A few months ago I posted an article from a dad who created a great “rite of passage” for his son. He took his teenager to dinner with men and they passed along encouragement and bits of wisdom for the boy. Here is the full story.
After reading that, it really got me thinking. In our family, we too are preparing for a pretty major life event with Gabriel. In May, he will be making his First Holy Communion! His class has been preparing all year and I thought this kind of dinner would really be great and hopefully make a positive impact. So tomorrow evening he will get dressed up and head out to dinner with his dad, Fr. Jay, and our friend Remmy. Remmy is a WWII veteran and a strong, faithful man of God. My hope is that they will each tell Gabriel the ways God has led them, taught them, strengthened them, and held them over the years. I printed out a list of questions (what was your First Eucharist like, how do you prepare to receive the Blessed Sacrament, etc). At the age of 7 I’m not pretending that Gabriel will have a 2-hour attention span or be able to dig in to theology, but I trust that the Lord will help him take away what he’s supposed to get from this dinner. That the Holy Spirit will work in my son’s life to help him be inspired by men he greatly admires. I asked Jim to take pictures and I’ll let you know how it goes!:) In the meantime, I found some neat tidbits about the meaning of First Communion. Good info if someone doesn’t understand why it’s so important to Catholics, and a great reminder for those who are Catholic!:) (Here is the full article, a great read)!
Dear Brooke,
In regards to your blog about your son making his First Holy Communion, why on Earth would you refer to Extraordinary Eucharistic Ministers as “sacrilegious”? I am also Catholic and although I do agree with your other statements in regards to receiving the Blessed Sacrament, I in no way agree with you judging people that are called by God to become servants to other members of the Body of Christ. We are assisting the priest in distributing the true presence of Christ to hospitals, nursing homes and homebounds. I was called by the Lord to help in this area after seeing my dear friend’s mother, who was homebound,wasn’t able to receive communion from her own priest because he was simply too busy. I highly doubt that our Lord and Savior, being as kind and loving as he is would condemn me to hell for trying to serve the old and sick. Isn’t this what we are called to do?
The Fish Radio Station draws a variety of Christians (and hopefully non Christians that would like to be saved) from different religions and your comments were thoughtless and divisive.
May God give you the wisdom to be a little less judgemental next time.