Monday 1 February 2010

Passing on the Faith

For a few reasons to varied to mention here we have decided to prepare our youngest for her First Holy Communion and First Confession ourselves.

I must admit, when I was looking for books and scouting around on the Internet for ideas I was a little daunted by the prospect to say the least. While I consider myself to have a very good grounding in the Faith I was not sure I could pass this on to one of the child. I was certainly not sure if I could communicate my understanding in a child friendly way.

After speaking to a few friends and having a look around myself I happened upon and brought 'The Bread of Life: Preparing for First Communion and First Confession' by Fr Martin Edwards.
I am taking a slightly different approach, in order to preserve the book for future generations I have took to making word documents with the exercises on. I am also adding other fun activities I found on the Internet such as Mass word searches, gospel pictures to colour in and creating prayers where you have to fill in the missing words.

Yesterday we sat down together for the first time and......

I think it went really well, she appeared to enjoy the activities and afterwards was very eager to show her daddy her folder with the exercises she had done in.

I also enjoyed it, having prepared so well before hand I did not have to stop and start the session and the experience not only gave me quality time with the children but the feeling I got from passing on the Faith made me glow inside.

All my nerves have not disappeared and I would be very grateful for other peoples comments of their experiences but I am sure of one thing - that one of the most important things we Catholics can ever do is to pass on the Faith (both the doctrinal content and actual practice).