RCIA's Six Keys to Making Lifelong Disciples

Long experience with the catechumenal process has helped us know certain emphases this fundamental ministry of the Church should have. This article serves as a way to help all those who serve in this ministry of conversion review their practice and reflect on possible improvements. As I present the six keys to making lifelong disciples through the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) process, I will offer immediate next steps as well as long term goals. I will also suggest what these six keys might have to say for our ministry with candidates who are already baptized.

Our biggest challenge in RCIA formation is deepening the conversion of our seekers to such a level that they become lifelong disciples of Christ. This task is so mysterious and so overwhelming that we sometimes give into temptation—the temptation to tell ourselves that it is up to the Holy Spirit, not us, to convert hearts. Our job, we are tempted to say, is simply to make sure the seekers know the teaching of the Church.

While it is true that conversion of hearts is the work of the Spirit, each of us has been given spiritual gifts through which the Spirit acts. Imagine if you needed heart surgery and your doctor said to you, "The Holy Spirit is the true healer of hearts. I will only tell you what the guidelines are for diet and exercise, and then I will go away and pray for you."

Pope John Paul II said, "The definitive aim of catechesis is to put people not in touch, but also in communion and intimacy, with Jesus Christ" (On Catechesis in Our Time, 5). We are not merely dispensers of knowledge. We are agents of conversion. We are healers. The "mystery" as to how to cause conversion is a mystery of love, not a mystery of technique. The mystery is the complete sense of "beyond" that we feel when we experience true love. The "how to" of developing a love relationship with Jesus, however, is pretty straightforward. The RCIA gives us six keys or principles for accomplishing this task. If we ground our RCIA process in these six principles, we will be amazingly successful at converting hearts and making lifelong disciples.

Key # 1: Conversion is a Gradual Process

Accepting and believing that conversion of hearts is a gradual process is one of the most difficult steps to take for most RCIA teams. Everyone will agree that conversion is a gradual process—as long as it starts in September and reaches fruition by Easter. Many of us are so bound to our religious education syllabus that we allow very little breathing room for spiritual conversion. To free ourselves from this binding, we need to pray. Pray every day that instead of focusing on what we have to teach, the Holy Spirit will show us wounds that need to be healed. Pray that the Holy Spirit will help us see each seeker as someone on his or her own journey of faith that doesn't conform to a predetermined class schedule. Pray for the wisdom to be able to accompany that seeker on his or her journey without imposing our own need to explain thirty points of doctrine before Easter.

Simple Next Step

Choose one session a month to move off of the syllabus. Instead, break open what Jesus is teaching the seekers in that Sunday's gospel, an experience of Christ they had in the parish, or an experience of Christ they had in their family life.

Long-Term Goal

Develop an individual faith formation plan for each seeker that is guided by the movement of the Holy Spirit and not by a school calendar.

Key # 2: Conversion Takes Place within the Community

A consistent complaint that we hear from RCIA teams is that it is difficult to get the community involved in the initiation process. By dwelling on this key, we can get a clearer understanding of what the Church is asking of us and our parish communities. What RCIA teams seem to expect of the parish community center on one or more...