Deacon Tom Writes :6th February 2022
Dear Friends,
Every New Year (I know it is February already!) brings a familiar restart in the Church’s calendar, that of bringing to our young people a knowledge of the sacraments of First Reconciliation, First Holy Communion and Confirmation.
It is a vital ingredient within our Catholic family to share the knowledge we have to those who are in the beginnings of their faith journey. The very beginning of course of that faith journey begins with parents asking for the sacrament of Baptism for their child, most often as an infant.
Baptism is sometimes called ‘the gateway’ to the remaining six sacraments of the Church. The sharing of the sacraments is a responsibility given to all members of that family, not just to clergy and catechists but to all. The education of the young begins of course in the home by the parents who in the Baptism Rite promise to support their children to grow in their spiritual life. However, by the example of how the whole family, each and every one of us, living out our lives as Jesus calls us to live also educates the young.
The sacraments of the Church bring us, step by step to a knowledge of who we are, the people of God, loved and cherished by the Father, His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. They give us an understanding of what it is to be community. The sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, the Mass, the source and summit of our Christian faith, brings us into the presence of the Trinity, fed by hearing God’s word and by receiving Him in His precious Body and Blood, brought together to worship by the power of the Holy Spirit.
It is when we are gathered together in the Mass where we most fully become one. It is here that we pray for one another, showing our need of one another, offering worship and thanks to God for His great mercy.
So as our catechetical programmes begin let us remember those beginning their faith journey, remembering that we too are on the same journey with them and remember them in our prayers. That oneness and our responsibility within it is the essence of our Synodal process
