Hugging Prayer for First Communion

I don’t know when this is going to happen, but unlike today in which you are all smiles and looking your best, there will come a moment when you are sad and if your mother asked you “What’s the matter? You probably would answer: “Leave me alone.” She would, but you would keep on being sad.

There are going to be times in your life when you are going to be sad, and you won’t know why. You won’t understand and neither will anyone else. You can be with the nicest people in the world, but at times like this, even they won’t know what to do to help you stop being sad.

So I am going to teach you a prayer for the times when you are sad and you don’t know why. I want you to get up (imagine our First Communion kids doing this for the first time) and put your arms around yourself. Put them all the way around yourself. Cuddle your body. Hold yourself the way you would hold a baby in your arms.

Now, after you have a real good hold of yourself, close your eyes and begin to rock yourself. Rock yourself real good, the way you would a baby, and just keep doing it. When you grow up, no matter how old you are, and you find yourself sad and you don’t know why, I want you to rock yourself just like this. And as you do it, remember that you are God’s little girl, little boy, and that God understands why you are sad even if no one else does. Holy Communion is God holding you close to himself, because God loves you very much. Then just keep rocking yourself and be comforted. That’s what it means every time you receive Holy Communion, it is God’s way of comforting us in this life.

Isn’t that a good prayer? I would ask everyone in your family, your parents, your grandparents and relatives to do this when they feel sad. I recommend that everyone who receives Communion imagine that God is hugging them.

This morning, you mom and dad, your grandparents and relatives and all of us in this church are very proud of all the hard work in learning about Jesus love for you. We grownups promise you that we will always be there to guide and support you. From now on, whenever you receive Communion, it is how Jesus loves us with are with all our sins and weaknesses, with all our talents and skills.

Tanner’s asked his dad if Fr. Matt baked the bread that he would receive in Communion. I told Tanner that I did not bake the bread, but I wrote this little blessing prayer for all of our First Communion children.

"Help me, O God, to live the recipe of good deed.
Give me the kneading strength of your Spirit to work your words into the doughy recesses of my life. Help me to let it rest awhile in my heart so that it can rise. Help me not to fear the oven of life, so that it can bake through and through. And grant that in the baking, the world would be able to roll down its window and savor the aroma of freshly baked bread, your bread of life."