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.
