Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church, Greensboro, NC

First Penance and First Holy Communion

First Penance (confession) and First Holy Communion are usually celebrated during a child’s 2nd grade year. If your child is older, read through this material too.

Things you need to know if you want your child to receive these sacraments:

Your child must be already baptized in a Catholic church. If baptized in any other church, your child must be formally received into the Catholic Church to be eligible for Penance or Communion. Note this on your CCD registration form or the sacramental registration form and call us about it.

We must have proof of your child’s Catholic baptism or baptism and reception into the Catholic Church. A copy of the original baptismal certificate is sufficient for a Catholic baptism. If your child was not baptized Catholic, some record of the baptism will be needed in order to receive him into the Church. If he or she has already been received into the Catholic Church, we will need a notice from the Catholic parish this took place, and this notice must include the baptism information.

Our diocese requires 2 years of ‘long term’ preparation before these sacraments may be received. This is usually covered by consistent attendance at religious education classes in 1st and 2nd grade either in CCD, Our Lady of Grace School, or home school religion classes. Weekly family Mass participation is a must. Prayer with your child is a must.

In line with diocesan guidelines, Our Lady of Grace has one, unified process of 'short term' preparation for all children of our parish (those in our parochial school, those in our religious education program, those being home schooled, and other special situation children). To get all these separate streams of children into one database there is a brief First Penance/First Communion Registration Form .

If your child is in Our Lady of Grace School, but you as a family are members of another parish, your child must receive these sacraments in your home parish. Please check with your home parish for their requirements for short-term preparation. If you would like your child to receive these sacraments at Our Lady of Grace, you must approach your own pastor and get his permission for this to happen. Pastors are usually happy to do this for parishioners they see at Mass and know are active in their home parish.

The short term preparation in 2nd grade involves a parent meeting for each sacrament, followed by completion of home workbooks on each sacrament. We will provide the workbooks and instruction materials at these mandatory meetings.

First Penance is celebrated individually, in small groups, during the winter on days and times to be determined each year.

First Holy Communion is celebrated at Masses on the first full weekend of May. That is, the first weekend in May where both Saturday and Sunday are in May. There is a 10 AM Saturday First Communion Mass [which does not count for Sunday] and children will also receive at the Saturday vigil Mass and regular Sunday morning Masses. Families have a choice. In 2009, these dates are May 2nd and 3rd.

Note about children beyond 2nd grade: If the children are in our religious education classes, or are being home schooled, their need for these sacraments should be noted on the registration form for CCD. If they are in Our Lady of Grace School, please talk to Jim McCullough at 274-6520 x335 or email him at jmccullough@olgchurch.org There are different requirements for different ages and situations. In general, we want to be sure the family is participating weekly in Mass and otherwise in parish life, and that the child has enough time to assimilate the vocabulary, the understanding, and the practice of the faith appropriate to their age.

[Home] [Ministerios Hispanos] [Mass Schedule] [About Us ] [Sacraments] [Religious Education ]
[Ministries] [Youth Ministry] [Parish Health Ministry] [Daily Prayer Requests] [OLG School] [Links]