Right away you will note that this model will take time to develop and implement. It could easily be a year- long process, if not longer. It will take guts and inventiveness. It cannot be a process of simply plugging in topics and formats and “running with it.” Parishes will need to stop, reflect, and come to deeper understandings of the dynamics all along the way.

First a word about using the Rite as a model for adult faith formation. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, the General Directory for Catechesis, and the new National Directory for Catechesis each mentions the Rite of Christian Initiation as the paradigm for how adults come to initial faith and then continue in ongoing catechesis. This does not suggest that we develop “neo-catechumenates” and pluck out the rites and prayers to use at our discretion. Rather, it suggests that the periods of formation — inquiry, period of the catechumens, enlightenment, and mystagogy — model for us how adults grow in faith. Adults first need time and freedom to ask the questions they have about faith and life. They also need to know that they are being listened to and that their questions are being respected. In the beginning, the answers are less important to them than the fact that they are being heard by their leaders and teachers. Only after the questions have been clarified and exhausted so all know what everyone else is thinking and wondering can the information-sharing phase of the process begin. But for adults, this is not the time to simply give answers. It is a time to share the background, the history, and the Tradition on which potential answers to their questions can and should be based. Enlightenment — the coming to a richer awareness both as individuals and as communities — happens through discussion, prayer, and discernment together. Enlightenment by its nature leads to planning and taking action. Faith formation reaches its fulfillment when adults, living out those actions, become aware of new and deeper questions, ones that will require addressing in order to take faith to yet another level; the cycle of creation continues.

So, let’s look at this model for a community’s adult faith formation.

Inquiry

Before creation there was chaos. Nothing made sense. There was no order, no pattern. So it seems with parish life, doesn’t it? People have their own agendas, their own ideas of what’s right and wrong with the parish, and what needs to be done. This parallels the messy time of adult faith formation — and it is the most important time. While staffs and pastoral councils might have ideas about what should happen, parishioners simply won’t participate in activities unless they perceive them to be important. For example, a cluster of parishes can pitch in thousands of dollars to get a nationally known presenter to lead a Lenten retreat, but if the topic isn’t important to people, few will attend.

What are some of the real questions that might arise within a parish or a cluster? Here are just a few:

• What will we do when our pastor retires?
• What will happen to us if the parish has to be clustered with another?
• How do we raise enough money to pay our bills?
• How do we get our children to want to come to Mass?
• Why does it seem that the children know more about the faith than the adults?
• How come another parish lets a sister preach and ours doesn’t?
• What should we do about the new abortion clinic that just opened in town?
• How come no one prays to Mary anymore?
• Why are people so sloppy about their manners and their dress at Sunday Mass?
• We were a German parish but now we have more Vietnamese Catholics than any other nationality. Why can’t we be just like we were in the old days?

Let there be light!

God spoke and brought light to the world — the light of knowing, if not yet “order.” To bring light to the situation, the leadership must post the comments and questions — all of them — so that the whole parish can hear what its many members are wondering about. The leadership then responds, and continued opportunities for input are encouraged. People are invited to clarify, wonder, and discuss the diverse points raised. At this point, only a couple of “rules” ought to be strictly followed: no arguing or derisive comments about what people share; no attempting to jump to solutions at this time; and points of clarification should be interjected only as needed.

The Second Day: God placed a dome in the sky …

The dome was the first step in ordering the chaos. For the parish, order can begin when the diverse questions and needs are organized into various categories. Are some of them basically liturgical in nature? Are any centered on pastoral, social justice, financial, or parish life issues? What might be the root concern of a given question? While no “grouping” can do full justice to all the questions and needs, it will give the community a framework they can “hang their hat on” and thus move into the next stage of faith formation: making a commitment.

