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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, please read through
this material too.
Things you need to
know if you want your child to receive these
sacraments:
Your child must be baptized to
be eligible to receive Penance or Communion. If they
are not baptized, this must be arranged before they
can receive. Please let us know immediately
if this is the case. If your child is in Our Lady of
Grace School, the school will provide us with a copy of the
baptismal certificate you had to turn in to register.
Everyone else must provide a copy of the certificate with
their Penance/Communion registration form. If your
child was baptized in a non-Catholic setting, but the
family is now practicing the Catholic faith, we will
need written proof of baptism. Suitable preparation
for and reception of these sacraments constitutes a
profession of faith for a young child, so they may be
recorded as having come into full communion with the
Catholic Church.
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. Click
through to print this out if you want to turn it in at the
earliest parents meeting.
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 has been celebrated
individually, in small groups, during the winter on
days and times to be determined each year.
There will be 2 First Holy Communion Masses
in English on Saturday, May 8, 2010. Each family
will choose which Mass to attend. A fairly even
distribution of families at each Mass will allow a more even
distribution of seats to accommodate guests.
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.
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Contents and photographs copyright 2007
by Our Lady of Grace Church
Design and graphics copyright 2007 by Karen
McCullough
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