Dearies in charge

[puzzleannie]

cute comment, actually I guess a compliment, RCIA candidate heard other parishioners refer to me as the DRE, and which just goes to show how much we over-use church lingo around non-Catholics, said she thought for almost a year they were calling me “Dearie” and wondered if it was a nickname or just an adjective for my sweet personality. Actually my colleagues, taken collectively, really are dearies, and the best people you would want in charge of teaching religion to your children.

My point is, especially with regard to RCIA, is we do have to be careful about language. While we want to be precise, when we lapse into lingo it can be confusing. We have to define and illustrate such concepts as “the Paschal Mystery” and “the sacramental economy” and “sanctifying grace” not to mention biggies like “transubstantiation.” We cannot make assumptions about how people interpret these terms.

Any other examples of language that confuses rather than enlightens?

 

[bnbkaine]

I find that people’s concept of Confirmation is not really accurate,

Also, Protestants say we pray to saints and we say we pray to saints; however, we do not mean the same thing. I have started saying that we pray “for the saints to intercede on our behalf.” It is longer, obviously, but, even though it means the same thing to us as Catholics, it might help the idea to be less confusing to Protestants.

Those are just off the top of my head. I am sure there are plenty more.

 

[Carlan]

cute comment, actually I guess a compliment, RCIA candidate heard other parishioners refer to me as the DRE, and which just goes to show how much we over-use church lingo around non-Catholics, said she thought for almost a year they were calling me “Dearie” and wondered if it was a nickname or just an adjective for my sweet personality. Actually my colleagues, taken collectively, really are dearies, and the best people you would want in charge of teaching religion to your children.

My point is, especially with regard to RCIA, is we do have to be careful about language. While we want to be precise, when we lapse into lingo it can be confusing. We have to define and illustrate such concepts as “the Paschal Mystery” and “the sacramental economy” and “sanctifying grace” not to mention biggies like “transubstantiation.” We cannot make assumptions about how people interpret these terms.

Any other examples of language that confuses rather than enlightens?

Annie, Please put into simple terms “Paschal Mystery” ,“sacramental economy” sanctifying grace’ and 'transubstantiation". It would help us Oldies who do not teach greatly, not to mention all of our Protestant brothers and others.Carlan

 

[the_phoenix]

The Mystery of the Trinity?

 

[GwenL]

Simple things like: Monstrance. Sanctuary. Ambo. Sacristan. Tabernacle. Nave. Ciborium. Pyx. Orans posture. Venial sin. See, as in “Holy See.” Cathechesis. Orthodoxy. Basic definitions of heresy, apostasy, schism. Sacramental.

The theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity really don’t mean what they mean in today’s English. Neither do adoration, temperance, prudence, or sloth.

Paschal Mystery is huge.

More will come to mind, I’m sure.

When I first walked into RCIA I thought I’d made a mistaken left turn at Mars.

 

[quiet52]

Mystery
 Justification
 Redemptive suffering
 Revelation (some have believed for years that revelation is what God has revealed personally to them)
 Purpose of amendment
 Concupiscence (I always have fun with this one)

 

[Carlan]

 Mystery
 Justification
 Redemptive suffering
 Revelation (some have believed for years that revelation is what God has revealed personally to them)
 Purpose of amendment
 Concupiscence (I always have fun with this one)

Then there is the Church Militant, and Deposit of Faith, Communion of Saints. The fundamentalists,leave scratching their heads:shrug:Carlan

 

[puzzleannie]

one of the sisters helped me with RCIA yesterday and the topic was how to read the bible profitably and prayerfully in the Spirit. Several of the candidates are very bible literate due to their upbringing in other faiths, much more so than the Catholic Confirmation candidates (we meet together during the summer). None of them, even one who was in a Protestant seminary for a while, had ever heard of the four senses of scripture (I use Mike Aquelina’s descriptions as the most accessible). they new the concepts but had never heard them presented that way as a guide to read and interpret scriptures in the light in which they were written and handed on. we made a “great leap forward” and it was really productive, but had we not taken time to explore terms like “allegorical, anagogical” and that other big word I can never remember, they would have left class more confused than ever. But the sister jumped in and gave such great examples, off the top of her head, of each sense and how they relate and illumine each other in one passage. what a blessing.