Your child’s 

First Holy Communion  

Parent Booklet  St Emilie’s, Canningvale 

August 2020 

  

Loving God   

We thank you for the gift of our children who bring so much love and light to our lives. 

 We are grateful for this opportunity to nurture  

and further grow our child’s faith.  

Each day, through both word and deed,  help us to lead by genuine example. 

And may we teach our child to  seek you, to know you and to love you, 

Jesus, Bread of Life! Amen 

       

 

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Dear Families,

Amidst COVID restrictions, rather than attending a one hour face-to-face Eucharist Workshop, we have created a powerpoint presentation, which will guide you and your child through the workshop. It also contains links to short, child-friendly, online movie clips. This can be conducted in the comfort of your own home, at a time that suits you and your family. You may choose to do it as a one hour session, or you may prefer to divide it across a number of shorter time slots. No matter how you choose to do this, you are asked to please read, view, discuss, pray and engage with your child, prior to them making their First Eucharist on the date/time that you have signed up for.

This continues to be a very important time in your family’s life with Jesus Christ and His Church. The preparation time for First Eucharist marks another important step in your child’s formation in the Catholic faith. What a wonderful privilege it is for you to talk to your son or daughter about your relationship with Jesus; to teach them how much God loves them and how Jesus, the Bread of Life sustains us for the Christian journey!

Your child is such a gift and you know this most of all. You have held them in your arms; you have enjoyed their earliest attempts to walk, to dance, to climb; to learn. You have delighted in their developing sense of humour and in their personality. You love them and they are a daily reminder of the joyful gift of life itself!

As parents, we can't take away every sadness or sorrow from the life of our son or daughter. We can't promise them a world where there won't be disappointments. We can't love them or care for them as perfectly as we would want to and we can't love them infinitely, it's impossible - but God can and does! And this is the gift of their First Communion. At every Mass, Jesus becomes entirely and absolutely present among us. Jesus Christ, who is God's total and absolute Love made flesh. As human beings we can't love like this. Yet, in the Eucharist, we receive Christ's Body and Blood so that we can experience this kind of infinite love. The love that we desire more than anything at all is given to us, to become one with us through eating and drinking, to change us forever, into this very same gift of love for the world.

Passing on the Church’s faith in the love of God and the values taught to us by Jesus Christ, are among the most important things you can do as a parent. Sharing the faith with your child, helps them to become the person that God has created them to be. The home is the primary place where faith is cultivated. Parents are their child’s primary example of how to live as a Christian and you remain instrumental to your child’s spiritual formation throughout life. As expressed in the words of every baptismal liturgy, the handing on of the faith is primarily the responsibility of parents and you are described as the first and best teachers of your children in the ways of faith. You are not alone in this role - you have the parish and your school to guide, support and encourage you. May God bless you and your family abundantly at this special time in your child’s faith journey. Regards, Tania Thuijs Stuart Munro Lyn Harkins Principal Assistant Principal Catechist Coordinator 

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Background Reading/Resources for Parents

As a parent of a child about to receive the Sacrament of Eucharist, the goal of this presentation is to support you:

- to nurture your child’s relationship with Jesus Christ. - To nurture an appreciation of the Sacrament of Eucharist as a way to further experience God’s great

love for us. - To re-emphasise the importance of the Eucharist as being food for our journey so that we can be

‘Good News’ and serve others in our families, school, community and world.

Link to the Booklet and two Powerpoints that accompany this booklet: http://web.stemiliescps.wa.edu.au/?p=35101&preview=true

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The Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life”. In the Eucharistic Liturgy and our prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, we encounter God’s presence in personal and profound ways. The Eucharist is also a social encounter, celebrated as a community, teaching us about human dignity, and calling us to right relationship with God, ourselves, and others. As the Body of Christ, the Eucharist sends us on a mission to help transform our families, our communities, and our world. We experience the Eucharist as a community: ❖ The Eucharist awakens us to our own dignity and to that of others ❖ The Eucharist unifies and heals divisions ❖ The Eucharist sensitizes us to those who are suffering ❖ The Eucharist moves and inspires us to respond to the needs of others

Eucharist-inspired love allows us to live out our Christian vocation by: ❖ Challenging us to recognize and confront the brokenness and sin in our own life and in the world ❖ Preparing us for our mission to serve others ❖ Propelling us forth to transform the world

