Introduction
The ideal is for there to be an RCIA process available in every Roman Catholic parish. Those who want to join an RCIA group should aim to attend one in the parish where they live.
For those who join an RCIA process it is a period of reflection, prayer, instruction, discernment, and formation. There is no set timetable and those who join the process are encouraged to go at their own pace and take as much time as they need. However, on average the process takes between eight to twelve months, but it can take up to two years or more. Those who enter the process are expected to begin attending Holy Mass on a Sunday, attend a weekly RCIA session, and to become increasingly more involved in the activities of their local parish.
The RCIA process should be overseen throughout every period and step by the local parish pastor, clergy, and / or religious. However, the week-to-week running of the process, including the teaching element of it, is increasingly being undertaken by lay Catholic Catechists.
Read more about this topic: Rite Of Christian Initiation For Adults
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—Plato (c. 427–347 B.C.)
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“Such is oftenest the young man’s introduction to the forest, and the most original part of himself. He goes thither at first as a hunter and fisher, until at last, if he has the seeds of a better life in him, he distinguishes his proper objects, as a poet or naturalist it may be, and leaves the gun and fish-pole behind. The mass of men are still and always young in this respect.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)