Feeling Empty after RCIA

  • Thread starter Thread starter Thomas1981
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
One thing I do is keep a Mass journal. I also have for years subscribed to books and CDs from Lighthouse Catholic Media.

Our parish secretary asked a while back if I was RCIA or an inquirer, because I “actually use the library here!” :eek:

May I suggest just finding a ministry or group to get involved in and one book at a time? I don’t know you or your personality, so I could be wrong. I know we were told to maybe ease in.

Granted, I don’t know how long you’ve been going there. I joined our mom’s group years ago as an inquirer, am now in the Catholic women’s group, and am looking forward to pro-life ministry meetings. It seemed like it would take forever to get my bearings and know what was going on and then I realized I knew a lot more people than I thought.

And I knew more about the Church than I thought. And my faith and my spiritual life grew and was bolstered.

Keep us posted! I’ve found there is great support here. :hug1:
 
RCIA is different within different Parishes. When I went through my RCIA it wasn’t all that educational. It was poor at best, I did my own research, even found an RCIA program on Youtube and watched all of what they posted.

How you experience your first year after being received into the Catholic Church will largely depend on you! If I can have a criticism it would be that finding community within the Catholic Church is a lot harder. At least, It’s not like it was in my Protestant experience where people are actively focused on getting others connected. If we want to connect further with our Parish we have to search for it ourselves. We have to make the connection ourselves. It won’t come to us, we have to search it out for ourselves. Of course, it really depends on what kind of community you had within the Catholic Church leading up to being received into the Catholic Church or prior to your RCIA experience.

Checking out what is being offered by the Diocese is a good place to start. Signing up for other classes offered, and attending various events that are hosted in various Parishes is a good place to start as well because, like somebody else noted, it’s a good place to start meeting people. These classes and events allow for more socializing, where it might not be appropriate at Mass to socialize these events make room for it, at least before and after the meetings.

If you’re alone and don’t attend Mass with friends or family it can feel especially lonely. I understand that feeling. My Catholic friends don’t attend the same Parish. I actually don’t have one specific Parish I attend.

I don’t like how liberal the Parish I attended for my RCIA is so I don’t do my confessions there. I go to one Parish a friend of mine attends for Confession. This is a Charismatic Parish and my time in the Confessional ends up more often then not like a short spiritual direction type session.

And then I am usually working over night and super tired so I go to Mass at the Cathedral which is located a few blocks away from where I work so after work I run over to the Cathedral and attend Mass and then by 9am I’m on way home and to bed.

But then I attend Mass once in a while with my cousin who’s also my RCIA Sponsor. She attends the Parish where I took my RCIA. I like the Priest, I enjoy his homily’s. So I’m still connected with the Parish I took my RCIA. In this Parish our RCIA continues for the next year but rather on an individual basis and in partnership with your RCIA Sponsor. However, I don’t have much fellowship within the Catholic Church either so I understand how you are feeling. I don’t think it’s an unusual experience. You’re either coming from some other religion/faith or the Protestant Tradition. Perhaps used to how fellowship is done in the other faith tradition and so stepping into Catholic life knowing few people, leaving behind friends and family that were maybe in the other faith community. It takes time to adjust. It’s like entering a new culture.

I here Knights of Columbus is a great fellowship for men.
 
DakiniArtist said:
One thing I do is keep a Mass journal. I also have for years subscribed to books and CDs from Lighthouse Catholic Media.
Click to expand...
I’ve been keeping an RCIA journal and I also enjoy the CD’s from LCM. They have a kiosk at my Parish where we can buy them for $3 each so I just pick them up there. I pretty much have one in the CD player of my car at all times. Some of them are incredibly good.
 
AKDee said:
I’ve been keeping an RCIA journal and I also enjoy the CD’s from LCM. They have a kiosk at my Parish where we can buy them for $3 each so I just pick them up there. I pretty much have one in the CD player of my car at all times. Some of them are incredibly good.
Click to expand...
👍

Same here. We get the books as well.

Also, we have Adoration on Fridays and it is the greatest experience.
 
AKDee said:
And here is where I ask a question from ignorance- what is Adoration?
Click to expand...
The where the Blessed Sacrament is exposed in a Monstrance and placed on an altar for display so that the people of the parish can come and spend time in prayer, meditation, and Adoration. It’s silent, peaceful, and beautiful.
 
pianistclare said:
The where the Blessed Sacrament is exposed in a Monstrance and placed on an altar for display so that the people of the parish can come and spend time in prayer, meditation, and Adoration. It’s silent, peaceful, and beautiful.
Click to expand...
Thank you. I will see when our Parish does this.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top