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, 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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