One day I went snooping to find them. My adult cousin lived with us, and I thought her room would be the perfect hiding spot. When I came across several stacks of quarters in her dresser drawer, I forgot all about the Christmas presents. I just stared at all those quarters. Surely she wouldn’t miss a few of them.

Confessing my sin

Somehow Mom found out. I don’t think my cousin told her. I think it was that extra set of eyes the Holy Spirit puts in the back of the heads of mothers with difficult children. I got a stern lecture that I still remember more than four decades later. What I remember most was her final sentence: “Nicky, you have to go to confession!”

What I confessed to was stealing, which was, of course the sin I had committed (although at the time I didn’t think it even came close to the dollar threshold for “mortal”). The sin I did not confess was injustice (which, if I had been aware of it, would have sailed right past the “mortal” threshold). I had no right to be snooping in my cousin’s room. Mom covered that in her lecture, of course, but the big sin according to her and to the priest and in my heart was stealing. I barely considered the injustice to my relationship with my cousin, especially since I had given back all the quarters.

How many quarters equal a mortal sin?

Here is where I sometimes get stuck when I have to talk about the sacrament of reconciliation with catechumens. Deep in my heart, I am still eight or nine years old, calculating how many quarters add up to a mortal sin. But now instead of quarters it’s bigger stuff. The sexual sins are probably at the top. The money sins are right up there. Five miles above the speed limit is venial, but 100 mph is definitely mortal. I feel like war and global warming should be on the mortal list, but don’t think I should have to confess them. These are all different forms of pilfered quarters in my pocket. They are focused on the “thingness” of the sin and not on the people I love.

“Reconciliation” is not the official name of the sacrament, but perhaps it should be. (“The Rite of Penance” is the name on the book.) Reconciliation is not about returning the quarters. It is about restoring the relationship. God made a deal with Abraham because God was crazy in love with Abraham. Abraham’s decedents broke the deal, and the Old Testament is a very long love story about God trying to get us back into a loving relationship. God couldn’t care less about the quarters. God just wants us to look at him, face to face, always.

Jesus was the climax of all these efforts to get us back. God gave us an actual, real, human face to look at and fall in love with. Jesus’ entire purpose was to get us back—to reconcile us to the Father. This reconciled relationship is what Christians mean by “justice.” If I had never taken the quarters, the injustice would remain. I was not loving—the way Christ would love—to my cousin that day.

Sin is about injustice

Looked at this way, global warming and other “social” sins have to go into my examination of conscience as do any other parts of my life that contribute to injustice for others. If I am not doing something to make things right (righteous), I am perpetuating the injustice. My mission, in Christ, is to set things right. To reconcile all things to the Father.

For most catechumens, this is news. For many, it is even good news. They do not usually come to us with this notion of justice already in their hearts. For most of them, justice means putting the quarters back and maybe paying a fine or spending some jail time. To see that they have to instead restore all relationships back to the holy order of the original creation—back to a state of constant love—that requires a new way of thinking. It requires conversion.

What the catechumens have to know

The sacrament of reconciliation is, indeed, about confessing our sins, in number and kind, to a priest—but it is so much more than that. It’s about loving God and the people God loves. The catechumens have to learn that if they are going to live as Christians.

Our next webinar will be on the topic of how to teach the sacrament of reconciliation. You won’t want to miss it. Click here for more information.

Photo: “In God We Trust” by Stephen Klein (Flickr)

As most of you know by now, the North American Forum on the Catechumenate will be closing its doors on June 30, 2013. (If this is the first you are hearing about it, you can read more here.)  The Forum has been a grassroots organization that was made up of everyone who was ever touched in any way by the Forum.

But somebody had to be at the computer and by the phone to make things happen. Most newbies assumed there was a tall building somewhere in Washington, DC, with a big staff that effortlessly deployed training events throughout the United States and Canada every year.

The truth is that the brains and the brawn that made the Forum go for the past several years were primarily two people—Jim Schellman and Aleli Belonia.

