Starting RCIA

  • Thread starter Thread starter ambrosegirl84
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
It is so heartening to read all these posts. Most expressed excitement about starting RCIA, and a few feel terror. I came into the Church 4 1/2 years ago at Easter after 60 years of holding on to myths, misconceptions and ignorant beliefs about Catholics in general and Mass in specific. Once I consented to attending RCIA, the scales fell from my eyes, and the fog lifted. I learned sooo much that I never wanted RCIA to end. At any rate, welcome all of you. Have a safe and blessed journey!!
 
Hi all :} I’m starting RCIA classes on September 15th - I’m excited and impatient - lol - I can hardly wait for Easter - I have been listening to EWTN radio for the last three months -have learned so much but even though I’ve always been drawn to the Roman Catholic Church my protestant upbringing and training prevented me from “seeing” - on the other hand I am grateful for the Protestant brothers and sisters who over the years evangelized me, taught me about the bible and otherwise pulled me through some very tough times…

The thing that tipped the scales for me was a little encounter with Our Lady of Guadalupe - I had given a beautiful little statue of the Virgin to a very dear friend of mine before I left town for an extended period of travel - when I returned home eight months later , my friend brought the statue back to me as a welcome home gift saying - “I don’t know why but I think she [the Virgin] wants to be with you for a while”…my protestant mindset started to object but I held back because I did not want to offend my friend and so the little statue took a place of honor in my apartment - Then I stumbled upon EWTN radio and heard the rosary prayed for the first time and had things actually explained - Hearing the rosary prayers and then praying the rosary myself has made such a difference in my life - and I knew I was being called to become Catholic.

Since opening to the teachings of the Catholic faith I have a sense of certainty and peace that was not present before in all my short sixty years on the planet…

anyway look forward to hearing from everyone’s experiences in the coming months:}
 
I converted 2 1/2 years ago, and went through the RCIA that previous fall/spring. I personally had a wonderful experience with my RCIA program. We had a group of probably 15-20 people in the program, and had some awesome teachers.

My main advice is to ask questions and ask them often. Don’t just float through the process. The only way to really be sure you want to become Catholic is ask any question that has been bothering you or whatever. Hopefully if you are in a good parish you will find that all of your questions will be answered very well. By the end of RCIA i was still struggling with fully accepting a few things, but I had no doubts that I wanted to be Catholic. 2 1/1 years later and converting is easily one of the best things i’ve ever done and has completely changed my life for the better.

Good luck!
 
Hello everyone:)
Welcome home to the RCC
God go with you always on your journey.
My prayers go with all of you.

Jesus g
 
Hello everyone!

Welcome to RCIA!! I am currently in RCIA as well, and as you can see I have moved into the catechumen stage. Luckily, my parish offers RCIA three times a year, I started in June. However, today our new RCIA-Inquiry stage starts. We previous canditates/catechmens have been requested to attend the Welcome Retreat and Rite of Accepentce for this incoming group.

So far I have found RCIA to be very informative, and a great place to network with others on this beautiful journey. Our group meets once a week but on Sundays. Sundays is usual a long day for me, starting with prayer, mass, dismissal, and then faith coversations. Faith conversations is the group after dismissal, it is exactly what its name describes, we have conversations about faith. This group is open to the parish as a whole, but I found canditates/catechumens, neypthoes, and parishoners that teach various class at the parish are the regular in attendance. This is the first step in the catechumenate of my parish. It is meant to further teach us about Jesus (as man and God), Catholicism, and the Catholic faith as a whole.

Anyway, we conversate for one hour about this handout titled, Scripture from Scratch, the topic of the handout varies each week. It can be a little overwhemling to part take in sometimes. I am not one for such long discussions about something so hard to put into words, I would rather pray and read. I understand why we have these conversations, but I guess it is a bit much for me sometimes. On some level I feel that I have had these conversations with myself, or with my mother so many times that I just can’t bring myself to discuss them any further. Um, may be I should try to save such conversations for church?! Even so, I do pray and try very hard to remain present during the conversations because one can always learn something new. I do suspect that our schedule will change sometime in October.

Anyway, I just wanted to say congratulations to saying yes to our Lord’s invitation!!! May your journey be full of love, hope, and faith, Amen!

Oh by the way, there is a group here at CAF titleed, Coverting to Catholic. It is where all of us RCIAers hang out and chat, in case anyone is interested in that as an option of further networking here at CAF.

Mahogany
 
Puzzleannie has it right…keep on asking questions, and ask the “hard” ones. That makes us go look up things we are not always familiar with. Then, ask some more!

Usually, if the Parish has the resources, it is better to separate catechumens (unbaptized) from candidates (baptized in another Church, or returning Catholics).
Unless the child is of (normal) confirmation age (about 13-14), it would be better to have them in a regular CCD class, and THEN, in a specially oriented meeting with the Parish priest, deacon, sister or catechist…but only periodically (once a month?).

And yes, it would be excellent for a (former practicing) Catholic spouse to be in the group. I cannot tell you how many sponsors of RCIA catechumens/candidates have raved about the knowledge they themselves obtained by sitting in on the group discussions. Many times, the Catholics in attendance have been “under-” educated, too.

As a cradle Catholic, my 16 years in RCIA have been the highlight of my Catholic experience. There is so much I have learned from those seeking to enter the Church.

I recommend highly that, if you have chance to be a Catholic leader of an RCIA group, that (1) you TRY to attend a “Beginnings and Beyond” session, at least, sponsored by the North American Forum of the Catechumenate, and (2) that you buy the Catholic Answers tracts, originally written by Karl Keating, as either group discussion material, or as backup for the discussions. They are VERY powerful and very clear expositions of Catholic teaching.

