RCIA: Welcome to the Church!

With Easter right around the corner, we are about to celebrate the end of this year’s Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) program on campus. This is a program through which Christians of various denominations receive the sacraments to become full members of the Catholic Church. . I had the privilege of talking with two Notre Dame members of the Elect who will receive the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist at Saturday’s Easter Vigil Mass in the Basilica. Both of their perspectives on joining the Catholic Church were beautiful to hear, and excerpts from their interviews are as follows.

Sean Yuan is a junior Business major at Notre Dame:

Q. Why did you decide to participate in the RCIA program?

Sean: I wanted that sense of peace and to participate in this wonderful community. I decided that the Catholic faith provides me with a lifestyle that teaches me to become who I was meant to be. It's a comforting thought, but not a comfortable lifestyle by any means. In fact, I think being Catholic in this world is one of the toughest decisions to make. But without being intentional, I feel that my life wouldn't have any direction.

Q. Can you walk me through your RCIA experience?

Sean: I was a bit nervous at first, because I didn't really know what I was getting into. However, I learned that I don't have to figure out everything to become Catholic. My faith journey has taught me that it's all about building a loving relationship with God, and as time goes on, God will slowly reveal to me more and more when I'm ready for it. Meanwhile, I'll do my best to keep reading and learning from my friends.

Q. What are you most looking forward to upon entering the Catholic Church?

Sean: First Communion, hands down (or up, in reverence). We're all just hungry, imperfect children, and God promises to keep us nourished in this lifetime until we may finally join him after death. Wow. I could never deserve this, but God gives freely anyway. That's some serious love.

Q. What advice do you have for someone considering joining the RCIA program?

Sean:  If any readers are at all interested in getting confirmed, or know someone who might, please contact Campus Ministry.They're seriously the happiest, most qualified people for this. It's thanks to their tireless efforts and the Holy Spirit that I made it this far. If you're a Catholic and wondering if you can help, consider applying to be someone's sponsor. It's a really rewarding experience.

Faith Spady is a Sophomore Architect Major.

Q. Can you walk me through your RCIA experience?

Faith: I remember being at the first couple meetings and wondering “Why on earth are these people so happy?” There really is a sense that everyone is sharing each other’s joy and triumphs as well as their pain.

Q. What are you most looking forward to upon entering the Catholic Church?

Faith: The Eucharist. It was one of the most powerful motivating factors throughout this process of discerning my faith, long before I ever even knew about RCIA. When I was very little, my dad used to take me to mass with him and he would take me up with him to receive communion. He had to explain to me after the mass that I couldn't partake in it because I wasn't a part of the church – growing up, the agreement between my parents on the issue had always been that I'd choose one day which Church I would belong to when I was older so I had not been baptized or received First Communion.The mass is supposed to be so much more, something that requires full and active participation. I could feel that as a young girl. If I say to anyone else that being denied a tiny little wafer was painful, they will look at me like I'm crazy. If I say it to a Catholic, they'll understand precisely what I mean. It’s rare to find a Catholic who hasn't slipped up at some point by not attending mass for a few weeks or not going to reconciliation. Many will say how hard it is, how painful when you start up again. Perhaps some of the pain is from the guilt of not coming, but mostly it’s the idea that when given the opportunity you denied yourself of the Eucharist, of Christ.

Q. What advice do you have for someone considering joining the RCIA program?

Faith: RCIA is not just to convert "pagans" or bring people back into the church. It is clearly illustrated in the definition of conversion which is supposed to be a turning towards God. That could be the initial big turn or a continued step in the right direction. It’s not supposed be like stepping out onto a straight paved road, where getting on is all you really have to do. There will be rocks and dips in the path, you will get tired and you will question yourself at times. Why did I get on this path? What am I supposed to do now? It looks disturbing up ahead, should I keep going? How can I? The little things are usually what refresh us enough to pursue the faith a bit longer.

Thanks so much to Faith and Sean for sharing your experience in the RCIA program! I am so excited for you both to be able to share in full communion with the Church this Saturday!