The Eucharist: What We Believe The Mass is a memorial of the sacrifice Jesus offered God the Father at the Last Supper. During that meal, Jesus instituted the Eucharist and told his followers, “Do this in memory of Me.” Although the Eucharist is a mystery, we, as Catholics, accept on faith, the fact that bread and wine become the body and blood of Jesus, because Jesus told us this is so. “The whole Christ is truly present, body, blood, soul, and divinity, under the appearances of bread and wine.” The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life; it is Jesus himself (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1324, 1374). The Eucharist is Jesus’ true presence here on earth. At Mass, we come together as a community, the Body of Christ, to worship and to receive His presence into ourselves. First Eucharist - First Holy Communion

The word 'communion' means ‘to be united with’ and the word Eucharist comes from a Greek word meaning ‘thanksgiving’. In this sacrament, Christ is really present as the bread of life and the cup of eternal salvation nourishing us on our pilgrim journey. The Eucharist completes the Christian Initiation, in the Eucharist, Christ is truly present among us, especially through the change of the bread and wine into Christ's body and blood. By sharing in the body and blood, we are united more deeply with Christ and become his presence in the world. Eucharist is the sacrament that completes the process of initiation (along with Baptism and Confirmation). and is when one can fully participate in the Eucharist by receiving Holy Communion. Eucharist is unique among the sacraments as it is at the heart of our faith. For Catholics, the Eucharist, or Mass, is the most powerful way we encounter the real presence of Jesus Christ. Each weekend we gather to celebrate the Eucharist, the ritual in which, by the power of the Holy Spirit, bread and wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ. We who celebrate are also transformed, becoming Christ’s presence to others, and recognising the presence of Christ in others.

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Reconciliation before Eucharist The church requires that a child receives the Sacrament of Reconciliation before receiving First Eucharist. Even though your child has a sense of right and wrong, he or she has a limited understanding of what sin is. It is important that a child's image of God is of a loving God and that the experience of reconciliation is a positive experience, where the child knows that he or she is greatly loved and forgiven by God and loved and valued by the whole faith community.

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Jesus is present in the Eucharist? We cannot see Jesus, but there are many things in life we do not see, but they exist and are essential. For example: we do not see our reason, yet we have reason. We do not see our intelligence and we have it. We do not see our soul and yet it exists and we see its effects, because we can speak, think and make decisions. We do not see an electric current, yet we see that it exists; We do not see the very deepest things, those that really sustain life and the world, but we can see and feel their effects. So it is with the Risen Lord: We do not see him with our eyes, but we see that wherever Jesus is, people change, they improve and a greater capacity for peace, for reconciliation and for love is created. Therefore, we do not see the Lord himself, but we see the effects of the Lord and can know that Jesus is present. The invisible things are the most profound and the most important.

Going to Mass and receiving Communion Bread is a basic source of nourishment; and when Jesus called himself ‘the Bread of Life’, the bread stands for all nourishment. As we need to nourish our bodies in order to live, so we also need to nourish our spirits, our souls and our wills. As human persons, we do not only have bodies but also souls; we are thinking beings with minds and wills. We must nourish our spirits and our souls, so that they can grow, develop and truly attain their fulfillment. We really need God's friendship, which helps us to make the right decisions. We need to mature as human beings. In other words: Jesus nourishes us so that we can truly become mature people who can build a good life for ourselves and others.

Tips for Parents 

1. Understand that you already have been preparing your child for first Communion since the day your child was born. Eucharist is about the absolute love of God for each one of us. The ways you have loved, cared for and modelled forgiveness, all speak of the unconditional love of our God. Our most intimate experiences of God’s presence with us often occur within the everyday moments, interactions and relationships of family life. The challenge is that sometimes we are so busy that we miss them! Family life is holy and sacred. Family life is where God is.

2. Talk together. Tell stories about your God times. Use scripture stories and answer their questions, even the ones they’re not asking!

3. Stress the connection of Baptism and Eucharist. Get out your photo albums and recall your child’s baptism. Unpack the baptismal garment and tell its history: when and where you bought it or who made it and who else wore it. The sacraments of Christian initiation – Baptism, Eucharist and Confirmation – lay the foundations of every Christian life. We are born anew by Baptism, we receive the food of eternal life in the Eucharist and we are strengthened on the journey by the Sacrament of Confirmation.

