources (e.g. catechists) and to conduct combined parish discussion groups. Due to limited time and resources, it may be necessary to form a combined group of catechumens and already baptised candidates who are seeking full communion with the Catholic Church.

Of course, it is imperative to respect the baptism of those already baptised by clearly differentiating between catechumens and candidates particularly where the ritual celebrations are concerned. The words of the Rite of Acceptance, for example, do not make sense for someone who is baptised. In the same way, it is not appropriate for the elect to celebrate the Sacrament of Penance before the Easter Vigil as a baptised person might do; instead they participate in the scrutinies throughout Lent.

It is best to reserve the Easter Vigil for full Christian Initiation (baptism, confirmation, eucharist) and to celebrate the reception into full communion on Easter Sunday morning or during the Easter season. Reception into Full Communion can be celebrated at any time during the year according to the candidate’s readiness. Full Christian Initiation can also be celebrated outside the Easter Vigil for pastoral reasons, with the preliminary rites of acceptance, election, and scrutinies being celebrated according to their proper spacing in time.

The Centrality of Sunday Mass

However, there is more to consider in terms of ‘liturgy’ in the RCIA than the liturgical rites that mark the various stages of the process. Catechists have a pivotal role to play in demonstrating the place of the Sunday Mass as the source and summit of the Christian life, and in preparing catechumens well to participate fully, consciously and actively in the liturgy.

If we were to ask many catechumens or even baptised Christians, ‘Who celebrates the liturgy?’ the most common response, understandably, is ‘The priest celebrates the liturgy’. We refer to him as ‘the celebrant’ after all. Any celebration by its very nature depends on the joyful participation of a gathered community, where each person contributes to the festivities. In that sense, everyone present ‘celebrates’. But there is more.

While the priest has a particular role to fulfil as the ordained minister representing the headship of Christ in the assembly, he is not the only celebrant of the liturgy. The Catechism clearly states: The celebrating assembly is the community of the baptised who, ‘by regeneration and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, are consecrated to be a spiritual house and a holy priesthood’ (CCC 1141).

So, in fact, all the baptised, the whole Body of Christ, celebrates the liturgy. This is important for catechumens to appreciate as they learn about and participate in the Mass. The assembly are not present as spectators to watch and listen to what the priest is doing but, rather, they join with the priest to participate together in what Christ is doing among them.

It's an important part of the catechist’s role to build anticipation about the joy of celebrating the liturgy with other members of the ‘priesthood of the baptised’, and to provide sufficient formation to enable them to participate as fully initiated members of the worshipping assembly.

In a recent papal letter, Desiderio Desideravi, Pope Francis recounts the deep desire of Jesus to share himself with his disciples, to invite them into encounter with him. The opening words of the letter are taken from the words of Jesus at the Last Supper... I have eagerly/earnestly/deeply desired to eat this Passover with you. This invitation to encounter Jesus is a gift given, not a reward earned, but it is a two-way dialogue which requires our willingness to receive. Pope Francis points out that no one earned a place at that Last Supper; they were all invited, just as the catechumens have been called and invited into the Christian family… just as people are invited by God’s grace to the celebration of the Eucharist.

Before our response to his invitation — well before! — there is God’s desire to be with us. We may not even be aware of it, but every time we go to Mass, the first reason is that we are drawn there by God’s desire for us (DD 6).

Pope Francis emphasises the importance of being formed for the liturgy and by the liturgy so as to enter into the mystery and experience an encounter with Christ.

FORMATION FOR THE LITURGY

Through discussion, reading and catechesis, catechumens are prepared for the liturgical event where they will hear Christ speaking in the proclamation of the word, will partake of his body and blood in the Eucharist, and will also encounter Christ sacramentally present in the priest and in the gathered assembly.

The corporate mindset required for participation in the liturgy is important. Encountering Christ is not about turning inward and having a ‘me-and-Jesus’ devotional-style moment. There are other occasions for this, in private prayer or even before/after Mass. A liturgical encounter is personal but is experienced by contributing to the community’s worship in prayer and song as a member of the Body of Christ, listening together to the word of God, offering the Prayer of the Faithful as a community, perceiving the movement of the Holy Spirit through the assembly.