“May you cling to Wisdom, for She will protect you…and if you cherish her, she will keep you safe.” Book of Proverbs

Covering the Hard Issues: Gay Marriage

Gay marriage is perhaps the hardest teaching of the Church for our generation. It’s the topic no one wants to talk about because it always brings out very strong emotions and defending the Church's position is widely viewed as discriminatory. While I’ve always been vocal about my pro-life views, defending marriage is something I generally have not taken a stand on unless pressed about my beliefs. I’ve seen the fact that I defend traditional marriage drive a knife into friendships and stop others from progressing and yet I cannot pretend to change my beliefs.

In many conversations I’ve had with friends, they bring up the fact that they have friends, siblings, or other family members who are hurt because they wish their relationships and love to be recognized in marriage. I too have close gay friends who have struggled and have been hurt by this, but this should lead us to delve deeper into Catholic teaching rather than reject it outright. It is only through study and reflection along with much prayer that we can properly discuss the Catholic teaching on marriage and come to realize it’s based not on emotions, but on the ability of a man and woman to participate in creation. Consider that the Church does not officially recognize the relationship between two friends, which can be full of love, and so there must be another reason for recognizing marriage while not recognizing other relationships.

In order to understand the Church’s teaching on gay marriage, we must first understand its teaching on marriage. Marriage is one of the seven sacraments of the Church. It is important to note that it is not the wedding that is the sacrament but the marriage itself. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring”. (Part 2, Sec. 2, Ch.3 Article 7). According to this definition, the outward sign of the sacrament of marriage, sex, must have a procreative aspect, which is not possible among two members of the same sex. This definition of marriage is stated in Genesis 2 and restated in Matthew 19: “Haven’t you read,” He replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore, what God has joined, let man not separate.” (Matthew 19:4-6). The design of marriage is seen in our complementary creation, a complementarity which places the possibility of procreation at the forefront of our relationship in a marriage and which cannot be disengaged from marriage.

It is important to note that the Church does not persecute homosexual people. Pope Francis’ remarks on this topic are perhaps most revealing, “If they accept the Lord and have goodwill, who am I to judge them? They shouldn’t be marginalized. The tendency [to homosexuality] is not the problem…they’re our brothers”. Rather than persecution, the Church calls homosexual people to live a life in holiness just as they call all men and women of the Catholic faith to live a life in holiness. Recently, great work has begun to consider more fully the Church’s teaching on homosexuality and especially the call to a deep friendship. I’d encourage anyone looking to find out more, to explore the writing on this website.

As Catholics living in an age in which gay marriage is the culturally accepted norm, we are called to engage this teaching through love and a prayerful heart. The Catholic Church considers defending the Truth as a duty of every Catholic, seen from the Apostles down through 2000 years of history. We as Catholics must do all we can to reason and learn why the Church teaches what it does and ultimately, have faith. 

Catholic Aerobics

We all know that Sunday is a day of rest, so why is it that the Church insists we move around so much during mass? Kneel, sit, stand, sit, stand, sit, stand, sit, stand, kneel, stand, kneel, walk, kneel, sit, stand. Try saying that one ten times fast. The meaning behind the movements of the mass, or Catholic Aerobics, are often lost or forgotten among the other parts of the mass. So why do we go through these movements and what do they mean? I’ll admit that I knew very little about why mass involved so much movement, so I created a cheat sheet on certain aspects of mass for us to reflect upon the next time we go:

Standing: The times in which we stand during Mass are the times in which we are showing respect to either the Priest or the Word of God (during the Gospel). Just as we stand when we are introduced to a person, we stand when the priest enters to show respect. We also stand during the Gospel and Profession of Faith to show reverence and emphasize the words which we are hearing or professing.

Sitting: We sit primarily during the first and second reading and the responsorial psalms. This set-up, with us sitting and the reader standing, imitates a classroom with us as learners. During the Liturgy of the Word, we are the students, learning from the readings and from the lesson proclaimed through the homily.

Kneeling: We kneel during the sacrifice of the mass, standing only for the Our Father and Sign of Peace. We kneel during this time because we are witnessing the Eucharistic Consecration, kneeling symbolizes our reverence and respect for the sacrifice of Jesus and his physical presence. The act of kneeling links back to the beginning of the Church through Peter as he “knelt down and prayed” in Acts 9:40.*

Other aspects of the Mass that every Catholic ought to know:

Genuflecting: We genuflect when we enter or exit the pew to show reverence to the physical presence of Jesus in the tabernacle.

