First Communion

I remember my First Confession. I was nervous to go talk to the priest but for some reason I don't remember much of my First Communion. I do remember my older brothers getting host at my Godfather at the old white wood presbytery outside Fredericton who was a priest at the time. It was a cold winter day and I did not understand why I was not allowed. So I asked my daughter Gabrielle what she remembers of her First Communion :
 
When I was asked to write about The First Communion this is what I had written down: “The First Communion is an ancient tradition practiced in the Church during Easter. It occurs after being baptized and after the First Confession. This being the third out of seven sacraments, one must precede the first reception of Eucharist. This reception is a Christian ceremony honoring the Last Supper, where bread and wine are consecrated on the altar and consumed thereafter.” Sounds like you went on a Wikipedia page right? I decided to dig deeper and tried to remember how I felt during my First Communion.

I recently went to church the other day (something that I haven’t done in a while) and the pastor asked these two kids how they felt after their first communion. They said beautiful things like “I felt closer to God when I prayed” and “I understood what he had planned for me”. For me, honestly, I was just excited to be able to eat the bread like the adults. Now that I am older (and a little bit wiser), I can see how these two kids felt, I just wished I was as wise as them when I was a kid.

I don’t practice religion as much as I used to as a kid. I feel like my generation is so focused on technology or school, but that’s a topic for another blog post. Growing up, I used to go to church with my mother every Sunday. After church, I would go to catechism and I remember the week before our First Communion, we had to practice walking down and getting the host and as a kid, I would be really excited because it was different compared to a regular catechism class. I also remember learning that we had to say “Amen” after receiving a host. I used to think we only had to go up, get the bread and go back to your seat but there is a certain technique to get that piece of dried up bread.

It’s good to think back to all the memories you’ve created. I am glad I took the time to remember my memory of my First Communion. Feel free to share your experience in the comment below .

God Bless