Insight from First Communion Kids

Well, I had to take a break this evening to go teach my First Communion class. Oh, they're just so cute. I love 'em to bits.

First Communion is only two weeks away now (May 7th) and they're all getting really excited. I don't know if they understand everything we've discussed in class. In fact, I know they don't. But it's the Mystery of the Eucharist for a reason. . . I don't expect them to "get it" all. I don't. If nothing else though, I wanted them to recognize and appreciate the real presence. I wanted them to understand that the Eucharist is not just a symbol but really is Christ. That was my one goal for the year. If they know and believe that Christ is present in the Eucharist, that is what is most essential, everything else will come with time.

For this reason, we've been beginning and ending every class with prayer before the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle (class is held in the same building as the Church . . . it's a newer parish with limited space). Today I was just so encouraged praying with the children.

First, when we started off the class we knelt before the tabernacle, I prayed a short prayer for them out loud and then we prayed the Our Father together. After we were done the Our Father and we started to get up to go back to our classroom, one of the little girls in the class looked at me with a big smile and asked "can we pray to Mary too?" "Sure, sounds like a great idea," I said, and so we prayed the Hail Mary together too.

Then, at the end of class, we returned before the Blessed Sacrament to close off our class in prayer. We were each going around saying things that we were thankful for since we had been discussing thanksgiving and the Eucharist in class. I was blown away by some of the prayers the children made. Without any suggestions on my part or exchange of ideas they came up with very appropriate things for which they were grateful that really caused me to stop and reflect on how I should be thankful for many of the same things. One child prayed "Thank-you God for the way you made your Church so that we can have First Communion." Another prayed, "Thank-you God that my parents got me baptized." Yet another prayed, "Thank-you God for our bodies." And still another prayed "Thank-you God for rising from the dead." Hmmm. . . from the mouths of babes some fairly profound prayers of thanksgiving.

Another profound comment came from a little boy in my class who has such a deep love for God and the Church. He blows my mind sometimes. We were reading the story of the road to Emmaus. I was explaining how Jesus' friends recognized Him when He broke the bread and that when we come to Mass the priest also breaks the Eucharist and like Jesus' friends who recognized Him in the breaking of the bread, we also recognize Him at Mass in the breaking of the bread. This particular boy's hand shot up and the air and he said, with a big grin on his face, "That's because the priest is like Jesus when he's saying Mass!" If only we all had the understanding of a seven year old, what a difference it would make!