Liguori Introduces Journey of Faith RCIA Program at Evansville Diocesan Workshop

Liguori Publications introduces its updated Journey of Faith RCIA program to the Diocese of Evansville on Oct. 1 at the Evansville Diocese Catholic Center. RCIA coordinators and team members are invited “to see, touch, and ask questions” at the workshop.

Mary Wuertz von Holt, Liguori’s director of sales and marketing, and one of three Liguori presenters, said, “We’re excited and honored to present our updated Journey of Faith program to Evansville’s RCIA ministry teams. The updates have made this popular program even more relevant and engaging to today’s adults, teens, and Latinos, as well as making it easy to lead.” The other presenters are Angela Baumann, marketing manager, and Chuck Healy, sales and customer service manager.

“I like what Liguori has done. I’m looking forward to switching over to the newly updated program,” said co-organizer Lisa Foster, chair of the Evansville Diocesan RCIA Committee and pastoral associate at All Saints Parish in Evansville. She credited Journey of Faith with enabling her to welcome new candidates and catechumens year-round.

“RCIA is a process, not a program. It’s not cookie-cutter. We adjust it based on what people need,” said Foster. “Liguori’s Journey of Faith fits well with that structure. I can pick and choose lessons and move them around. It gives me the flexibility to have people at different stages.”

Foster said her parish did not have a formal program for RCIA when she started five years ago. She said she chose Journey of Faith then because, “I could afford it. I could put it together pretty quickly. The materials weren’t heavy, theologically speaking. They were easy-to-understand, not intimidating and not textbookish, and we realized we could create a yearlong program with it.”

Now, said Foster, “Journey of Faith is the one answer I’ve given to people when they ask me what program to use. … I’d love to see others try to do what we’re doing here, with a year-round program led by the Holy Spirit.”

The updated Journey of Faith offers leaders everything needed to teach an RCIA class in the three new wraparound Leader Guides (Inquiry, Catechumenate, Enlightenment and Mystagogy), which replace the classic single guide. These Leader Guides help leaders see what participants see and have additional discussion points, supplemental material suggestions, schedule options, and instructions for using the program.

“Somebody who hasn’t led Journey of Faith can pick up the Leader Guide and have an idea how to do RCIA with confidence,” said Foster. “It helps you present the material. We do a lot of discussion here in presenting the topic. It’s not a classroom situation.”

“What I’m looking for will be those discussion-type things to pull in. I do like that Liguori tied in Catholic Update,” she said, referring to the lesson-by-lesson references to Catholic Update newsletters on core RCIA topics. Another related RCIA program that Liguori offers is Word into Life, which supplements Journey of Faith and is geared for parishes that want to tie it to the Lectionary readings, enabling Christian initiation groups to “break open” the Word of God in the Sunday Scriptures.

“In any group, you have people who read everything; others are fine with just a glance through the material. Some absorb it all. Others struggle. I don’t have to worry about people struggling with Journey of Faith. No one’s going to say, ‘I don’t understand it.’ It’s written in an easy, everyday style.

“We tell people, ‘This is your gift to yourself, to go through this process, and determine if this is what God is calling you to do. We want them to look at us and say ‘this is what I want’.”

Evansville Diocese RCIA coordinators and team members can get more information or RSVP by emailing agunter@evdio.org.