The pastoral leader at this point should challenge the people to choose a path. While the grouping of the questions might lead to some very helpful insights about what a parish deems important, some very distinct paths may become clear. So the community is invited to make the choice by prioritizing, at least initially, which way to go. This can be done through a process of evenings of prayer, petitions at Mass, parish polls, a series of town meetings, and more. A community might also choose to use a rating system in which “5” is “absolutely necessary” and “1” is “not at this time.” In the end, the leadership will ask the question, “Is this the path we are to travel as a community?” When the people say yes together, then it is time to move on.

Ongoing catechesis

The greatest temptation at this point is to jump right to finding solutions. While it might seem as though this would be the most logical and expedient thing to do, it will likely short-circuit the adult faith formation process. It is like trying to reap the harvest before the seed is planted. For example, one issue a parish might identify is budget concerns. Leadership might say, “What we need is to build an entire stewardship program, so let’s get a presenter in here and get started!” The problem with this is the community (1) doesn’t know what stewardship is; (2) has no grasp of the theology and pastoral practices that underpin it; and (3) might not even think stewardship is the right way to go. With these three strikes against it, the idea, no matter how good, will probably meet with poor, or at best temporary, success.

Rather, what a parish needs to do is begin “filling in” information — from tradition, pastoral practice, parish history, and such. This step comes directly from people’s questions and attempts to address supplying information that might be lacking or at least insufficient. What might this parish with budget concerns do first, then? How about writing a complete history of the parish that highlights the sense of community and connection? What about having a group do work on what church documents say about what it means to be a parish? Why not give a “primer” on how the financial books are kept? If the parish is doing its own sacrificial giving to other organizations, it might get the word out and develop sharing sessions around them. Or it could conduct ministry fairs that introduce the parishioners to the good things being done as well as what has yet to be accomplished. The number of ideas that the community will come up with will surprise everyone if proper planning and reflection time is allotted.

Enlightenment

As the ongoing catechesis takes place around the primary question, people are continually invited to reflect on a couple of key questions: (1) “What new or deeper insights do they have?” and (2) “Are there any further questions that are arising?” These, too, are gathered and shared. Ultimately, though, the primary question is clarified and potential answers will begin to make themselves known. People will come to understand and declare that, “What we really ought to do is (fill in the blank).” The parish will have identified — based on informed and analyzed input — its own needs and its own way to address them.

The Fifth Day: Let the ocean and the air teem with life …

When possible solutions or directions are identified, then the whole parish begins buzzing with energy and life. People examine options, finding out what ideas might or might not be feasible. Committees develop ideas, interact with one another, check and cross reference suggestions and input. New life and new energy are created, and action is taken. For example, when one parish learned that it would be losing its resident priest when the pastor retired, they reacted with anger, sorrow, and loss. But they had opportunities to ask their questions, state their fears, and then search for their own insights and answers. They discovered that they could — and should — undertake many of the ministries that the priest had done by himself. So they worked together to find out what those ministries were. They explored ways to train gifted parishioners who wanted to visit the hospitals, take communion to shut-ins, train new groups of altar servers, and so on.

Mystagogy

In the end, the answers to the parishioners’ deepest questions are identified, understood, addressed, and answered. People are called to reflect the divine image through ministry. They are trained, commissioned, and sent forth. They work with and for the community to help them grow into the solutions. They keep in touch with one another, touching base on all the dimensions of the question, ultimately making sure that they are meeting people’s needs.

The Seventh Day: The Lord rested …

This process can be taxing on all people of the parish, from young to old, from pastor to parishioner. It is good and necessary to rest. Give everyone a chance to just live as a member of the community, taking a serious break from the planning and training. After one rests, one will rise refreshed, ready to discover new questions. Soon enough the community of faith will find that they will be called to again move through the seven days of creation. It might seem like a lot to ask, but, after all is said and done, won’t the benefits of having a parish full of active, informed, creative adults far outweigh any of the costs? ML

Scott Rutan is the coordinator of adult and family faith formation and the coordinator of liturgy at St. Patrick’s Church, Victor, N.Y. He is a contributing author to Catholic News Service’s Faith Alive series.

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