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4. Try to use family meal times to remind children of the connection of the family meal to the Eucharist. Let your child decorate the table for an evening meal. Talk about special meals your family has shared. The basics of the Eucharist include four actions: 1. Take 2. Bless 3. Break and 4. Share. Every meal, whether in the home or the church, should be deepening our faith in Jesus Christ and in his mission. Jesus’ basic mission was to serve the poor. When we eat and drink the Body and Blood of Christ, we stand for Christ. We stand for mission. We stand for justice. Christian meal sharing, if it is to be a celebration of Jesus Christ, is always about living out Gospel values in our everyday life.

5. Pray with your child and as a family. Pray often and as a natural part of family life: mealtimes, bedtimes, happy times, worrisome times, after an argument, when someone is in trouble, and on special occasions. Make prayer a natural part of your family life.

6. Make Mass a family event. For Catholics, one of the most important things we do is coming together to celebrate Mass each week. The Eucharist is the heart and soul of our worship of God. It is the celebration that gives us the strength we need to live a Christian life. God doesn’t call us to church on Sunday because he has a need for us all to fall down and worship him at nine o’clock each Sunday morning. It isn’t designed to help him; it’s designed to help us. The Mass is filled with riches. It is an unfathomable gift. Point out one or two things each week for your child to watch for at Mass. Talk about the homily on the way home. Before the liturgy talk with your family about who you want to pray for during the General Intercessions; and what you want to thank God for during the Eucharistic Prayer.

7. Grow together in appreciation of God’s Word. Read the scriptures you will hear at Mass. What is God saying to your family this weekend?

8. Take a tour of the church. Point out to your child where he or she was baptized, show him or her the altar up close, the tabernacle, the oils, etc.

9. The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us the Eucharist commits us to the poor (#1397.) Get your children involved in being bread for others - make a meal for a neighbour in need, sort through toys and clothing for gifts to the poor, visit a nursing home, give to a charitable donation.

10. Keep First Communion in perspective - it is of course very special because it is ‘first’, however it hopefully will be the first Communion and not the last! It is important that children have an opportunity to attend Mass regularly. Their Holy Communion day will be the first of a lifetime of coming to the Lord’s Table of Love. Choose a gift wisely - choose something that will help them remember this day in a special way. Try to find something that will help them grow spiritually.

11. Discuss the Eucharist as a gift. Special occasions remind us of an important time in our lives. Gifts

sent at a time of sadness remind us that we are not alone, but are supported by the love of others. Farewell gifts are important to us and are greatly treasured. A gift which is given by someone we love, but from whom we are now separated is a constant reminder of the love we knew and still feel. Seeing that gift, we feel united with the person who gave it. The gift reminds us that even though we are now apart, our love still lives on.

All of the current research supports this fact: you are the number one influence on your child’s faith formation, and in practicing the faith! They look to you for guidance and example as they grow to adulthood.

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If you are more focused on the dress or suit, the cake and the party, then it follows that your child will be focused on those things as well. Try to really reflect on being the example to your child of what it means to live a good and authentic Christian life, with all its challenges, imperfections, difficulties, stresses, joys, sorrows and more. Take time in your own life to study the meaning of the Eucharist and reignite your own passion for this gift. We suggest reflecting on John 6 during your personal prayer time in leading up to your child’s First Holy Communion. Turn your attention to preparing your hearts, minds, and souls for this special day. Don’t stress about the minor details of a party or spend all your energy on things of this world. You can do it! EXTRA RESOURCES An online story book for kids : A great book explaining how and why we receive Holy Communion (10 minutes). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86UZz2R2NbM Kids Explain Communion youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5C_4LlSFgc&t=15s

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Prayers for you and your Children 

