My First Communion was on Holy Thursday in 1976. I told this to someone and they said "No Way!". So I'm wondering, why not? And how does the Church/Parish determine the date for celebrating First Communion.

-- Karen (justmekc@ix.netcom.com), March 11, 2003

Answers

There are no hard and fast rules about when people may make their first communion. For classes of children it is usually done in the spring for a couple of reasons. First, to coincide with the Easter season. This relates to the spirit of new life associated with both Easter and spring, and it also relates to the precept of the Church which says Catholics are required to receive Holy Communion during the Easter season. The other main reason is that it coincides with the close of the school year. During the school year the children receive the necessary instruction for receiving their first Holy Communion, so it is logical to schedule the event near the close of the school year, and before summer vacation begins.

-- Paul (PaulCyp@cox.net), March 12, 2003.

How blessed you are,Karen, to receive Jesus in your first holy Communion on Holy Thursday, the remembrance of Jesus at the last supper, when the Sacrament itself was instituted.

You know, this sacrament, this receiving of Jesus within our bodies is so profound, such an intimacy with our Savior. If we knew what we were doing we would crawl through hot coals to get there, to get Him. How He sustains us and holds us close to His heart when we receive Him in the Eucharist. How this intimacy will make us secure and at peace when the world is thrown into a panic. How blessed we are.

I would ask today that anyone who is led, would pray for Catholic schools. Here in our state of nor. Calif. they are in such a shambles. People of no faith have been hired on the staffs. The main reasons parents send the kids there is for education and status. The true faith has been watered down, and values capitulated so no one is offended. True zeal for the Lord is missing and evangelization isn't even a word any more. There is a tremendous lack of understanding of the faith.And in some cases, heresy is being taught the little ones in the form of sex-ed and secularism.The Catholic schools indeed need a revival.

-- Theresa (Rodntee4Jesus@aol.com), March 12, 2003.

I agree, Theresa. The only reason today's Catholic schools are still better than public schools is that they are private schools and can pick and choose those they will accept.

Karen, other things that determine when you get First Communion is how you get your religious education. If in a formal program (say Catholic school or CCD (yes, that's the old name), in other words, where you have a class with several students in it), they can schedule it a little better around Easter. However, I have also seen it where they just announce at Mass that "Mary" is receiving her First Communion today, and they let her go first in line. I see this more at smaller parishes that do not have schools associated with them. I would imagine that if you attend a church with a school, that they would probably try to have all of them when the school children did, even if you were not a student.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), March 12, 2003.