Aleli has been the institute manager for the Forum for 20 years. If you have been to a Forum institute, it happened because Aleli made it happen. Because of the incredible stresses of launching 40-plus institutes a year and the gazillion large and small details she had to manage, you would expect that you’d never be able to get her attention. Instead, she usually responded to e-mails within minutes or picked up the phone the moment you called so she could answer questions, solve problems, or offer support. And she always sounded happy to hear from you—like you were bringing her a gift just by showing up in her life that day.

Jim has been the executive director of Forum for 15 years. I’m not sure he ever had a “smooth” year. He had to deal with financial problems, team conflicts, diocesan politics, and shifting national agendas from day one on the job. Yet, no matter what crises or problems might have been looming in the background, Jim always seemed calm and peaceful. But if you watched closely when he talked about the catechumenate as a model for parish catechesis or the rites as a place of conversion, there was fire is in his eyes; he made you believe that there was nothing more important than spreading the gospel through the powerful evangelization process of the catechumenate.

Most of you who have been touched by the Forum have never met Jim and Aleli. But we have been privileged to work closely with them for many years. We are deeply grateful for their passionate service to the mission we all share. We offer them our thanks and our admiration, and we pray for them as they begin this new phase of their journey.

We also invite you to offer your memories, thanks, and prayers for Jim and Aleli. Please share something in the comments box below. And, of course, if you would like to remember or thank other past leaders of the North American Forum, please feel free.

TeamRCIA

Nick Wagner * Diana Macalintal * Rita Ferrone * Rita Burns Senseman

RCIA catechists sometimes fall back on what the nuns taught us in grade school when they have to explain the Trinity. Catechumens need a better, deeper understanding of this core mystery of our faith.

Also, Nick and Diana answer a question about how to receive an infant into the full communion of the Catholic Church.

See also:
The Trinity is not a math problem

When Other Christians Become Catholic
Paul Turner

Click here for details

Previous episodes

• Episode 23: Explaining the Trinity without shamrocks
• Episode 22: Adapting RCIA Catechesis for Children of Varying Age Groups
• Episode 21: Introducing RCIA neophytes to penance
• Episode 20: How RCIA teams explain real presence

How do you handle a children’s RCIA group with children from 8 to 14? Nick’s mom offers some insight. Also, Nick and Diana discuss if RCIA catechists should be certified.

Amazon link to The Art of Catechesis

Previous episodes

• Episode 23: Explaining the Trinity without shamrocks
• Episode 22: Adapting RCIA Catechesis for Children of Varying Age Groups
• Episode 21: Introducing RCIA neophytes to penance
• Episode 20: How RCIA teams explain real presence

What happened to my socks?

Four years later, I attended a Beginnings and Beyond Institute sponsored by the North American Forum on the Catechumenate. Minds were blown. Socks were knocked off. For the first time, I saw the clear flow between liturgy and catechesis. It changed my life. It changed my ministry.

A few years later, I was privileged to join the North American Forum team. For 20-plus years, I have been getting on airplanes, traveling to almost every region of the country, and meeting the most amazing people that exist on the earth.

Mentors, friends, and heroes

Some of these folks have been mentors to me, teaching me skills I didn’t know I had the talent for and challenging me to continuously discover new depths in the initiation process and in my own faith.

Some have become my good friends, sharing the joys and sorrows of missions accomplished and dreams still unrealized.

Some (most) are the stalwart saints who call themselves “ordinary” Catholics and who go to Mass every Sunday and the workplace every Monday with an invisible antenna attuned to locate the seekers out there who long for peaceful hearts and joyful lives.

These “ordinary” Catholics are my heroes. They are the ones who do the hard work, the extraordinary work of initiation ministry. It is these folks that the North American Forum was created to serve.

The Forum solution

Yesterday I learned that the Forum will be closing its doors on June 30. The word used was “dissolution.” This is, of course, incredibly sad for all of us who have been mind-blown and sock-knocked by the powerful ministry the Forum has blessed us with for decades. And it is ironic. The Forum has been the “solution” for so many things.

