Resource ideas for 1-on-1 RCIA

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trhaynes

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Hi everyone

I’ve taught RCIA for 14 years (on hiatus for 2 years now, as family grows) and I’ll be providing one-on-one RCIA to a jewish fellow this year. He is culterally jewish, has smattering of understanding about Judaism and Catholicism (some correct, some not), but is a very nice and talkative fellow.

Can anybody recommend any RCIA materials that might be useful for us to use a guide? I prefer to follow a program of some type rather than just free-wheel it… although that might be a bit awkward given that it’s one-on-one sessions.

Thanks
Tim
 
What does your pastor say you should do/use? Why is this your call?
 
Looking for resource ideas, not a debate. Please don’t derail my question. Thanks anyway!
 
trhaynes said:
Looking for resource ideas, not a debate. Please don’t derail my question. Thanks anyway!
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Resources should be available at the parish level. If that is not a solution, you can contact the diocese… Something does not seem right here. A priest or Bishop will be confirming this person. So the priest or Bishop doing so would be the appropriate person to ask what materials to use and what should be taught.

Are you just trying to evangelize? or is this some sort of RCIA guided and approved by the priest or Bishop?

Something is off.
 
trhaynes said:
Hi everyone

I’ve taught RCIA for 14 years (on hiatus for 2 years now, as family grows) and I’ll be providing one-on-one RCIA to a jewish fellow this year. He is culterally jewish, has smattering of understanding about Judaism and Catholicism (some correct, some not), but is a very nice and talkative fellow.

Can anybody recommend any RCIA materials that might be useful for us to use a guide? I prefer to follow a program of some type rather than just free-wheel it… although that might be a bit awkward given that it’s one-on-one sessions.

Thanks
Tim
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The last three times I’ve worked with someone joining the Church, it’s been one-on-one. It’s TOUGH.

I had an uncatechized Lutheran, a catechized Lutheran, and a catechized Methodist. All spouses of Catholics, one newly married and two long time married.

I used Journey of Faith for adults with the uncatechized Lutheran (back in 2006). I gave her a Catholic bible, the US Adult Catechism, and the book This Is Our Faith. She was pretty young and not well educated overall, so I went with lower level reading materials. I had exposure to these resources in my old diocese when on the RCIA team (large parish, lots of candidates and catechumens and very structured program).

By the time the catechized Lutheran and the catechized Methodist came along (2008 and 2014) I’d gone through ACM training and had all the ACM materials. I love this program and would definitely use the printable handouts with the type of catechumen you describe. I gave both of these a Catholic bible, a Catechism of the Catholic Church.

I also used the Fr .Barron Catholicism videos with the most recent, but that was because he was super motivated, had been attending the Catholic Church with his wife for over 15 years (3 kids in religious ed.), and he wanted stuff to do at home-- so I gave him ACM handouts and the Catholicism videos and he watched at home and then we discussed.

I think ACM would be great, even with one person. It’s tough, yes, but doable.
 
Hoosier_Daddy said:
Resources should be available at the parish level. If that is not a solution, you can contact the diocese… Something does not seem right here.
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I think what the OP is asking is how to adapt RCIA for one person. It’s tough to do well.
Hoosier_Daddy said:
A priest or Bishop will be confirming this person. So the priest or Bishop doing so would be the appropriate person to ask what materials to use and what should be taught.
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Not on planet Earth.
 
1ke said:
I think what the OP is asking is how to adapt RCIA for one person. It’s tough to do well.

Not on planet Earth.
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That makes sense.

I must not know what planet I am on…

On my home planet I was instructed through the rite of initiation by a priest one on one…😉
 
I’d second the ACM suggestion. It’s structured enough where you are not free-wheeling it, but flexible enough for use with someone one-on-one.
 
Hoosier_Daddy said:
On my home planet I was instructed through the rite of initiation by a priest one on one…😉
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It’s pretty rare for a priest to provide individual instruction.

The RCIA directors/coordinators can use any approved programs (and there are many). The individuals would still participate in diocesan and parish level rites which would be with the priest or bishop. But catechesis is almost never done by the priest and I can guarantee you the bishop isn’t doing it.

Also, a catechumen is going to be baptized, confirmed, and receive Eucharist from the priest, normally at Easter Vigil, not the bishop. A candidate would be confirmed by the priest at the parish level, not the bishop.
 
1ke said:
It’s pretty rare for a priest to provide individual instruction.

The RCIA directors/coordinators can use any approved programs (and there are many). The individuals would still participate in diocesan and parish level rites which would be with the priest or bishop. But catechesis is almost never done by the priest and I can guarantee you the bishop isn’t doing it.

Also, a catechumen is going to be baptized, confirmed, and receive Eucharist from the priest, normally at Easter Vigil, not the bishop. A candidate would be confirmed by the priest at the parish level, not the bishop.
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My current parish is the Cathedral so the Bishop does the RCIA confirmations at the Easter vigil. And the Vigil at the Cathedral has the most RCIA attendees than any other parish. Though certainly not all parishes in the diocese combined! Most people would just take the classes but there is the occasional person who receives private instruction because of special circumstances. I had a priest because well, I was at a Catholic College and lived on the same floor as priests. Like I mentioned previously last week we had a man confirmed at Mass by the priest. He received private instruction under direction of the priest. Through an RCIA instructor. And the priests have always decided upon the curriculum used. Even when the RCIA director “chooses” it is ok’ed by the pastor…
 
Is this one-on-one for the catechumenate or are you working with an inquirer?

I had an inquirer who didn’t fit into the group setting so I worked with her one-on-one. She had virtually no religious background at all so we focused on topics she was interested in, starting with the Bible and salvation history. We spent time talking about Creation, Abraham, Moses and the Exodus story, Psalms, Jesus and his life and teachings, plus whatever other questions would come up for her as we went along. She spent quite a while as an inquirer since she wasn’t sure she wanted to move on toward baptism and was starting with almost no knowledge of what Christianity was all about. (Her husband was pushing her to become Catholic. I promised her that I wouldn’t push and we would move at a pace she was comfortable with.)

If I were doing this with a catechumen, I think I would use whatever materials were being used by the rest of the catechumens then tweak as needed.
 
Hoosier_Daddy said:
My current parish is the Cathedral so the Bishop does the RCIA confirmations at the Easter vigil. And the Vigil at the Cathedral has the most RCIA attendees than any other parish. Though certainly not all parishes in the diocese combined! Most people would just take the classes but there is the occasional person who receives private instruction because of special circumstances. I had a priest because well, I was at a Catholic College and lived on the same floor as priests. Like I mentioned previously last week we had a man confirmed at Mass by the priest. He received private instruction under direction of the priest. Through an RCIA instructor. And the priests have always decided upon the curriculum used. Even when the RCIA director “chooses” it is ok’ed by the pastor…
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The pastor does have the final say, of course, but some delegate more than others. 🙂
 
I had private instruction from a seventy year old priest when I converted twenty four years ago by the time I was received into the Church I had been through all the Holy days of obligation once and two of them twice. The book we used was called instructions in the Catholic faith along with scripture and the catechism
 
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