Rcia

[dljl]

Hi, After returning to the Catholic church (born and raised Catholic) after 10 years as an evangelical, I am wondering if God is calling me to teach RCIA. Can anyone tell me the requirements and their own experiences in teaching RCIA ?

 

[sententia]

Rcia is to learn about the Catholic faith. Period. There is no assumption someone will convert, and no pressuring of anyone to convert. It begins with the assumption that say, no one has ever heard of God, and over the course of a year or so, will delve into the Catholic faith. There is no reason not to check it out, and if you can give a general location, someone here may be able to give you a suggestion of somewhere to attend at .

 

[Pug]

dljl:

Hi, After returning to the Catholic church (born and raised Catholic) after 10 years as an evangelical, I am wondering if God is calling me to teach RCIA. Can anyone tell me the requirements and their own experiences in teaching RCIA ?

The requirements will vary by diocese. Some bishops may require more training than others. Most likely your parish is in need of someone willing to help with RCIA, so I’d ask the DRE (director of religious education) or the priest what they might need you to do. At this point in the year, they probably already have arranged for someone to teach the classes. Also, some parishes have the classes only taught by priests, but others do use laypeople.

However, they have a hard time getting people to sit with the class during the first half of mass and then leading the class out after the homily for a gospel reflection. They almost always need someone for that role. They also can use people to organize retreats, bring snacks, give talks at retreats, pray for the catechumens, etc, etc.

I have enjoyed being part of the RCIA team. The skills that I need do not seem to have to do with teaching. I more need people skills, listening skills, patience skills, making people feel welcome skills, and willingness to talk about my faith skills. Also, I need to know the faith well, which I mostly do. I’m sorely lacking in the lives of the saints, though. I don’t regularly teach the clases. I just sub if needed. And then it really helps to be fully versed in every aspect of Catholic doctrine. I’d be dead in the water otherwise.

Oh, I think praying is a good prerequisite for being on the RCIA team. Whatever your thing is, first fridays, rosary, etc.

 

[puzzleannie]

In most places you will be ask to comply with the other requirements for catechist (the same as for a confirmation sponsor or godparent) plus training or basic certification in Catholic doctrine, practice and morality. There are additional trainings or workshops on the RCIA process. We put our best people in RCIA because it is so demanding and the ideal person is someone who has undergone a conversion themselves, something even cradle Catholics should experience. In general when someone enters the Church they are assisted to find some area of service to the parish, and some of our best volunteers and catechists have come through RCIA.