On Wednesday 25th September the parents of our First Holy Communion children came together in the church to being the journey of preparation. Father Anthony welcomed the parents, and we started the meeting with prayer. I was excited to share with them the new programme, Heart Speaks to Heart, which has been developed by the Diocese of Leeds. The parents were given a colourful bag which contained the children’s books, as well as a prayer booklet and the list of all the dates for the coming sessions. The main emphasis for the meeting was to discuss the importance of the parents’ role in their children’s journey of faith. We discussed how they can help their children prepare, in particular, we talked about having a prayer space at home, looking through the books together and getting a reflective book for their children to record their thoughts in.
We talked about what a typical children’s session would look like: reflecting on an illustration inspired by the Bible, following our fictional family of Grandpa, Jess and Ryan as they too prepare themselves for their First Holy Communion, examining one of the virtues (e.g. Thankfulness, Honesty, Bravery), prayer and of course a snack and a drink.
The session ended with quiet prayer, where we sat still, listened to our breathing and quietly repeated words to ourselves that I said out loud: “Come Holy Spirit.”
Thank to you all the parents who attended and to my team of Catechists. We are looking forward to our first children’s session next Wednesday 2nd October.