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Eucharist Workshop 

Guide for Parents  Practical Considerations

Timing is Everything We get that family life is very busy, which is why we have made a workshop experience that you and your child can do in your own home, in your own time. All you need to do is plan for either an uninterrupted hour, or a series of 4 x 15 minute time slots between now and when your child makes the Sacrament, to work through this experience with your child. Get Comfortable Think about making the space where you and your child sit together comfortable and cosy. You might light a candle and together set up a small sacred space to mark this time together as special. Your child could make their own cross and collect some flowers from the garden. Ideally wherever you sit you are away from tv, other siblings and any other loud noise or distractions. You will need access to the internet You will need access to the internet via an ipad or mobile device, as there are a number of short movie clip links that accompany this presentation.  Parent Booklet While the PPT slides are self-explanatory to work through, a few notes have been added to the Parent Notes below to support you in your conversations with your child. Think Positively The time and effort you give to working through the prayer, slides, movie clips, and discussions with your child are best seen as ‘an opportunity’ rather than an obligation. Try to make this time a special bonding time for you and your child, where they will hear you share your insights, wisdom and love. Relax, enjoy and may God bless you at this very special time in your child’s life.

   

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 Let’s Begin … Powerpoint Slides and Commentary for Parents

 Slide 1 - Opening Slide

   Slide 2: Let us Pray. Light a candle in your prayer space. Make the sign of the cross. Ask your child to read through the prayer, slowly and reverently.  Slide 3: You’re Growing Up Watch the movie clip. Discuss how the Church recognises that you are of an age when you can now make your First Holy Communion.

 Slide 4: Read the text. Talk about how receiving Jesus for the first time is a very special gift.    Slide 5 - Play Movie Clip 1 - Counting Your Blessings One of the greatest blessings we will ever experience in this life is the Eucharist. You are a child of God; this is the original blessing. And now God wants to bless you with the Eucharist! When you count your blessings before you go to bed tonight, remember to include your favourite foods, the people you love, your talents, your favourite activities and places, and most of all God, for giving you all these blessings. Each time we share in the Eucharist we thank and praise God for all our blessings.

Slide 6 - Read text. Communion for the first time is a big moment and your own excitement will go a long way in helping your child to build anticipation toward receiving this amazing gift. It would be great if you were able to share a picture of yourself at your own First Communion. Share what you remember and what receiving the Sacrament means for you.

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Slide 7 - Sundays are Special Play Movie Clip. One of the commandments is that we keep Sunday as a holy day of rest and worship. This clip reinforces how Sunday is a special day. This clip focuses on caring for ourselves, going to Mass and receiving Jesus in the Eucharist. Slide 8 - Sunday is a day of Rest Read text together. Talk about how you spend your Sundays. What do we need to keep on doing? What might we need to ‘tweak’ so that it is a day of rest and worship? Slide 9 - God’s House Read text together. Talk about our local parish church here at St Emilie’s. Think about your special Communion day in God’s house. How are you starting to prepare your heart for this special day? Slide 10 - Listening to God Read text together. At your Holy Communion you will listen to the readings, you will join in the singing and the prayers … If we really listen carefully we hear God speaking to us and guiding us. Slide 11 - What is God Like? Read text together. What words best describe God for you? What do you want to say to God before your Holy Communion? What is God saying to you in your heart at this special time? Slide 12 - The Road to Emmaus Let’s listen to the bible story of the two disciples who met Jesus on the road to Emmaus after he had already risen from the dead! Watch the movie clip together.

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Slide 13 - So Many Wonders! Watch the movie clip together.

    Slide 14 - We Say Sorry Read the slide together. When will you go to Reconciliation before you make your holy communion? Slide 15 - The Liturgy of the Word Watch the movie clip together. Slide 16 - The Offertory Read text together. Slide 17 - The Consecration Read text together. Slide 18 - The Our Father Read text together.

 

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Slide 19 - Holy Communion Play Movie clip.

   Slide 20 - The True Presence Read text together.

  Slide 21 - The Last Supper Play Movie clip. Jesus shares his last meal with his friends.   Slide 22 - Jesus is in You Read text together.

   Slide 23 - The Concluding Rites Read text together.

   Slide 24 - Your First, but not your Last Communion  Read text together. Talk about how going to Mass and receiving the Eucharist gives us food for our spiritual journey.

 

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Slide 25 - Go Make a Difference! Play Movie clip. The Eucharist nourishes us and gives us strength to do good. How can you make a difference in your family? In your school? In the world? Slide 26 - Jesus is Always Here for You Read text together. Pray the Our Father together.

If you have time, look at the Mass Responses PPT and read through these slides.

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