Letter from the Pastor
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April 26, 2024Yesterday, our parish family began what I call, “First Holy Communion Season”; 54 of our children will receive our Lord in their First Holy Communion for the next four weeks.
I enjoy First Holy Communions, the love and excitement of the young children always inspires me. It is a blessing for me to see in their faces the love they have for Jesus and how they so want to receive Him. And then, how fervently they pray after they receive Holy Communion, hands folded and heads bowed. I also enjoy watching the pride in the faces of the parents and particularly, the grandparents as they see their little ones take the next step in the journey of faith.
I think it was the joy and the faces of the little ones that so affected Pope St. Pius X, who in 1910 made possible children at the tender age of 7 to receive the Eucharist. Prior to 1910, First Communion was the last of the three sacraments of Initiation, usually received around the age of 16 or older. It was later because by receiving Holy Communion there is an obligation placed upon the person to attend Mass every Sunday and Holyday. So it is still. Parents are now responsible for their children, along with themselves, to attend Mass every Sunday.
Church law states: On Sundays and other holy days of obligation, the faithful are obliged to participate in the Mass, and as the Catechism further explains #2193:
“On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound. . .to abstain from those labors and business concerns which impede the worship to be rendered to God, the joy which is proper to the Lord’s Day, or the proper relaxation of mind and body.”
Sunday is to be a special day of the week. Sunday Mass is to be the highlight of the day. Nothing else should interfere with attending Mass. All the other activities we may do on a Sunday are secondary to the Mass.
There is also the hour of fasting before receiving Holy Communion, no food or drink, except water or medicine one hour prior. When I told the 2nd graders that their great-grandparents had to fast from midnight, or 3 hours before, they thought that was impossible! Why? They had to feel “hunger” for the Bread of Life.
If you miss Mass on purpose, without a good excuse, you cannot receive Holy Communion until you go to confession. Missing Mass on purpose is still a mortal sin and excludes you from a worthy Communion until you confess the sin.
St. Paul warns us of the consequences of receiving the Lord unworthily in his first letter to the Corinthians: “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died” (1 Cor. 11:27-30).
We thank our children and their parents for helping us, once again, capture the importance and the joy of receiving Holy Communion. It is a wonderful time for our parish life; these days are grace-filled days and it is a joy not only for the children’s families but also for the parish family and the entire Church. Even though you may not have a family member receiving these Sacraments, I invite you to share in the joy of the Church. I invite you to pray for our little friends, indeed pray for all of us that we will re-capture the love and excitement we had on the day of our First Holy Communion.
