LEARN ABOUT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
Founded 2,000 Years Ago by JESUS CHRIST

• Are you interested in learning more about the Catholic Church?
• Are you considering joining the Church?
• Are you seeking baptism?
• Have you been baptized as a Catholic or in another Christian tradition and want to receive the Sacraments of Eucharist and Confirmation?
• Are you a Catholic returning to active membership in the Church?

 The RCIA process is just what you are looking for!
 

* Inquiry   During this time, you are encouraged to ask any questions about Christianity and receive truthful, life-sharing answers from Catholic Christians. The informal discussions during the inquiry period help you link your personal life stories to the Good News as witness and lived by the Roman Catholic community. If you desire to continue the conversion journey within our faith community, you are invited to experience the first major rite of the RCIA process, the Rite of Acceptance. The Rite of Acceptance marks both your acceptance of the call of Christ and the communities welcoming acceptance of you, typically at Sunday Mass, with a prayer of strengthening for the journey, symbolic of both the joys and the costs of Christian discipleship.

* Catechumenate   The word catechumenate means “time of serious study”. The length of the catechumenate varies according to the individual need. You do not travel alone during this period. Sponsors (practicing Catholics) act as spiritual companions, providing personal support, sharing experience of Christian life and helping you feel “at home” with Catholic religious practice. The catechumenate period ends when you are ready to begin the third period of the journey, the period of purification and enlightenment, which coincides with Lent (a forty day “retreat”) each year. Here we celebrate the second major rite of the RCIA process, the Rite of Election and the Call to Continuing Conversion.

* Purification and Enlightenment   This is a time of final preparation for initiation. Joining with the whole church as she enters the Lenten Season, this period is one of prayer, fasting, and reflection, a forty day “retreat” for the entire Church.

* Celebration of the Sacraments of Initiation   You are initiated through the third and consummating rite of the RCIA process, the Sacraments of Initiation at the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday Night. On that night, when light drives out darkness, joyful sounds fill the silence, and we proclaim and renew our resurrection hope as you culminate your long journey to initiation. If you have not been baptized, this is the night you are born again in the waters of Baptism – then, along with those who are already baptized, you are sealed with the oil of Confirmation and share the bread and wine of the Eucharist as full members of the Roman Catholic community.

* Mystagogia   Your Initiation begins the fourth period of the RCIA journey, the mystagogia, which means “living the mysteries”. It is the beginning of a pilgrimage of lifelong continuous conversion as Disciples of the Lord