RCIA and becoming catholic advice

[Ellie]

A while back I started the RCIA program and left it for both personal and theological reasons. I lost faith in something that keep’d me going for so long. After a year or so of honestly thinking the the II Vatican councle had destroyed the church I started to reexamine why I even wanted to join the church in the first place. I started to fallback in love with it and realized me thinking the church was a ‘disaster’ was just my own misconception. Now I would love to join the church again, but my kinda bad experience of RCIA has really made me not want to join it. Asking all the Catholics out there have you ever heard of someone just being baptized with out any of the classes? It might sound weird but I wish I could just be baptized and confirmed in a back room of the church and start going to mass like a normal parishioner, I am not a big people person, if I could I would just live in the forest and be a hermit. So the social aspect of RCIA and doing the entry rites in front of a church of 1200 people to me is horrifying. I’m just hoping for some advice.

 

[pianistclare]

RCIA is for Conversion. Conversion of heart, conversion of mind and soul. When the early Non-Christians came into the Church they received all the Sacraments of Initiation at once. Baptism, Eucharist, and Confirmation.
Today, we treat adults and uncatechized older children the same way. It’s a process and one cannot really be separated from another because you are older now. No time for you to enroll in endless classes. You learn these things TOGETHER.
Being in front of a group has little to do with it. You are making a profession of faith, you are entering a family.
If something like standing up in a crowded church is making you wish to not enter, I would examine why I wanted to join. Anxiety is one thing. But not having the intense desire to be part of Christ’s Church on earth is another. I would speak to the priest and have him help you put this tremendous fear aside.
You’ll be missing out on so much, forthe sake of a few minutes, as part of a large group in a alrge ceremony. It’s really no different than going to Mass any other day. Except you will partake of the Body of Christ. THAT is the end goal.

 

[casslean]

If something like standing up in a crowded church is making you wish to not enter, I would examine why I wanted to join. Anxiety is one thing. But not having the intense desire to be part of Christ’s Church on earth is another. I would speak to the priest and have him help you put this tremendous fear aside.

This is good advice.

I’m not an outgoing person, and dreaded the public parts of the RCIA baptism rite. I was a ball of nerve the night of the Easter Vigil. But my discomfort with the rites just couldn’t compare to my desire to be part of this church.

I’ll go one further and say that if your anxiety is stopping you from doing something you want to do, it might be time to seek professional help.

 

[HeDa]

Part of going through RCIA (either taught in a group or individually depending upon the persons situation) is going through everything that hinders you from not wanting to be Catholic. When those are cleared, it is a lot easier to look forward to being Catholic and remaining Catholic until your last breath. I don’t know what I would have done without the individual talks that I had with the priest and also the deacon who taught RCIA. In my diocese, it is a two year process with the first year basic catechism classes (no commitments at all, open to everyone who is interested in the Catholic faith) and second year going deeper into faith and asking myself “Is it God’s will with my life that I should be Catholic?” and living as a Catholic without receiving the sacraments until Easter. The early church had a three year process.

In the Catholic Church it is never just “me and God” but “me, God and the whole Catholic Church”. It is the whole Church, the body of Christ, who welcomes you as one of their sisters or brothers in Christ.

It is common that everything feels like chaos at the beginning because we are asking questions which have to do with our own existance and relationship with the Creator of the universe.