Tag Archives: Catholic

DEAR DEBORAH, Page 1 — RCIA v.1.1

Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2013

Hello, Jane,
I heard that you wanted to get in touch with me.
Deborah

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—–Original Message—–
Sent: Fri, Sep 13, 2013 10:23 am
Subject: RE: Hello, it is Deborah

Thank you, Deborah,

I watched your interview with Marcus on The Journey Home. For many reasons, your personal story touched me deeply.

Specifically, for this request to connect with you, I am seeking some kind of counsel on the RCIA program I just visited. I am a former agnostic who came to faith in my 40’s. I am 62. We have moved through a variety of protestant denominations and have landed at present as members of a Lutheran church. In the past five years, largely through the influence of EWTN programming and my own reading, I am drawn to enter the Catholic Church. My husband has no interest and seems to feel my Catholic interest is a rejection of his faith. He is a wonderful man. He is not hostile, but hurt and wary.

With this background, I attended my first RCIA class on Wednesday. I came away very disheartened. I called The Journey Home ministry to get more info on the basics of RCIA, to understand the guidance given to this program from the Church, and to share my concerns. The man I spoke with agreed that my concerns were valid. But he had no effective suggestions. Largely…his counsel was to wait a couple of years until “you are inside the church and then see what you can do in your own parish to bring about change for the parish.”

If you are able and willing, I would appreciate being able to discuss RCIA with you and to get your perspective. FYI – I also taught school for 11 years, including a special emphasis on math…at a more elementary level than your own.

I remain committed to entering the Catholic Church in God’s time, giving special consideration to sharing Christian worship with my husband. I know your life is full, and if you are able to give any time to this request, I will certainly honor your limitations on such dialogue.

Sincerely,
Jane

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Hello Jane!

I went to your site last night after I received the forwarded message. God bless you!

Being the first Catholic on my mom’s side of the family has been a blessing most times. I am very sensitive to the fact that they don’t agree with me, but I am also aware that sometimes I see things as a slight, when they really don’t mean it that way. Hopefully through prayer and understanding, your husband will see that your faith will make you a better person. The sacraments are powerful! They have made such a difference in my life!

As far as RCIA programs go, every parish is very different. I did a lot of research myself before ever entering RCIA. But I have heard some bad stories from others. I know that the program I entered was off to a very slow start. It took a while for the teachers to hit their stride. Perhaps you can talk to the priest about it, or even ask him questions that you need clarification on. I know I loved classes when the priest was there. If you have any questions or concerns, I would be happy to help if possible. E-mail is fine; I tend to check it every few days.

Do you have a Facebook page? I am on FB almost every day so that may be the best way to contact me.

Deborah

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IT’S NOT WHAT YOU THINK

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³So he told them this parable: ⁴“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? ⁵And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. ⁶And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.’ ⁷Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Luke 15:3-7 [RSVCE]

IT’S NOT WHAT YOU THINK

As a Lutheran, I have great reason to give pause in writing.

Martin Luther set out to change Catholic practices, and he put into motion the great revolution that set Christians, including me, outside the Catholic Church.

I do not want a revolution…just a small change. I do not say this lightly. As a Lutheran who is on the path to becoming Catholic, can anything good come from setting out to change even the smallest part of the Catholic Church?

First of all, I need to say that change was the furthest thing from my mind. I intended to attend RCIA. I was looking forward to it. I still do.

I knew I had a lot to learn about a Church with a 2,000 year history. I still do.

Years of following the news and commentary on the New Evangelization led me to believe the Catholic Church was ready to take even a poor sinner like me, Lord have mercy. They do…but it’s just not that easy.

…the New Evangelization…in recent years it’s become the buzzword par excellence in Catholic circles. Books are being published, lectures given, conferences organized, diocesan offices created, and whole courses of study put together, all devoted to the ways and means of the New Evangelization.

This is where the challenge begins. It is hard to create a case for change without being critical. It is especially difficult to nail the grievances onto the door of an Internet public forum. I have no desire to follow Luther’s path. But the stakes in this discussion are high. Even one lost sheep left in the wilderness should cause us to shudder.

In a nutshell, the “New Evangelization” is about salesmanship. The idea is to move the Catholic product in the crowded lifestyle marketplace of the post-modern world.

When cardinals say the next pope has to be committed to the New Evangelization, therefore, what they mean is that he should be a pitchman, someone who can attract people to the faith.

Just as in other markets, there are different ways of doing that – some salespeople are brash and in-your-face, some much kinder and gentler. Some work the street, others work the high-end markets. The key, however, is to be always be closing.

The odd thing about “selling” Catholicism is that just when a buyer turns up, the Church tells them that their money is no good. I am speaking from personal experience. I showed up at the door, and they told me to put my wallet away.

Jesus Sheep 1 Now…this is not what you think. I am not trying to retaliate. I have no desire to hurt anyone. And, yes, I have tried to address my concerns in a personal and private setting…many times. To no avail.

And while this is about me…it is about way more than that. The New Evangelization is more than a sales campaign for the Church. It is about more than wooing ex-Catholics home again. It is about laying the lost sheep on her shoulders; it is about rejoicing.

Whether the New Evangelization will work remains to be seen, but at least it seems to have the church’s finger on a real problem.