Transubstantiation: That hard word that we had to memorize how to spell in the 4^th grade if we went to Catholic middle school and were too busy spelling to remember the meaning. Transubstantiation occurs during the consecration when the bread and wine are transformed into the true Body and Blood of Jesus. The second time that the bells are rung during the consecration alerts us that the fact that transubstantiation has just occurred.

Of course they are many more aspects of the Mass that have not been covered in this blog. If there is an aspect of the Mass you're confused about or have just learned about and would like to share, please comment below and we can continue learning!

*According to The General Instruction on the Roman Missal #43 (U.S. Version), “In the dioceses of the U.S.A., they should kneel beginning after the singing or recitation of the Sanctus until after the Amen of the Eucharistic Prayer, except when prevented on occasion by reasons of health, lack of space, the large number of people present, or some other good reason.” Perhaps this is something that we ought to look into at our dorm masses!

A Universal Church: Catholic Style

Perhaps one of the greatest things about the Catholic Church is its universality – that Church teaching and the celebration of the sacraments does not change from culture to culture. This unique facet of the Catholic Church allows for one to be at home wherever you may travel. While it is true that one can pray anywhere, the physical presence of Jesus through the Eucharist is something that Catholics always have access to, even in cultures in which they are not familiar.

This past week I was lucky enough to spend my spring break in Switzerland conducting research and visiting the country for the first time. Switzerland is a very interesting country because its culture is highly influenced by its neighboring countries, Germany, France and Italy. In fact, the culture within Switzerland changes drastically from one part of the country to the other depending on which bordering country is closest.

The history of Switzerland is closely tied up with the history of Catholics and Protestants’, especially as the home of John Calvin. With such a rich history, Switzerland is full of majestic sacred architecture, of both Catholic and Protestant denominations, and touring Switzerland includes viewing countless churches and basilicas. Perhaps one of the most striking realizations of this trip was the ease in which one is able to immediately tell whether a church is Catholic or Protestant or another denomination. Upon entering a church, it is so easy to tell whether Christ is present in the Eucharist there or not, easily ruling out if the church is Catholic or not. I’ve heard other friends and family members describe to me this feeling, that walking into a church where the Eucharist is not celebrated is not the same as walking into a Catholic Church and I had a hard time believing them until this trip.

This immediate understanding of the presence of the Eucharist greatly attributes to the universality of the Catholic Church. Being in a foreign country or experiencing a new culture is always an exciting adventure but it can get overwhelming at times and having that opportunity to find a church and feel at home is one of the greatest reliefs of being Catholic.

While in Switzerland, Elizabeth, my fellow travel companion, and I decided to go to one of the great churches we had visited earlier for Sunday mass. We were excited to go to an English mass after dealing with language barriers for a couple days. Unfortunately we misread the schedule and ended up at a German mass much to our confusion. Although we were unable to understand the readings and the homily was completely lost on us, there was a beauty in being able to celebrate the Eucharist in a form in which we were familiar even though the language was foreign. We may not have learned the lesson the priest was promulgating from the pulpit through his homily, but we were able to celebrate the Eucharist in a community that was truly one, universal and apostolic.

As we traveled throughout Switzerland, unable to read any of the signs and frequently having to ask people if they spoke English, I realized that this is what it must be for children before they are able to read; unaware of their surroundings beyond what they are able to perceive for themselves or what an adult may tell them. In many aspects we were forced to have the faith of children, both a disconcerting and humbling experience. Similarly, while celebrating mass, we were asked to believe without fully understand the words, to have the faith of a child and believe. The experience was very rewarding and one which I can’t wait to repeat in future travels!

Reconciling fears of Reconciliation

Growing up, reconciliation was something I always dreaded. I didn't understand why I had to tell a priest my sins when I could just communicate them directly to God. Looking back, I really didn't have much to confess to the priest, it was probably the most innocent confession he ever heard. Yet, I remained nervous about going. My childhood-self saw the purpose of reconciliation as a shaming process: a practice designed to make you so embarrassed about your sins that you never commit them again because otherwise you have to tell the priest again and that would just be downright humiliating. Really, it’s no wonder I feared confession so much!