How, for instance, could a mid-twentieth century church, with no experience of liturgy that was “full, conscious, and active,” be expected to execute the complex and various rituals that make up the RCIA? The Forum gave us the solution for that.

And the RCIA itself offers no systematic catechetical process for initiation, which is so necessary for making these rituals more than mere performance. The Forum gave us the solution for that.

And really, did the Vatican or whoever really expect that initiation would become a community-based project that took place in parish halls, parishioner homes, and praying assemblies rather than pastors’ studies? The Forum gave us the solution for that too.

In preparing the Sacred Chrism, ordinary perfume is dissolved in ordinary oil, changing both into something holy. If it is time for the Forum to dissolve, pray that we all catch the scent it has swirled into our church. The Forum has changed us, and we are blessed because of it.

Share your stories

Have you experienced a Forum institute? Did it change the way you do initiation ministry? Please tells us about it.

Is the Easter Season the best time to introduce the neophytes to the sacrament of reconciliation? Opinions differ. Also, learn six techniques for recruiting volunteers.

Previous episodes

• Episode 23: Explaining the Trinity without shamrocks
• Episode 22: Adapting RCIA Catechesis for Children of Varying Age Groups
• Episode 21: Introducing RCIA neophytes to penance
• Episode 20: How RCIA teams explain real presence

Be sure to mark your calendars for the next TeamRCIA webinar. We will discuss:

• why the Eucharistic Prayer is important
• what kind of prayer the Eucharistic Prayer is
• how to teach catechumens, candidates, and neophytes about the prayer
• the true power of the Eucharistic Prayer

Click here for more information.

The Eucharistic Prayer is supposed to be a climactic moment in the liturgy. If there is ever a time in the Mass when we are supposed to be fully conscious and active, this is it. Yet, it can be difficult to make this part of the liturgy as active as it needs to be.

The suggestions below will require the cooperation of the presider, the musicians, the liturgy planners, and the members of the assembly. As RCIA teams, you may not have equal amounts of influence with all those groups. But you can use the influence you do have to begin to improve the participation levels.

To the extent you can increase the participation of the assembly, you will have given the neophytes a better experience of the period of mystagogy.

Start the prayer in silence

Just before the dialogue that begins the Eucharistic Prayer (“The Lord be with you. And with your spirit. Lift up your hearts…”), we have the preparation of gifts (“Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation…”). Oftentimes, these two elements of the liturgy run together and seem to be one long block of text. Add to the participation in the Eucharistic Prayer by adding a profound silence between the two.

Sing the dialogue

Presiders can also enhance participation by singing the dialogue. Anyone can sing a simple chant tone. The truly musically challenged can sing the entire dialogue on a single note. However, an investment in a one-hour voice lesson with the parish or diocesan musician will increase confidence and give the presider the ability to sing a still-simple but slightly more interesting chant.

Pay attention to posture

There are different postures during the Eucharistic Prayer. However, slouching and half-sitting are not among them. Teach the neophytes to always be attentive to their posture. Whether standing or kneeling, think of “leaning into” the prayer.

Acclaim well

You will need the musicians’ help with this one. That acclamations (Holy, holy, memorial, amen) must be singable by non-musicians. People who are naturally gifted signers forget this sometimes. You can help remind them by praising the musicians when they choose acclamations that your neophytes actually sing.

Integrate the supper narrative into the rest of the prayer

The supper narrative is the part when the priest says: “Take this, all of you, and eat of it…” and “Take this, all of you, and drink from it….” When I was a kid, we called this “the consecration,” and it still goes by that title today (“institution narrative and Consecration,” GIRM 79).

However, in the olden days, we thought of the consecration as The Consecration — as though the rest of the prayer wasn’t all that important. For some of us, there is a bit of that thinking that sometimes creeps back into the way the Eucharistic Prayer is prayed today. The elevation of the bread and wine is exaggerated and extended; the genuflection might also be exaggerated and extended; bells are sometimes rung (which is allowed, but I think doesn’t really help the flow of the prayer). The United States Bishops said that the supper narrative is part of a larger whole, and it ought to seem that way:

This narrative is an integral part of the one continuous prayer of thanksgiving and blessing. It should be proclaimed in a manner which does not separate it from its context of praise and thanksgiving. (Introduction to the Order of Mass: A Pastoral Resource of the Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy, 90)

Make the doxology doxological

The doxology is the part that begins, “Through him, and with him, and in him….” “Doxa” means “praise.” The conclusion of the Eucharistic Prayer should have the character of exuberant praise. The presider should definitely sing the “Through him…” part, and the assembly should respond with a vigorously sung Amen!

