Please note: This post is about preparing for the ceremonies

of First Confession and Communion

as opposed to faith formation and learning during the year.

 

Quite a  number of visitors to this blog

are looking for information about preparation

for these ceremonies, hence this post.

 

If it is your first time preparing a communion class

you might find helpful ideas here.

 

How does one prepare for the First Confession ceremony?

I ‘role play’ being the priest. The children are introduced

to me by other children pretending to be the parent(s)

 
Photo Credit: Lawrence OP via Compfight

I’ll talk to the class about who’ll bring them up

and talk about ‘different kinds of families’.

 

I’ll get them very familiar with what to say

when they go up to the priest.

 

We also talk at length about

‘the examination of conscience’

and what they could say to the priest

about the ‘times they did not show love’.

 

But we never ‘practice’ these

‘times they did not show love’.

I advise the parents to talk to them

about what they could tell the priest

with them at home also so they know

what they will say when the time comes

Photo Credit: Waiting For The Word via Compfight 

What about seating?

Traditionally, where I teach,

children sit with their families.

 

In other schools the children sit up the front

with their families sitting behind.

 

Some schools include a ‘service of light’ with candles

in the First Confession ceremony.

 

We have a choir from third and fourth to

support the children making their confession

and communion.

 

I allocate seating according to the job a child is doing

so that for example the children saying the first prayer

are sitting across the aisle from each other

and walk up together when their time comes.

Then we’ll book the church for two

perhaps three rehearsals.

Photo Credit: James Bradley via Compfight

The children may need to be taught

– how to genuflect towards the tabernacle,

and how to behave in church;

– how to bless themselves

with holy water on the way in,

– and not to kneel up on the seat

and look behind them.

 

Walking up the middle aisle

and down the side will need practice

as parents are inclined to turn around

and walk back the way they came.

This can be disconcerting for the children.

 

They will also need to learn how to receive

the host properly in their hands.

Our parish office provide us with a box

of unconsecrated hosts in the week before

Communion and we practice with these.

 

Parts One and Three of this topic here

and here.

Excellent prayer resources and visuals here: MargD Teacher Posters