A Happy Catholic Post. - albeit a vanity one.

[Midlodemocrat]

My little girl is making her First Holy Communion!!! She just did her First Reconciliation.

She is going to wear the dress that her sister wore six years ago along with the same veil. I am hoping against hope it will fit because she is a tad bigger than her sister was.

I really want her to wear this particular dress because my mom bought it for her first grandchild, (my eldest) to wear and now she is in Heaven. I think it will be a really nice, special reminder of what a great lady she was.

[Maeve]

1. That's sweet! Congrats!

My girls both wore the same dress and then we passed it along to charity (we're the only Catholics on eitherside of the family).

[Midlodemocrat]

5. I am hoping that my nieces can at least use the veil

as a tribute to my mom. I know that my sisters in law will want to choose their child's own dress, but the veil is kind of special to me, so I am hoping.

[DemBones DemBones]

2. That's really nice! Most of our lives as Catholics are

not terribly connected to who is in the papacy. And I'm going to pray he'll turn out well, anyway!

Is her First Communion this week?

[Midlodemocrat]

4. No. Not this week.

Probably sometime next month. But, I have to tell you, she is soooo excited.

Funny story: when I was taking her to Church for her First Reconciliation, she was chattering away in the back seat as she is wont to do. I finally said: "Elizabeth, please focus on the sins you are going to confess to Father Pat".

Well, she had such an enormous grin on her face while doing confession that I leaned over and told a friend of mine that she needed to go back over there and at LEAST sit for 10 minutes. I even said that the poor priest should pack a lunch.

Just kidding. She is a doll, well I think so at least, and very, very happy to be receiving this sacrament like her brother and sister.

[DemBones DemBones]

7. It's quite a rite of passage, a sign of maturing and becoming

a "real" Catholic, plus you get to dress up in a pretty dress -- what a great deal for any little girl! Growing up Presbyterian, I must tell you there was nothing to get excited about in church, no rites of passage except "joining the church" as a teenager (which entitled one to receive a shot glass of grape juice and a wafer or Ritz cracker, self-service style -- passed down the pew on a tray -- on the rather rare occasions this sacrament that never felt sacred was offered); long, haranguing sermons every Sunday; and, of course, no opportunity to unload the enormous childish guilt for very minor sins in confession. I always thought I wuz robbed!

How nice it would have been to be able to go to confession and admit "I was mean to my mother, I was mean to my brothers, I hit my brothers, I lied to my mother, I called a schoolmate a name" and all the other petty stuff that we were very much made to feel guilt for but given no way to atone for. You always hear about "Catholic guilt" but in my experience (and that of my husband and many other ex-Protestants I've discussed this with) Protestant children are loaded up with guilt. I found just as much emphasis on the sinful nature of humans (and no provision for unloading guilt or atonement) in other Protestant churches (Baptist, Episcopalian, Methodist.) Quakers are better on that score but there is no liturgy at all. Theologically, I can see the intellectual arguments for or against the need for liturgy but in my heart, liturgy wins out. There is much in life that is not strictly necessary but makes living more pleasant. Obviously, all these denominations have contented members, but none of them suited me. So that, in a nutshell, is why many adult Protestants become Catholic: a recognition of the need for the sacraments your Elizabeth is now experiencing as a child of seven or eight. :-)

Congratulations to her and to you! It's a great time for your family.

[UrbScotty]

3. My cousin makes her First Communion Saturday!

Alleluia!

[DemBones DemBones]

8. Many congratulations to your young cousin!

O8)

[Princess Turandot]

6. Congratulations to her!..

if you post a pic, I'll post one from mine, the date on the square Kodak photo being closely deleted!

I still have my First Communion prayer book and the rosary, along with one that my aunt gave to be that Bono might be inclined to wear.

I will say that my partner when we walked into church was the best looking boy in the class, altho it was merely a fate of the alphabet!

[DemBones DemBones]

9. LOL, Princess that square Kodak photo tells a lot!

I still have the Kodak "Brownie" camera my dad took all my childhood photos with. Wonder what those little black boxes are going for on e-Bay these days?