Want to help with RCIA?-Join our team!

"RCIA" is Rite of Christian Initation of Adults, through RCIA individuals can experience and learn about our Catholic Faith or be fully recieved into the Catholic faith. RCIA is also for adults who are Catholic and want to complete their Sacraments of Initation (First communion and/or Confirmation). 

What is the vision of our RCIA program here at Our Lady of the Snows: 
Our Lady of the Snows mission statement is: “We the Church of Our Lady of the Snows are a community of disciples on a journey of faith with all our brothers and sisters. To live the gospel message as listeners, learners, and leaders we will: enrich our liturgies as the foundation for greater spirituality in our parish community, nurture an awareness of Christ in one another - in and beyond our worship, facilitate the sharing of our Catholic legacy in the diverse settings of our lives, and see and reach out to those who long for healing.” The vision of RCIA is to help people learn, explore, grow, form, and extend their relationship with Christ, his Church, and our community. We inspire for our RCIA program to build up disciples to have a foundation of faith that they can rely on in their journeys of faith throughout their lives and into our community.

For our RCIA Team we have spilt the team into four smaller teams that perform different roles to help and accompany our individuals going through RCIA. We have a team that journeys with the inquirers, a team that journeys with the candidates, a team that helps build up our RCIA sponsors, and a team that put on our RCIA retreats. 

Here are the discriptions of the different roles of our RCIA team: 

Journeying with the Inquirers: 
The purpose of the role of one who wants to journey with the inquirers is exactly as it sounds, it is someone who is with the inquirers as they begin and continue on of their journey of faith. Inquirers are non-baptized individuals who are interested in becoming Catholic. The Inquiry phase will be open all year long starting in September for those who are interested in becoming Catholic. These people are thirsting for the Catholic faith and the best guides for their journey are those who practice and live out the faith. The purpose of the inquiry phase is simply to create a place where people can come and learn about the Catholic faith in a relaxed and reflective environment. The person journeying with the inquirers helps them prepare for the Rite of Acceptance/Welcoming with the guidance of the coordinator of adult faith formation, from there the inquirers begins the catechumenate as catechumens.  

Journeying with the Candidates: 
The purpose of the formation of candidates is to help the participants learn church teaching and how it interacts with their lives. Candidates are baptized individuals who seek full communion with the Roman Catholic Church through the Sacraments of Confirmation and Holy Eucharist. The role of the one who wants to help in the formation of candidates is someone who is open to help others learn about the Catholic faith and interact with the Catholic faith. The purpose of the candidate process is to build up disciples with a good foundation of church teaching, desire for community, and desire to evangelize. People in this role of the RCIA team with the guidance of the coordinator of adult faith formation will be helping the candidates prepare for their sacraments of First Communion and/or Confirmation.

Helping build up our RCIA Sponsors: 
Sponsors are a crucial role in the RCIA process, they are the people that the candidates and catechumens turn to in all stages of their faith journey. The role of the person who is involved with forming the sponsors is someone who wants to help build up and guide our sponsors as the sponsors journey with their candidate/catechumen under the guidance of the coordinator of adult faith formation.  Sponsors need guidance and need to be catechized as well as they help their candidate/catechumen, and so with this role the person who is guiding the sponsors are building them up so that they can help be better sponsors in the program.

Helping put on our RCIA retreats: 
The Catholic faith cannot be taught, it must be first experienced and that is the purpose of the retreat team for this RCIA program. The goal of the retreats is to be fun, reflective, and memorable. The role of a member of the retreat team is to create, organize, and run the retreats under the guidance of the coordinator of adult faith formation. This person would be helping set up the retreats and taking down retreats. Retreats are to really bring out the spirituality of the RCIA process.