When I was in junior high, I remember my older sister coming home and sharing the view her friend had on confession, that confession was like erasing a dirty chalk board. I liked this metaphor because it was one I could understand. The priest absolving your sins was like walking away cleansed, free from the marks that had been there before. And there was nothing shaming about this process: chalkboards get marked up all the time, of course they had to be cleaned! While this metaphor might not exactly encompass all aspects of reconciliation, it was a metaphor that I was able to understand at the time.

Human relationships are broken all the time because we are imperfect beings. It is in our nature to get upset, to disrupt a harmonious relationship or end up hurting someone. This does not mean that we are oriented towards this end but that these things happen, and it is not necessarily something we have to be ashamed about. Rather than being ashamed, we ought to work towards fixing these broken relationships: seeking forgiveness and moving forward. This same concept applies to our relationship with God.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is a way of cleansing our relationship with God. God loves us so much that He sent His only son. Jesus carried the weight of our sins on His shoulders and through His Passion, the doors of Heaven have been opened for us. To be able to enter fully into Heaven, however, we must be in a state of complete grace, a state of sin-lessness. Reconciliation is a way of entering into that state, even though it may be temporary. It is a way of deepening our relationship with God.

Many Catholics seems to lie in two different categories: either it seems as if they are going to reconciliation every day or they only go when obligated. For some, reconciliation is a sacrament that evokes fear while for others, the graces of the sacrament are truly a joyful, or freeing experience. Although there is no right or wrong amount of times to seek Reconciliation, we need to make sure we are not comparing ourselves to our neighbor but doing what is right for our faith life.

As Catholics, we have an obligation to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation at least once a year. Receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation is one of the five precepts, or duties, required by Catholics. These precepts are outlined by the Catholic Church in order to “guarantee to the faithful the indispensable minimum in the spirit of prayer and moral effort, in the growth of love of God and neighbor”.

In my experience, Reconciliation is an especially rewarding experience when you are struggling with something in regards to your faith life or your relationship with others. It allows you to take a deep breath, acknowledge your wrong-doings and move on, striving to do better. Even though the fears of my childhood self sometimes creep up, I try to remind myself that Reconciliation is not about being ashamed, it is about striving to understand and do God’s will, and that is not something to be scared of!

Reconciliation is particularly pertinent as we enter the Lenten season. Lent provides a time for us to evaluate our lives, figure out what is holding us back and try to form new habits going forward. Reconciliation is a perfect complement to a sacrificial exercise. There may be times when we fall, but what matters is that we dust ourselves off and try again. With the beginning of Lent, I’d encourage all of you to seek out the sacrament of Reconciliation, we are blessed to have many opportunities to attend on our campus. Also check out the Campus Lenten Opportunities.

Why Should I Know My Faith?

In a conversation with friends the other day, the question was posed on why one should bother to study his or her faith? Why continue study beyond the basic building blocks of fundamental faith understanding? In an earlier post I discussed the Church’s call to evangelize, specifically in regards to the New Evangelization. How, then, would it be possible to evangelize and spread our faith if we cannot explain it? Both in my work in the pro-life movement and as a Catholic, I have found that a deep understanding of one’s beliefs is essential to being able to share and explain your viewpoint with others.

Campus Ministry's Theology on Tap series is a great way to
learn more about your faith

Last year as President of the Right to Life Club, I was thrown into a position where people often looked to me for their answers. In all honestly, in the beginning of the year I was not prepared to answer questions about why the Catholic Church teaches that contraception is wrong or where the Church stood on the death penalty or to thoroughly explain the pro-life teachings of the Church. In many cases, I believed in certain teachings of the Church because they were just that, teachings of the Church and as a Catholic, these were the teachings I believed in. Especially in regards to contraception, I would not have been able to defend my beliefs beyond saying it was a teaching of the Church. In conversations about whether contraception is right or wrong, I would be easily persuaded to the other person’s beliefs – whether they were for or against it. It wasn’t until I really started to look into the issue, knowing that I’d be asked about it at some point, that I began to see the Church’s teachings as a truth that I knew I could believe in and actually began to develop my faith around the issue.

What I learned from this experience is that if I don’t take the time to educate myself on my beliefs, then not only will I have a difficult time discussing my beliefs with others, but I would also be at risk of being easily swayed to an opposing view. This is not to suggest that we should not listen to other faith perspectives but that we ought to understand more than just the surface of our beliefs. For me, knowing that I was pro-life was a good thing but eventually it was not enough. Without researching the issue, it became very hard to defend my beliefs and even harder to share them with others, to evangelize the pro-life mission.