In the United States, there are now 22 million ex-Catholics, big enough to be the largest religious denomination in the country. The church drops four members for every one member it gains, and if it were not for Hispanic immigration, it would have been declining for decades. Yet the Catholic church in America also holds on to almost 70 percent of its members into adulthood, a higher retention rate than any other Christian denomination.

Those statistics suggest the problem for Catholicism isn’t so much what happens once people are actually in the church, but getting them through the door in the first place. To return to the marketing metaphors, the problem isn’t customer service but new sales.

I was a “new sale” ready to check out. And, just as I reached the clerk at the register, she turned out the light at her station, locked the cash drawer and put a sign on the counter: This Lane Closed.

This is not what you might think…the story of a wounded sheep with a bruised ego. Certainly, if I am honest, some part of my ego is involved. But some kind of ego is necessary to stand before the Church and suggest that she is traveling down the wrong path.

What is one to do? If I love the Church, and if I care about the lost sheep, there seems to be no other course to take.

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What’s this ‘new evangelization’ thing, anyway? John L. Allen Jr. Mar. 7, 2013
http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/whats-new-evangelization-thing-anyway

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Don’t Get Mad

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The worst part of this writing project is that it involves a heavy discussion of religion.

Well..actually…the very worst part of this project is that it involves the Catholic religion.

I shudder when I consider Internet Comboxes on religious websites. There is simply no way to have a civil discussion about faith. In short time, someone will write an attack on someone else, and like flies to cows, the Combox will fill with absolutely useless vitriol.

And those are the “good” comments. If the blog merely mentions the Catholic faith, you will draw killer flies, hornets, Africanized bees and tarantula hawks. I know what I am in for.

I am not only going to mention the Catholic Church. I am going to mention it in every line. Please, please, please…don’t get mad. I am going to question it, challenge it and confront it. But, it’s not what you might think.

Heads-up. I love the Catholic Church. I want to join the Catholic Church. And, when I first pursued her (the Church is the Bride of Christ – her), I thought we were a match made in heaven. I called the contact in the church bulletin and put my name on the list for RCIA, their class for new members.

During the course of my years working in a pro-life arena, I came to understand, appreciate and agree with the Catholic pro-life position on everything…yes…everything, including the thorny issue of contraception. I amassed a library, courtesy of Amazon, of books on every aspect of the Catholic faith: the Reformation, early church fathers, the Saints, prayer, biographies…and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2^nd Edition.

In the car, I continue to catch the Rosary with Fr. Benedict Groeschel. Between Patrick Coffin and Patrick Madrid, on the highway, I have traveled at least 150 hours’ worth of Q&A with radio listeners asking Catholic questions, including pointed challenges to the “Patricks” each of whom welcomes challenges from non-Catholics.

Meanwhile, at home on television, the EWTN schedule of programs covers every aspect of The New Evangelization. I Live Right with Dr. Ray, yell, “Go get ‘em, ladies,” to the women with The Catholic View, Consume the Word with Dr. Scott, track current news with Raymond Arroyo and remain ready at any moment to Grab my Catechism.

Daily, I receive the Saint of the Day via e-mail, recording each of the Saint’s names and dates in my devotional journal. Measuring their accomplishments against my own life, I come up short. And I have no time to “catch up.” I calculate the age of each saint at death. Few make it past 65. Both my father and mother died at 62. I am 63.

The saints, reaching out to me through the centuries, inspired me to attend the last two West Coast Walk for Life events in San Francisco and to travel to Jamaica to volunteer with the Missionaries of the Poor.

OK. I hear you. It’s not all about me. I get it. None of this is intended to vouch for my personal and perfect understanding of everything Catholic.

It’s simply that some of it is about me. And considering that the protestants took me out of agnosticism when I was raw and untested, when I had never cracked a Bible and had to learn the Our Father…I figured I was at least ready, after twenty years of dedication to Christ, to enter the Catholic Church and fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. [1Tim 6:12]

I was wrong.

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TEARS

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I don’t know whether to write or cry. So I’ll do both.

Twenty years ago, if you had asked me to hit the keyboard and write an essay, I would have raced to the desk, sent fingers flying across the keys and finished with this page by now. In the early 90s, I was one of the first amateur writers to set up a website, posting a weekly column for more than four years.

Things have certainly changed. Today everyone has a website. Many have several…I have three.

We all have something to say…and to show off… Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and more. The explosion of the Internet is breathtaking in the course of world history. Years after I set aside my first website in the late 90s, today everyone has something to write about, and it is all there…posted online.

For more than a decade, I wrote, I published, I posted. Then suddenly, flipping a switch, it was over. There was no singular, heart-rending reason…but making a personal declaration to reclaim my life, I turned away from a lifetime of writing.

I enjoyed my break from a life spent at the computer. Instead of writing, I threw myself into doing…trying to make a real difference on this planet. It was great to go to the Internet to read the work of others…so many talented writers who finally had a place to reveal their wisdom unimpeded by editors and publishers.

Unfortunately, today, I again have something that needs to be said. And it looks like the only way I will be able to say it is on the Internet. That means writing…hours…and hours at the computer. Aargh!

Last night, looking under every rock and pebble, trying to find a way to avoid this task, I searched the Internet for a webpage that handily expressed my views. It would say what needed to be said, and I could return to a quiet existence. I had truly hoped to be able to cry and read. Typewriter Classic

Alas, I must write and cry.

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