G-d less y’all on your journey to the Church! You will never regret your RCIA experience. And G-d’s blessings as well to those who enable your discussions and your journey…it is truly a life-changing experience as well for those of us who are Catholic.
 
I just started RCIA 3 weeks ago and would love to have someone to email about it. Unfortunately I will be working out of town for the next 4 weeks and will miss my classes. 😦

I will have my computer with me, though, and I should (hopefully) be able to get some info on the classes.

Thanks,

Mark
 
tmarkh said:
I just started RCIA 3 weeks ago and would love to have someone to email about it. Unfortunately I will be working out of town for the next 4 weeks and will miss my classes. 😦

I will have my computer with me, though, and I should (hopefully) be able to get some info on the classes.

Thanks,

Mark
Click to expand...
God Bless you Mark I have been an RCIA teacher for 7 years and it was a fantastic journey.👍
 
Good luck to all of you! I went through RCIA last year, it was amazing! You will not regret it!

Praying for all RCIA’ers 2010!:gopray2:
 
So finally started my RCIA classes also, after a long time of pre-catechumenate i was recieved as a catechumen this lent that passed.

Now finally started the classes also, the pity is that my so called catholic wife has left me after i found out that she is pregnant with another man.

That doesnt matter i will go through this anyhow because i wanna do it with all my heart.

We were never married by the church, just civil, it was planned to convalidate the marriage after my baptism but now it wont be so, anyhow im happy and thanks to God that i finally can see the goal i was yearning for 2 years now.
 
anjoh66 said:
So finally started my RCIA classes also, after a long time of pre-catechumenate i was recieved as a catechumen this lent that passed.

Now finally started the classes also, the pity is that my so called catholic wife has left me after i found out that she is pregnant with another man.

That doesnt matter i will go through this anyhow because i wanna do it with all my heart.

We were never married by the church, just civil, it was planned to convalidate the marriage after my baptism but now it wont be so, anyhow im happy and thanks to God that i finally can see the goal i was yearning for 2 years now.
Click to expand...
God Bless and I will remember you in prayer:thumbsup:
 
I had my first class! I’m so happy! (Not terrified anymore.)

There were two other people besides me at the first class, but the pastor, who’s teaching it, said there might (might) be some more coming to the next one. I just can’t believe the process has finally started. Thank you, Jesus!
 
Student09 said:
I had my first class! I’m so happy! (Not terrified anymore.)

There were two other people besides me at the first class, but the pastor, who’s teaching it, said there might (might) be some more coming to the next one. I just can’t believe the process has finally started. Thank you, Jesus!
Click to expand...
Great I am proud of you keep it up and it will go fast God Bless
 
I have my first class tomorrow evening!! I am very excited!! I can’t wait to get started and to learn and grow in my faith!
 
I’ll be starting RCIA on Monday Sept 21 and I’m really excited to to start. I decided to convert back in February so I’ve seen Lent and Easter, including a friend converting at the Vigil, and I’ve been impatiently waiting since.

Thankfully my local parish is extremely orthodox and faithful to the Church, from all I can tell. One example is that about half the cars in the lot on Sundays have Choose Life license plates! I think RCIA will be really good and thorough. I have been validly baptized, so I’ll be a candidate, not a catechumen, once that happens.
 
What awesome news that so many are starting or have started the process of initiation to the Catholic Church. I just celebrated my 21st anniversary of joining the Church. Everyday is better than the last. God is so good. My prayers will be with you all. Keep seeking truth and Easter will be here before you know it.

In His service,
Stan
 
Hello everyone! I had my first RCIA class last Saturday (20th). It went very well. It was comforting to meet others who were hearing the call of Christ.

I have one concern for those who teach RCIA though. I have been actively patrolling the web and reading books for all the information I can find about the catholic faith. This has included USCCB.org, catholic.com (of course), americancatholic.com, salvationhistory.com, etc. I have done my best being a non-catholic to look to sites and books that seem to promote an “orthodox” teaching of the catholic faith. I should also mention that I have been podcasting Catholic Answers Live and the Liturgy of the Hours from Diving Office and reading Reasons to Believe by Scott Hahn.

I had previously mentioned this to the teacher last week, and he had no problems and said they were all excellent sources as long as I maintained a balance with reading the catechism and bible. However, my teacher this week stated that she would prefer I not listend to the show or attend this site or read the book by Scott Hahn. Her reason for this was that these sources were “too narrow minded.”

This statement troubled me. I am not sure what she means by this. While I confess to know next to nothing about the church, the sources listed above I felt were leading me to a closer relationship with my Heavenly Father and Christ. Should I be concerned about her statement? Should I follow her advice and stop what I am doing and just stick to the Bible and the Catechism?

Sorry for the long post and thanks for anyone who may be able to offer some advice.
 
jtwilleager, my advice to you is to not give too much weight to the teacher’s statement. It is just one person’s opinion after all. Now, if that advice came from a priest, it might be a different situation altogether. Laypersons, including those who teach RCIA, each have their varying ideas as to what catacumens and candidates should or should not read while going through their individual journeys. As for myself, I came into the church at Easter Vigil 2005 and read everything I could get my hands on, and a lot of it was Scott Hahn and C.S. Lewis both of whom influenced me greatly with respect to coming into a full and complete understanding of the history of the church, the sacraments, the fullness of Truth, and everything else attendant to being a solid practicing Catholic. This, of course, includes serving the church in various ministries and endeavoring daily to achieve “ordinary holiness,” that is, to be Christ-like in our actions, words and demeanor, etc. Good “luck” on your own personal journey, and stay blessed.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top