A Wonderful First Holy Communion

Yesterday, our eldest celebrated his First Holy Communion – what a milestone in the life of a parent! I cried tears of joy as I witnessed my son receiving the Eucharist for the first time, and then praying earnestly afterwards. Truly, our parish has done a beautiful job preparing these children for the sacraments of First Reconciliation and First Communion. They take the process very seriously, and the fruits of their labor were witnessed yesterday as 32 young children reverently and prayerfully received the sacrament for the first time. (By the way, we had 300 children make their First Communion at our parish over the past 2 weekends, a huge blessing!)

Our pastor did a wonderful job speaking to the children during his homily about the precious gift that God has given us in the Eucharist. He reminded us all that whether we are receiving Jesus for the first time or for the one-thousandth time, we should have the same joy in our hearts, for we are receiving the same Jesus. My son especially liked hearing that he is now a tabernacle – he has been telling people all day that he is a “living box”! Our pastor also made a point of convicting the parents of their responsibility to take their children to Mass every week – after all, we are the ones with the keys to the car, he said, and if we do not bring our children to Mass we are depriving ourselves and our children of the precious gift of Christ in the Eucharist. When we became husband and wife on our wedding day, we promised to accept children lovingly and to bring them up according to Christ’s law and in His Church. At our children’s baptisms we renewed these promises, and yesterday he asked us again to renew our commitment to being responsible and committed Catholic parents.

May God bless all of you this week! Mary, Queen of Families, pray for us!