I started RCIA in September. I am wanting to get the most out it. I am seeking those currently enrolled or newly converted to discuss questions and struggles.
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Hello and welcome to the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
I am a convert (not recent though). Unfortunately there is no standard curriculum for RCIA and therefore it varies by parish and diocese. I will say that when I went through RCIA 20 years, I received a bare minimum education in the Faith. I have spent the last 20 years studying the faith more in depth. Though I’m not a PhD, I’d be more than happy to help you with any questions that you have.
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Welcome to the forums! When my Wife went through RCIA it was great! It was more like a small family. Our friend went through RCIA at a neighboring Parish and it s was more like a class she said. We had different presenters each week, so it wasn’t always the same person leading. I had been listening to Catholic Answers Live for quite a while and reading a lot, so I was able to contribute to the conversation. I was generally pretty quite, but they said when I did have something to share, it was usually pretty informative (not bragging, but it was nice to hear that they enjoyed my company).
The lady who was in charge of RCIA was a saint. She had such a big heart. She passed away last year and I was unable to attend her funeral. Say a little Prayer for Kathy.
I hope that your experience in RCIA is as dear to your heart as ours was. If it is less than what you expected, you are at home here. Feel free to ask any questions. You can even private message me if you’d like.
Another recommendation, for individuals who might feel alone in this journey, is the “Surprised by Truth” Series. These are stories of individuals who have been where you are. What is nice about these books are that you can just skip to any chapter. You don’t have to read them in any order.
Some of the books that my Wife received as gifts include:
- The Catholic Source Book by Peter Klein
- A Father Who Keeps His Promises by Dr. Scott Hahn (which walks you through the narrative books of the Bible). I gifted this book to a young Confirmation student and bought a copy for my Grandma who was struggling with the portrayal of God in the Old Testament. I like this book a lot.
- Where We Got the Bible by Henry G. Graham
- Surprised by Truth 2 by Patrick Madrid (there are 3 in the series and I recommend them all : )
These are all great books if you like to read. They are great even if you don’t like to read ; )
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I am so excited about these books!! I will look them up immediately. Reading is my favorite!!
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Hi - thank you for your message! I am for sure in the information absorption stage. I can’t get enough! At the moment, I’m wrestling with the Catholic view of Heaven. During our Homily this past Sunday, the priest mentioned that we won’t need food because we won’t have bodies. This contradicts my Baptist upbringing and the resurrection of our bodies at the 2nd coming. I’m traversing this confusion now. Thoughts???
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Maybe he meant in heaven before the general resurrection. Whether we will need food after the resurrection, who knows? Jesus ate food after He rose from the dead, but I don’t know whether He needed it.
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I have started OCIA at my local parish and it’s online self-study. I’ve been given lots of video series to watch such as Symbolon, The Search, and Altaration (all about the mass). I also was given about 15 lesson pamphlets, a catechism, and a youth Bible. I’ve been listening to Fr. Mike Schmitz’s podcasts (Bible/Catechism in a year) and I watch the National Shrine of Divine Mercy’s YouTube channel. Fr. Chris Alar has a lot of theology talks called Explaining the Faith (also a similar series in EWTN) and Fr. Anthony is the spiritual director who just made a wonderful video about how to practically pray the rosary. October is the month of the rosary so I want to pray one decade at least each day. I’m still memorizing all the prayers.
I’ve downloaded tons of apps such as Hallow, Amen, Laudeate, Prayminder, Blessed is She, etc. I’m hoping they’ll help me use my phone for holiness rather than sin.
I wish OCIA had more structure where I am and more of a community feel. I don’t feel super connected to the church yet but I’m hoping to go to daily mass and start volunteering.
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Great information! Thank you for sharing. I will look into the video series, I was not aware of those. Also a few of the apps you mention are new to me as well.
I agree with the structure/community needs. I believe that the intent is there at my parish, but I have the same desires as you.
God is using Father Mike in such a big way, I am so grateful he is open to God’s direction and makes himself as available as he does to answer and obey.
I too am turning my attention to the rosary. I have been attending mass online on weekdays at 7am as I don’t have that option locally.
I did find a website that let you choose live mass from around the world, super interesting. Http://mass-online.org
While mass in person is beyond amazing, the online mass is what I did to kind of learn “how” to mass.
I also take a cheat sheet with me with the responses and creed on it so I can fully participate 
I am so glad to see your post. Please stay in touch!
Khristie
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We’ll be charitable and give the priest the benefit of the doubt. But, yes, after the final judgement you will have your body in Heaven.
Ok, that’s what I thought! Thank you.
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I searched for RCIA on Twitter and invited a few individuals to this thread. I noticed a lot of individuals who are tweeting about currently being in RCIA have anime profile pictures. Why might this be? My sixteen year old daughter is into anime (as it is more popular than comic books these days).
Great idea & that is interesting! My son is also into anime. I wonder indeed.
Political dilemma- Evangelists and evangelism. I am a Republican Catholic. Evangelism has been my issue. The Evangellical Church is front-and-centeral. Their religious tenets are supported by many Republicans.
The Catholic and Evangelist churches support Trump. I only found one reason for that alingment, abortion.
I am pro-life and a life-long republican. After the following text from the 2024 CPAC, I have changed parties.
Our fallen heroes from the second world war have sacrificed their lives to protect our democracy. Impossible to believe, but not shocking given the time of Trump.
There were 407,000 troops who died in WW II. Trump, who served not one hour in service to his country said at the National Cemetery they were all “SUCKERS and LOSERS”.
Trump acknowledged to advisors that he made up a fake injury, “bone spurs”, five times, to avoid military service, because “I wasn’t going to Vietnam,”
Trump MAGA radical Jack Posobieck was speaking at the 2024 CPAC event, which was a panel session hosted by former indicted White House strategist Steve Bannon. “I just wanted to say welcome to the end of democracy. We’re here to overthrow it completely, we didn’t get all the way there on January 6th, but we will endeavor to get rid of it and replace it with this right here, we’ll replace it with this right here.”
If we prayed for our democracy, double down.
Hi Jack,
Pardon my response, but what does any of this have to do with RCIA (the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults)? RCIA is the process in which one becomes Catholic.
There are Republican Catholic Christians, Democratic Catholic Christians, Libertarian Catholic Christians, and so on. There are American Catholic Christians and non-American Catholic Christians.
If you had to put your post into a question, what would be?
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