Practice Makes Progress

Mikey had been attending religious education to prepare for First Communion.  Looking back, I’m glad it was so important to my husband’s mom because I am not sure we would have done it otherwise and Mikey was capable of participating.

We modified things slightly.  He only stayed for the parts of class that were appropriate for him.  He did the crafts with the other kids and the service projects. 

When the ceremony was drawing closer, I met with his religious education teacher and asked how we would make sure that Mikey would be able to fully participate. I remember asking her, “How do we even know he won’t spit it out?” I was already imagining my horrified embarrassment as Dave’s whole family would be coming for this event. My family is not religious.

She smiled at me and said, “All the kids get to practice with unconsecrated host.” For the non-Christian readers, it is the same actual wafer, but it just has not been blessed and therefore in our religion, we do not need to treat it with the same reverence.  Only once consecrated does it become for us the Body of Christ.

Asking for Help

I explained that Mikey needs extra practice at most things, and they were very understanding.

In fact, we took home a little Ziplock baggie of wafers. We broke them into smaller pieces and practiced. I got to pretend to be the Eucharistic Minister and I stood very seriously and presented it saying, “Body of Christ” and Mikey replied, “Amen.” I put the wafer in his hand. Then we practiced having him put the wafer into his mouth. We did it enough times that week, that I felt relatively confident that the day would go okay…and then I probably said a little prayer that everything would go smoothly.