Padre Pio Parish Glenmore Park

I mentioned the week before of my appreciation for everyone who participated and helped with the Turning of the First Sod (the “ground breaking” ceremony) and I want to thank in a special way those who helped to make First Holy Communion day equally celebratory. I wrote a letter of thanks to my friends from Newcastle who attended and this was part of their response:

“Don’t thank Nicholas or I – we thank you for the privilege of you to think of us to represent our family at this Mass – I mean that with all my heart. I will be honest I found the night a very moving experience – I can only pretend what it must be like to bring a realisation to a parish of a cherished goal and be personally responsible for that. The next day I came home to Colleen and relayed my experience. We sat next to Michael and Toni (Gulli), who I suspect play a key role in the Church activities. I thought to myself, “how lucky we were to sit next to them” – beautiful and accommodating understate their reception of us – they will never have any idea how important that was to me and Nick. Then what even made it better is that the bloke in front and the bloke from behind – without any pre-empting, welcomed Nicholas and shook his hand – I was absolutely blown away! Nowhere, absolutely no where, has Nicholas had such an unsolicited reception in a Catholic Church. I don’t care what you might be doing wrong (which, I think is nothing by the way – but you know better than I what Bishops are like) but the social support development side of stuff is tops. Thankyou Kevin, and thankyou Michael & Toni and thank you to those 2 blokes and all the others that were so graciously accommodating”

 It is nice to get thanked and to know that you are appreciated so I include this today for those “2 blokes” who may otherwise never know how important those gestures of welcome were!

Once again my thanks to all who helped make our First Holy Communions a very special day for the children and their families who completed that long journey to this important point. Some have asked why we had Communion before Confirmation? I think I answered that during the homily. People who ask this question obviously understand little about either the importance of this Gift or the secular strangle hold on modern life. Confirmation has long been understood as happening at a point where a child is able (both mentally and practically) to “confirm” the promises that were made for them when they were Baptised (most often as a newborn). They are saying, “This is my faith now, not just my parents’ faith or beliefs. I am coming to Church because I want to”. It is logical therefore to delay the giving of this sacrament to a stage where a child is really ready to make that commitment. If they are not going to continue worshipping at Mass, I see no point in making your Confirmation. So we did make a conscious decision to postpone Confirmation to an age where kids are able to decide for themselves that it is what they want. We did not want people getting Confirmed just because “everyone in my class is doing it”. Inevitably this leads to lower numbers of Catholics who receive their Confirmation but that is the reality that Bishops are sometimes unwilling to accept, namely: few people see religious practices such as going to Mass, following the teachings of the Church and hence, living the teachings of Jesus enunciated by Popes and Bishops as relevant for a normal life.

I feel that one of the reasons that they fail to find meaning in the sacraments is their inability to see the Church providing real answers to their daily questions. Many have decided that the Church leaders are “out of touch” and disinterested in their struggles. This may explain the low percentage of Catholics who attend Mass each week but while 90% of Catholic parents will tell you that they know nothing about what a sacrament is for, they still insist that their kids “get it done”. People need to readjust their priorities. For example, a lady wrote me an email this week asking if we can offer alternate times for her child to register for the Sacrament of Reconciliation because another child has tryouts for basketball that day.

Now I believe in being flexible and assisting people to make use of the sacraments after the words of Jesus, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for of such is the kingdom of God," but this family does not regularly worship with us, so changing what everyone else is doing to accommodate one child whose priorities are not religion would not benefit anyone. Our Church needs to show that sacraments are valuable, and in terms of earthly realities such as basketball, far more vital. The Eucharist is a life-changing sacrament, the first time a person is able to fulfil our Lord’s command to “eat His body and drink His blood” (John 6:51) and be united with our Lord. It was Pope Pius X in 1910 who allowed children the privilege to receive their F.H.C. after they have reached the age of reason (i.e. around 7 years old). Previously children had to wait till they were 15. Sadly, many never did. So by lowering the age of reception of Holy Communion we are allowing many children who might not have done so previously, the opportunity to receive the Body & Blood of Jesus in a continuous way. But the sacrament of Confirmation is a once-only sacrament and therefore should only be given to those who are suitably prepared and are willing to be counted among those who belong to Jesus and wish to express that in a public and adult way. It is truly an adult sacrament and should be aligned with the time when a child is doing things for him or herself. Typically, this is indicative of the time a child is deciding to go to Mass because they want to, not being forced to by a parent. To conclude, I was interested in seeing how some of the children found the experience of receiving Jesus for the first time and one child’s response made a deep impression on me: "I really like receiving the Body and Blood of Christ because I knew Jesus was with me. I knew God would be there, too. I liked how everyone honoured us."

Blessings on your week.

Fr Kevin