Lesson 1 - Introductory Lesson

(Lesson 1)

Introductory Session and Overview

Opening Prayer:

Father in heaven, we thank you for this opportunity to gather together and share our faith. We humbly ask for Your blessing, Your wisdom, and Your divine guidance as we walk down this road together. Amen

Theme:

Introduce the RCIA team members and the group of catechumens. Discuss the meeting arrangements and the attendance policy. Share a little bit about each other such as where you work, if you are married, how many children…etc

· Handout Bibles & the Catechism of the Catholic Church

· Explain that everyone should feel free to ask questions

· Discuss the importance of regular attendance

· Explain that everyone is at a different level of his or her faith journey

· Explain what the Catechism of the Catholic Church is

· Touch on the importance of Mass attendance

· Ask if they know anyone else who would be interested in RCIA

· Explain that they can confide in the group with complete privacy

It is important that we give a good first impression of ourselves to people who are entering the Church. We should go out of our way to express how happy we are that they have made the decision to come to Jesus Christ through the Catholic Church. Never forget that we are first and foremost Evangelists. We are supposed to spread the good news of salvation. If people see the joy of Jesus Christ in our tone of voice and in our attitude, they are more likely to be enthusiastic about the program.

During this first session, it is important to emphasize that the RCIA process will not be a boring experience. Try to give the catechumens the understanding that the study of the faith and the reception into full communion with the Catholic Church is an exciting adventure. God is at the helm! This is not merely a human endeavor. It is a calling by the Holy Spirit to enter into a share of the divine life. This first session should be short and very informal. Advise the catechumens to have a folder available for the handouts they will receive over the next few months. Also, if they see something in the media that gives rise to a question, they should write it down and bring it to the next meeting.

Don’t forget to hand out the materials for Week # 2


Conversion and Faith

GENERAL DIRECTORY FOR CATECHESIS

CONGREGATION FOR THE CLERGY

53. In proclaiming the Good News of Revelation to the world, evangelization invites men and women to conversion and faith. The call of Jesus, "Repent and believe in the Gospel", continues to resound today by means of the Church's work of evangelization. The Christian faith is, above all, conversion to Jesus Christ, full and sincere adherence to his person and the decision to walk in his footsteps. Faith is a personal encounter with Jesus Christ making, of oneself a disciple of him. This demands a permanent commitment to think like him, to judge like him and to live as he lived. In this way the believer unites himself to the community of disciples and appropriates the faith of the Church.

54. This "Yes" to Jesus Christ, who is the fullness of the revelation of the Father is twofold: a trustful abandonment to God and a loving assent to all that he has revealed to us. This is possible only by means of the action of the Holy Spirit.
"By faith man freely commits his entire self completely to God, making the full submission of his intellect and will to God who reveals, and willingly assenting to the Revelation given by him".
"To believe has thus a double reference: to the person and to the truth; to the truth, by trust in the person who bears witness to it".

55. Faith involves a change of life, a "metanoia", that is a profound transformation of mind and heart; it causes the believer to live that conversion. This transformation of life manifests itself at all levels of the Christian's existence: in his interior life of adoration and acceptance of the divine will, in his action, participation in the mission of the Church, in his married and family life; in his professional life; in fulfilling economic and social responsibilities.
Faith and conversion arise from the "heart", that is, they arise from the depth of the human person and they involve all that he is. By meeting Jesus Christ and by adhering to him the human being sees all of his deepest aspirations completely fulfilled. He finds what he had always been seeking and he finds it superabundantly. Faith responds to that "waiting", often unconscious and always limited in its knowledge of the truth about God, about man himself and about the destiny that awaits him. It is like pure water which refreshes the journey of man, wandering in search of his home. Faith is a gift from God. It can only be born in the intimacy of Man's heart as a fruit of that "grace which moves and assists him", and as a completely free response to the promptings of the Holy Spirit who moves the heart and turns it toward God, and who "makes it easy for all to accept and believe the truth". The Blessed Virgin Mary lived these dimensions of faith in the most perfect way. The Church "venerates in Mary the purest realization of faith".