The study and a deep understanding of one’s beliefs is so essential to being an evangelizing Catholic because it allows you to express your beliefs in terms that the person you’re in conversation with can understand. Without a deep understanding of your beliefs, it can be very easy to fall into a trap of doubting all your beliefs, especially when you are not surrounded by a community as supportive as Notre Dame.

Our Lady is always close to us, especially when we feel the weight of life with all its problems.
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) February 24, 2014

Understanding your faith can be as simple as keeping up with the Pope’s activities and teachings (try following @Pontifex) and discussing points you don’t understand with family and friends or the religious on campus. Here at Notre Dame, we are surrounded by some of the premier theological scholars of our age, take advantage of that and visit them at office hours or attend one of their lectures. Don’t be afraid to have these discussions with friends of opposing beliefs, often time their questions can make you question what is at the foundation of your belief and make you research what exactly your beliefs mean. Remember that it’s okay to question where your beliefs come from, and why you believe what you do, but these questions should fuel our studies of faith rather than lead us to abandon it. 

Perceiving Pornography

Until last year I was very naïve about the pornography industry. To me, it wasn’t something that existed, wasn’t something that people wanted to look at. In a conversation with friends last year, the topic of pornography came up and I was surprised to learn that it was something that so many people on campus struggled with, people who I cared about and people who I never would have expected to struggle with it. Since then I’ve talked with friends about it, trying to figure out if it was true and what it all meant.

What I’ve learned from these conversations is that pornography is something that everyone, and especially men, have to deal with at some point in their lives. (Women are affected as well, but historically it has been far more prevalent among men.) In a conversation with a friend on how he fell into porn, he described it as an “innocent accident”: “you can find anything online these days, just type something into Google and hundreds of thousands of possible sites come up. All it takes is being a little too curious and clicking the wrong link and you find something you never intended to see…for me, as a boy just hitting puberty, when I would see swimsuit ads of course I was going to be curious. It doesn’t take much at first to get the hormones running as there is no desensitization. One nude picture would be enough to get sufficiently aroused, but as time progresses it takes more. And more.” As this testimony suggests, advertisers understand that men are very visual and use this to their advantage. Once boys view porn, even if it’s on accident, they are going to be bombarded with more ads, making it a struggle for boys to consider not looking at porn.

Viewing porn, especially continuously over a long period of time, has a huge effect on a person’s mind. Having struggled with porn for several years, my friend suggested that “porn is a perversion of love in the ultimate sense. Instead of giving fully of yourself, you are taking from another. In viewing porn all I would care about is my pleasure, how to get what I want…I was literally killing my sense of love. Pope John Paul II tells us very clearly that we live to love, while pornography told me you live for my lust. It rewires the brain such that I would see others as objects for my pleasure and not as humans with dignity…Once porn has turned your definition of love on its head, you turn to it instead of proper sources of love. When you’re stressed, super busy, get rejected, or searching for something to do all it takes is just one little click of the mouse and you are back into it. In all of those cases, I was looking for love and instead of turning to friends or family, pornography filled that hole.”

Movies rated X often have displays of pornography

Unlike drug or alcohol addictions, porn addictions are never talked about on campus. We persuade ourselves that as Catholics or good students, this is something that surely does not affect our friends or family members. Or if we are struggling with it, we persuade ourselves that it is something that we must struggled with alone; in some ways, it is not something that we are not allowed to struggle with. Rather than shying away from this topic, however, it would be much more fruitful to acknowledge its presence. Challenge friends we know who view porn to stop.  As my friend suggested to me, “I cannot count the number of times I wish I had been caught. Deep down I wanted someone to discover it, to force me out, to bring the shame to the surface so I no longer had to hide it…I was a lucky one though, for just as porn had driven me away from an understanding of love, my friends and family, and the love that we shared brought me back. After years of struggle and finally opening up to some friends with similar struggles, I was finally able to dump porn altogether…Pornography distorts love. That is its most basic and harmful aspect. The best weapon we have against that is living a life of true love by gift of self. ” Perhaps in bringing to light some of the effects of porn in conversations with friends we can work to change the culture.