My contributions to our parish's OCIA program

The discussion following Katherine's post about the historical causes of Vatican II has branched into discussion about what is covered in OCIA (the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, known as RCIA until 2021).  

I don't think I mention it very often, but I'm one of the contributors, or presenters, or facilitators, or whatever the appropriate term is, for our parish's OCIA program.  In case it's of interest, I'm going to describe what I do, and what I've observed of RCIA / OCIA in our parish.

I was first invited to contribute instruction around the time I was ordained, in 2004.  At that time, RCIA was run by a deacon and his wife.  The wife had grown up in one of the Protestant denominations and then went through RCIA just prior to her marriage to her husband.  (For her, it "took"; she was the one who, in my view, actually ran the program, and of the two was the more engaged with the catechumens and candidates.)  They asked me, as a freshly minted deacon, if I would lead the session on Mary, Mother of God.

Why they would ask me to present this particular topic, is kind of a head-scratcher.  The only thing I can think of is that, prior to my entering deacon formation, I led a musical ensemble - a sort of small choir - which sang at a late-morning Sunday mass; and that same mass slot had been chosen by some other group in the parish as the mass after which, in May, a May crowning ceremony was performed.  Because our little group provided the music at that mass, we were asked if we would also provide music for the May crowning, and we obliged.  (The May crowning music, I have to say, could veer from the standard - Immaculate Mary - to the really bad - Bring Flow'rs of the Fairest).  

So this May crowning history may have connected me in somebody's brain to Mary.  But in truth, I didn't really have a Marian devotion, if Marian devotion meant coming to the daily rosary or visiting Marian apparition sites.  I had nothing against her - she's fine! - but I wasn't really the most Marian person in the parish. Nor did we have much formation, or any at all, on Mary during my deacon formation.

But - I was asked to lead this session, and despite knowing comparatively litte about Mary and considerably less than that about RCIA, I said, Sure, I'll give it a shot.  

I decided the way to do it would be to sit in a circle with everyone and have a conversation about Mary.  I supposed that most people going through RCIA would be non-Catholic Christians who might have some rudimentary biblical familiarity (quite possibly more familiarity than us Catholics), so I'd start by talking about what we all share in common about Mary: the stories of her in the New Testament - the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity, the Circumcision, and so on.  I'd start by asking them what their favorite Bible stories are about Mary. 

I quickly learned a couple of things: most young people going through RCIA / OCIA these days don't actually have much of a biblical or religious background, so they know little or nothing about Mary (or Jesus or the Catholic church); but every RCIA attendee has one or more sponsors, and the sponsors are very eager to talk about Mary.  So when I asked, "What are your favorite Bible stories about Mary?" it would mostly be the sponsors, not the attendees, who would answer.  But it turned out, that was kind of okay, because when a sponsor raised her hand and said, "I love the story about Mary and Jesus at the wedding at Cana", I'd ask them, "Why do you love that story?", and a conversation would ensue - sometimes, a group conversation.  And the attendees would listen to the conversation - they found the topic quite interesting.  And eventually I'd be able to draw some of them into the conversation, and they would ask questions that occurred to them about Mary.

Beyond the biblical aspects of Mary, we also talked about some of the Marian dogmas and beliefs (Immaculate Conception, Assumption, Mary mother of God, Mary ever-virgin, Mary queen of heaven) which don't have a direct, explicit biblical basis but which the church nevertheless believes.  In those conversations, I didn't hammer them with, "You must believe these things!", but just tried to describe what they consist of, so they could have some understanding of what those terms actually mean.  Whether or not to accept the teachings, is kind of up to them - or at least that's my approach.

We also talked about why the Catholic church loves Mary so much; Marian apparitions; and a bit about the rosary (I was told to only touch the rosary topic lightly because there is a whole separate session on the rosary).   

I guess you could say I lectured.  I had a stint when I was younger where I taught community college courses, and then spent a lot of years in the corporate world doing corporate training, so I was pretty comfortable preparing and giving lectures.  But as I say, I try to do it in an interactive way.

About 10 years ago, the deacon who led the sessions with his wife died quite suddenly - he contracted a terrible rare disease and died within about three months.  The wife, understandably, was bereft, and felt she couldn't lead RCIA without him.  So for a period of two or so years, we didn't have an RCIA program.  Then we found someone - this wonderful woman from Pakistan who is a former nun, who had run the RCIA program at a different parish.  She started to put together her program, but then COVID happened.  So we went on hiatus for another couple of years.

This new director is more assertive: she asked me to lead, not only the Mary session, but also a session on the parts of the Mass and the parts of the worship space; and a session on Call to Holiness / Call to Evangelization / Call to Conversion.  So for the past few years, I've done those topics, as well.  And then, this past year, she asked me to take on a fourth topic, on Anointing of the Sick (a topic, btw, about which I knew even less than I had known about Mary).  So I researched and prepared, put together PowerPoint decks, practiced, and have led those sessions, too.

The people to whom I subject these sessions, seem to like them.  Most of the participants are young adults, and most of them have at least some college in their background, so they're all pretty comfortable sitting and listening to someone lecture to them.  And as I say, I try to make it interactive.  I've got a certain level of energy and enthusiasm, which helps I think.

There are other people who lead other sessions.  I dont' have a clear idea of what other approaches are used.  I walked past the OCIA room on a recent Sunday, and the OCIA group was sitting and looking at a flat-screen television while a video played.  I think this is a common way to present educational and formational topics in the church these days.  There are a number of programs and services that make videos available: Word on Fire, Formed, Hallow, and others. A typical video would consist of a priest talking about a topic, and there are discussion questions, study guides, etc.  

I guess video learning is probably fine, but I'm old-fashioned in this regard.  I like lecture, conversation, and Q&A.  But that's just me, and not everyone has that background or desire to prep and execute something like that.