What is the RCIA?
The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults is not a program, but a sacramental formation process that prepares individuals and communities for a particular way of life. Conversion is at the heart of that way of life. The RCIA facilitates the conversion experience.
Conversion is a turning around, an about-face. In a variety of ways, the individual encounters a transformation of values that empowers that individual to turn from what is inauthentic to embrace the truly authentic. In religious terms, conversion is the surrender of oneself to the all-loving God, who calls us to fullness of life. It is God asking to give what we thought we could not give.
Authentic conversion is transformative. Not only does it result in a radical change in the individual, but it informs and affects every dimension of the individual’s life. Furthermore, there is a qualitative change in the individual’s manner of life that rings true.
Conversion, then, is the change that happens when we allow God to love us enough that God reforms us, refashioned into men and women who value each other and our relationships in self-sacrificing love. The conversion manifests itself in different ways, (e.g., intellectually, morally, effectively), but it is always a radical shift from one way of being to another. There is break-through, a new vision.
If you have any questions, please contact the St. Mary Parish Office: 231-796-5202.