As I said, RCIA teams will not have equal influence over all of these aspects of the praying of the Eucharistic Prayer. But if you can take one small step towards more participative prayer, you will have begun to get the neophytes more involved. After a while, try another step. And then another.

Check out this webinar recording: “How to Teach the Eucharistic Prayer.” Click here for more information.

What has worked for you?

What have you done in your parish to help the neophytes participate fully in the Eucharistic Prayer? Please share your thoughts in the comment box.

1. Is the Eucharistic Prayer a big deal for RCIA catechesis?
2. What is the Eucharistic Prayer? (A summary for RCIA catechists)
3. Six ways to actively involve the neophytes in the Eucharistic Prayer

Our first clue

We cannot say for sure. We don’t know the exact words of blessing that Jesus used. Nor do we know what blessing St. Paul or any of the original disciples used.

The first time we get a clue to what might have actually been said during the blessing of the bread and wine doesn’t appear until 100 years or so after the Last Supper.

From Rome, St. Justin wrote: “We praise him by word of prayer and thanksgiving, to the best of our ability, over all the things we offer.” He also wrote that the presider “gave thanks at length” over the bread and wine in memory of Jesus, to which the people “gave their assent by saying, ‘Amen.” (Richard McCarron, The Eucharistic Prayer at Sunday Mass, p. 21)

That’s it. That’s all we know about what was going on in the Eucharistic Prayer in the second century. And that’s just in Rome. There wasn’t a standard form that the Christians in Palestine, Syria, North Africa, and all the other Christian churches were praying.

Controversy leads to standardization

What finally led to definitive, approved texts for the Eucharistic Prayer was controversy. In the 300s, there were difficult and protracted debates about the nature of Jesus and Jesus’ divinity. Gradually, the church leaders of the major cities of Christendom began to develop and common vocabulary for talking about Jesus (like the Nicene Creed, for example). And they evolved into a common way of praying the Eucharistic Prayer. The free-flowing, extemporaneous prayer of Justin’s day eventually gave way to standard prayers that were memorized from a written text.

Currently, there are nine Eucharistic Prayers approved for use in Roman Catholic liturgy. And there are many other prayers in use in the Eastern Rite churches and a few surviving Western Rite churches other than Roman.

What all of these prayer do is give thanks for the death and resurrection of Jesus. What the controversies of the fourth century taught us, however, is that what we say about Jesus is what we believe about Jesus.

So what we say, especially in this prayer, is very important. And not just what we say, but also what we do. After, all Jesus didn’t say, “Say this in memory of me.” He said, “Do this.”

“Do this…”

What we do is we take bread and bless it and break it. We take wine and bless it and pour it out. These simple actions remind us of the breaking and pouring out of Jesus’ body and blood on the Cross.

The blessing that we pray is a remembering of that great act. But more than that, it is remembering that we, too, were baptized into that death.

Finally, the actions and the blessing of the Eucharistic Prayer is also a remembering that it doesn’t end with death. The death is, in fact, victory. By doing what Jesus told us to do, we remember that through death we are born to new life. That’s why we sing “Amen!” just as the Roman church did in Justin’s day.

What is the Eucharistic Prayer? No matter in what century or in what church it is prayed, no matter in what diocese or parish, no matter in what language or in what culture, the Eucharistic Prayer is the thing that reminds who and whose we are—a people of God, dead to sin, and risen in Christ.

Check out this webinar recording: “How to Teach the Eucharistic Prayer.” Click here for more information.

Please share your thoughts

Do you have a favorite line from one of the Eucharistic Prayers? Tell us what it is and what it means to you.

