Every little thing that you call “rigmarole” has meaning and purpose, if one cares to learn or explain it. I realize that many people never have the RCIA history and ancient Christian roots explained to them, because many places simply skip over the Inquiry phase where this can take place.
What is important? Leaving mass?
But they get the readings in their own Liturgy of the Word.
The Catechumens are not dismissed until AFTER the Readings, Gospel and Homily. They are dismissed before the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
and who does the readings? who does the homily? etc.
Ah ok…I thought they got sent away before that.
I wish that were true, my friend. Too often I see things done in the name of “meaning and purpose” when it is more a case of liturgical directors gone wild, drawing attention to themselves and their corner of the parish universe.
I won’t disagree with you on that. But the RCIA when properly followed is not an opportunity for spotlight grabbing, it is for the illumination of everyone involved.
To that I will join with a heartfelt -
Part of becoming Catholic is becoming part of the community. It’s not a private Jesus-and-me thing. Baptisms are no longer private affairs, but often happen during Mass. The whole community prays for and welcomes these infants into the Church. When we do dismissals, the choir and the congregation sing as the catechumens and catechist leave. It’s a prayer by the community for those who hope to enter the community.
That’s what we do as well. If people don’t understand the basics of what’s being said, how can they possibly hope to make it part of their lives? We talk about the upcoming readings during our class on Thursday so everyone has been exposed to it. But sometimes the catechumens don’t like to admit their ignorance in front of other people. (Particularly because some of our candidates are very knowledgeable about Scripture.) So that’s when they have the opportunity to say “I don’t get this part about…” and you can explain it.
In most parishes, Baptisms of infants are still done after Mass is over. For instance, in my parish the Baptisms are done on Sunday after 1 pm. The last Mass is at 12 pm. Generally, the whole congregation does not observe the Baptism, and even if they did, the baby would not remember anyway. Some people are more reserved and uncomfortable getting up in front of a large crowd with all eyes on them. When I was in high school, I had terrible stage fright. One of the reasons I became a lector was to help get over that stage fright since I knew I had speeches to make for class. The RCIA needs to be sympathetic toward people who are uncomfortable getting up in front of the whole congregation for Rite of Welcoming, Rite of Acceptance, etc. Not everyone is comfortable doing that, not even cradle Catholics. My mother joined a new parish this year when she moved. The parish had a Mass for new parishioners. She was afraid they would say her name and make her stand up, so she did not attend that Mass and went to another one on purpose. She told me she was not standing up if her name was read, and she has been a Catholic for 78 years. She’s not embarrassed about her faith, she is just a private person.
oops, my bad, of course they are. We’ve only had 1 catechumen in the past 10 years so it’s easy to forget. She’s the only convert we’ve had in 10 years.
The Dismissal as formulated at present contradicts the rubrics of the Mass as formulated at present, because the Mass calls for a period of Total Silence from the end of the Homily until the start of the Creed, but the Dismissal entails noisy jumbling around while the Catechumens gather up their things and taggle up toward the front, while the priest (who is supposed to be sitting down silently with his eyes closed) stands up and gives them the Dismissal blessing.
We have the dismissal after the period of silence after the homily. And our priest has a long period of silence. And there are many things that might happen at mass between the homily and the creed. Just look in the Book of Blessings.
The Knights of Columbus can’t reform the RCIA RITE. They may be developing a program that can be implimented in parishes to help get rid of the parish to parish and docese to diocese differences.
My conversion is between me and God, no one else.
None of which apply to normal Sunday Mass. If we are doing the Dismissal in the middle of a wedding, funeral, or baptism, we’re good to go with that, but that’s not the normal scenario.
