RCIA Catechesis: Saints

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Monkciate

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Pace e Bene,

I am scheduled to teach a couple of lessons for the current RCIA group in a couple of weeks. One of the topics I’m scheduled to present is “Saints.” Now, while I have a wonderful lecture lined up dealing with the lives of both St. Francis of Assisi and St. Therese of Lisieux, what it means to be a saint, that we’re all called to holiness, and how we live holy lives through the sacraments, I feel like there should be something a little more interactive for the group, which is rather small. In fact, it seems like there are more RCIA team members and sponsors than candidates this year.

While I plan on reading the beatitudes as part of my presentation, I don’t think this is enough interactivity. Tonight, the lady who presented on confirmation had some charts listing the seven gifts of the holy Spirit, and she played a song which served as our ending prayer, etc… I can’t seem to think of anything like that!
 
As someone who will be starting RCIA this fall, I have a few ideas from the things I would like to know/learn/do.

In general, I find that while there is a lot of information about the lives of saints that is easily accessible, understanding the devotions to different saints is harder. In other words, I can see why we ask saints to intercede for us, but I don’t get the how.

*Since you’re covering St. Therese, why not make Good Deed Beads and talk about how to use them during the session?

*Help the students find patron saints with their name or for their occupation. There are sites online which have that info–if you know their names you could even bring a printout for each of them.

*Talk about celebrating the feast days of saints

Hope this helps!
 
When I was in RCIA, we prayed a Litany of the Saints. I believe that we all wrote down a prayer request and put them in a basket. Then we had a lit candle up by the basket and each had unlit candles. We lined up and circled around and took a person to pray for and lit our candle while we sang a Litany.
 
We’ve asked people to pick a saint they like and tell the rest of the group about him or her. For those who don’t know any saints, this is a chance to check out some of the web sites with info on saints and find someone who inspires them. They only need to give a minute or two presentation, but it gives an idea of how different the saints are and how wide ranging the Church is. It also teaches everyone something about the different members of the group as you learn why they are attracted to different saints.
 
make up a worksheet or interactive game where they link each commandment to a beatitude (any choice can be a right answer here). You can make up situations that a team can act out, and ask them, or the audience, to say, what commandment is broken, or what beatitude would fix the problem.

make the story situations relevant to the age group.

two children being tempted by a third to shop lift

one child tempting another to leave chores and go play ball

two children reacting to a new child in school who is foreign or disabled
 
I definitely like the idea of making Good Deed Beads (which I’m now in the process of doing) since this will tie in well with my brief discussion on how we can become saints in our ordinary lives.

I like the idea of having everyone talk about their favorite saints, though, unfortunately, no one will have anytime to do any research beforehand…and even I don’t have a copy of “Butler’s” which could be shared. I won’t be teaching the class the evening before, but I may be able to squeeze in an announcement at the end asking everyone to research a saint, if possible. I’m afraid some of these kids might not have the internet.

Other ideas are welcome, too!
 
I thought RCIA was for adults? The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults? How come there are kids involved?
 
paperwight said:
I thought RCIA was for adults? The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults? How come there are kids involved?
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RCIA is for adults, by the chuch’s definition, which is anyone past the age of reason, 7ish. You can either be baptized as an infant, for babies and young children, or as an adult, anyone 7 and up.

So for kids who are older than 7, they go through the same RCIA process as adults do, but usually in their own class so they have age appropriate catechisis.
 
Ah, I see, thank you.
I was confused because in our parish it’s definitely aimed at only adults. There’s no mention of children on the posters or bulletin notes, nor by the organiser when I recently volunteered to help. I suppose any children would either have been given a place in our school, and/or have private classes.
 
paperwight said:
Ah, I see, thank you.
I was confused because in our parish it’s definitely aimed at only adults. There’s no mention of children on the posters or bulletin notes, nor by the organiser when I recently volunteered to help. I suppose any children would either have been given a place in our school, and/or have private classes.
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Ya, there are a few ways to go about doing classes for kids in RCIA, but technically they should still be participating in all of the Rites with the Adults, from what I hear though, this is just starting to be followed consistently though it seems.

RCIA for kids is a funny little world, at least in my own parish. I work both with the DRE since I have kids and the lady in charge of RCIA. I participate in gatherings both for children’s catechists and the RCIA team. I’m in this funny little world all my own. But I LOVE it! 😃
 
Are you teaching adults or kids?

For either group, it is vital to start at the beginning.

What happens when a person dies?

Explain they go one of three places - to hell, purgatory or heaven. You WILL have both adults and kids who will have some wrong ideas about this concept, so, work through that first. Use the Catechism and Scripture.

Explain that there is only one way a person goes after purgatory, it is heaven!

Then that the people in heaven are saints.

That the Church has a process for formally recognizing someone is in heaven, go through the Canonization process with them.

Leave the artsy craftsy stuff to filler time for kids. The idea is to pray and teach those in RCIA!
 
Be sure to explain the cannonization process. You can use Mother Theresa as an example. You can also bring in some Holy Pictures or statues of saints and encourge the class members to bring in theirs, for discussion.
 
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