1. Is the Eucharistic Prayer a big deal for RCIA catechesis?
2. What is the Eucharistic Prayer? (A summary for RCIA catechists)
3. Six ways to actively involve the neophytes in the Eucharistic Prayer

photo credit: timsamoff via photopin cc

Discover how Vatican II has given us a full understanding of our role in the Eucharistic Prayer. Also, Nick and Diana discuss a case in which an unbaptized inquirer might not need a full-year catechumenate.

Previous episodes

• Episode 23: Explaining the Trinity without shamrocks
• Episode 22: Adapting RCIA Catechesis for Children of Varying Age Groups
• Episode 21: Introducing RCIA neophytes to penance
• Episode 20: How RCIA teams explain real presence

Be sure to mark your calendars for the next TeamRCIA webinar. We will discuss:

• why the Eucharistic Prayer is important
• what kind of prayer the Eucharistic Prayer is
• how to teach catechumens, candidates, and neophytes about the prayer
• the true power of the Eucharistic Prayer

Click here for more information.

In fact, the Anaphora [Eucharistic Prayer] of Addai and Mari, from the Assyrian Rite, doesn’t even have what we would recognize as a “consecration.” And yet, Pope John Paul II himself authorized it an authentic Eucharistic Prayer.

Remembering is not about the past

To understand the importance of the Eucharistic Prayer, we have to understand a Greek word: anamnesis. There is no really good English translation of anamnesis. In our Eucharistic Prayers, it is sometimes translated as memorial (“Therefore, as we celebrate the memorial of his death and resurrection…”). Memorial is too static, however. Anamnesis is active. A somewhat better translation is remember (“We remember Christ’s death…”). The problem with remember is it tends to make the anamnesis past tense.

When it is prayed in the midst of the worshipping assembly, the Eucharistic Prayer is an active remembering of who God is and God’s saving action (the culmination of which is Jesus Christ). And by remembering who God is, we “remember” who we are. It is this active remembering (anamnesis) that is consecratory.

Are you ready to sacrifice?

The Eucharistic Prayer is more than just a memory of what took place in the past. It is also more than a monument that we might erect to a hero from ancient times. It is an actualization of the event of Jesus Christ. It is an event that is unfolding, right now, right in the midst of us, right in us. And because Jesus is now in us, and we in him, that creates an ethical responsibility. We cannot simply go home on Sunday and try to catch the rest of the game or head to the mall as if nothing happened. The bread and wine are changed so that we will be changed (“all who partake…truly become a living sacrifice in Christ…”).

The action of the Eucharistic Prayer isn’t meant to be a theology lesson. Nor is it about my personal moment with Jesus. It is a radically communal action that transforms us—all together—into a living sacrifice in Christ.

As parish communities, we have to ask ourselves at the end of each Sunday Mass, so what? What are we going to do now that we are a living sacrifice in Christ? How will we live out that sacrifice in the world? How will our families, friends, neighbors, and coworkers see that transformation in us? And how will our transformed selves translate into good news for them?

The “so what” for RCIA teams

As RCIA teams, we have to help the catechumens understand that this is what they are preparing for. Then, when they become neophytes, the event of the Eucharistic Prayer should not seem all that novel to them. In the action of the prayer, they should recognize the remembering (anamnesis) of who God is and who they are. The actual words might be new, but the action should feel like getting to drive the car for the first time. They should “remember” how to do it (participate in the action of the prayer) because you have been doing anamnesis with them throughout their catechumenate.

Check out this webinar recording: “How to Teach the Eucharistic Prayer.” Click here for more information.

What are your thoughts?

Why do you think the Eucharistic Prayer is important? What challenges you about teaching the action of the prayer to your catechumens? What have you done that works?

“New And Old Leaf” by wandee007 | FreeDigitalPhoto.net

1. Is the Eucharistic Prayer a big deal for RCIA catechesis?
2. What is the Eucharistic Prayer? (A summary for RCIA catechists)
3. Six ways to actively involve the neophytes in the Eucharistic Prayer