Formation for the liturgy will need to include breaking open the symbols to enable catechumens to enter more deeply into the richness and wonder of the liturgical event, encountering Christ through the sacramental signs. Catechists might emphasise that the sacramentality of the word isn’t about the text itself, but rather the living event by which Scripture becomes word in the liturgical proclamation. Discussions could encompass the role of the Holy Spirit who moves amongst members of the assembly, unifying them as the Body of Christ, changing the hearts of the listeners, and illuminating their interpretation of texts. These are the sorts of understandings that can bring catechumens to a love of the liturgy and an eagerness to be drawn into the mystery through their active participation in the prayers, readings, songs and silence within the liturgical celebration.

FORMATION BY THE LITURGY

In his letter, Pope Francis also highlights the need for formation by the liturgy, in which those participating in the liturgical celebration are open to being formed through the experience of active participation. The Pope isn’t talking about catechumens here – in fact, ongoing formation in this sense is integral for catechists, sponsors, and the rest of the community too. The People of God are nourished at the table of the word and the table of the eucharist within the ecclesial community before taking this good news to the world. The liturgy invites people to share the hospitality and welcome of the Christian family, to sit together in silence contemplating the mystery of life and death, to enter the sacred mysteries with the faith community. Liturgy celebrated well cannot help but draw people into an encounter.

It is imperative to make each of the sacramental signs strongly, especially during the sacraments of initiation, so that the symbols express the reality they contain and draw those present into the Paschal Mystery. For example, baptism by immersion is a stronger expression of our dying and rising with Christ than a sprinkling of water; a generous amount of sweet-smelling chrism by its perfume, colour and fluidity speaks of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Pope Francis reminds us that we must not grow complacent or overly familiar with the liturgy, but instead maintain a wonder at its beauty.

So, when we invite enquirers, catechumens and candidates to Sunday Mass, what sort of experience are we inviting them to?

* Are there hospitality ministers to welcome people at the door?

* Does the music facilitate the sung prayer of the assembly? Is it prayerful, uplifting, beautiful?

* Do readers bring the scripture text to life in their proclamation?

* Do the sacramental signs speak clearly?

* Is there time for communal silence so that the message of the gospel can sink in deeply and be assimilated to people’s lives?

Silence is an important ritual action that belongs to the whole assembly. Many times it is expressly prescribed in the liturgical rubrics. Silence in the liturgy is different from just being quiet, or from the kind of silence we might seek in meditation to withdraw from the world. Pope Francis explains it like this:

Such silence is not an inner haven in which to hide oneself in some sort of intimate isolation, as if leaving the ritual form behind as a distraction. That kind of silence would contradict the essence itself of the celebration. Liturgical silence is something much more grand: it is a symbol of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit who animates the entire action of the celebration…Precisely because it is a symbol of the Spirit… we are called to enact with extreme care the symbolic gesture of silence (DD 52).

PREPARING FOR THE LITURGY

Considering how powerful the liturgy is for formation and evangelisation, it’s imperative that adequate preparations are made.

* Put special effort into the hospitality ministry – welcome visitors with joy, put them at ease, show them what to do.

* Ensure that homilies are addressed not only to Catholics, but to those who may be visiting a Church for the first time.

* Make the liturgical signs lavish!

* Provide ongoing training for those who proclaim the word of God in the liturgy so that texts are proclaimed with vigour and energy as if being heard for the first time.

* Ensure the provision of high-quality music in which people can participate in sung praise.

From Enquiry to Belonging

Ultimately, it is important to remember that catechesis is only one element in the RCIA. Paragraph 75 of the RCIA sets out four ways through which a catechumen is prepared for initiation:

1. Catechesis

2. Familiarity with the Christian way of life

3. Celebration of liturgical rites

4. Active work with others to spread the Gospel.

The catechumenate, therefore, is not a ‘program’, but rather a ‘process’ or ‘journey’ of growth and discovery in the midst of the parish community. That is why attending Mass amidst the community of the faithful is so fundamental. Sometimes family commitments or other life circumstances make it difficult to attend group learning sessions, but it is the Eucharist which is the source and summit of the Christian life.

It must be our fervent aim that enquirers are welcomed joyfully from the first moment they approach, that they become meaningfully incorporated into the parish community, that they are captivated by the beauty of the liturgy, and that they continue to be nourished through their ongoing participation in the communal worship of the Church as fully initiated members of the Body of Christ.

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This article was originally published in Liturgy News ​Vol 54(2) June 2024. Reprinted with permission.