First Holy Communion

Sacrament Leader:

Mary Taylor

Contact Telephone Number:

The Parish Office

E-mail:

tolworthfhc@rcaos.org.uk

When the course takes place:

Once a month for both parents and candidates from September to June. Parents meet on a Monday evening, and the candidates on a Saturday morning.

Where do we meet?

Parents in the Parish Hall, and the candidates in the Hall or School

The Sacrament in OLI:

The course prepares the candidates for the Sacraments of Reconciliation and First communion. Parental involvement is very important and each monthly session for the children is preceded by a meeting with the parents when the theme of the month is explored at an adult level

What the Church teaches:

The following are taken from the catechism of the Catholic Church (the numbers refer to the paragraphs in the document, should you wish to look them up and read further – there is a link to the Catechism in the “Links” page):

1323 “At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Saviour instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood. This he did in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until he should come again, and so to entrust to his beloved Spouse, the Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a Paschal banquet ‘in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us.'”

1324 The Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life.” “The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch.”

1325 “The Eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life and that unity of the People of God by which the Church is kept in being. It is the culmination both of God’s action sanctifying the world in Christ and of the worship men offer to Christ and through him to the Father in the Holy Spirit.”

1326 Finally, by the Eucharistic celebration we already unite ourselves with the heavenly liturgy and anticipate eternal life, when God will be all in all.

1327 In brief, the Eucharist is the sum and summary of our faith: “Our way of thinking is attuned to the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn confirms our way of thinking.”