First Communion

+JMJ+
Today, some of the children in my parish are celebrating their First Holy Communion. Therefore, I thought a post on this sacrament would be most fitting. The following comes from Maria Von Trapp's Around the Year with the Trapp Family Singers:

FIRST HOLY COMMUNION

Then comes the great day when the young soul is for the first time invited to the heavenly banquet--the day of the first Holy Communion. It is a pity that this sacred day so often degenerates into a show, the child being showered with gifts and distracted with amusements, so that this solemn, holy feast turns into a day of much outward excitement. Again, there is much we Christian parents have to learn to do better. The preparation for this day, the first Holy Communion of our children, should be a holy rite and duty for every mother. We can learn from the family of St. Therese of Lisieux how the older sisters saw to it that the younger ones were prepared sufficiently for their great day. Of course, the whole family should join the child at the Communion Mass, everybody wearing his Sunday dress. Not only the table, but the house or apartment should be decorated. For the rest of his life the child will remember this day. Instead of many worthless trinkets, one might buy one real gift, either a beautiful medal or little cross to wear around the child's neck, or a picture for his room, a reproduction of the old masters, or a beautiful statue. These are formative years, and it is our privilege to school the taste of our children, directing them away from the sweetish, coy plaster art, toward genuine art