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My First Holy Communion
How can I continue to get ready?
Bishop Denis is asking you to do 3 things this
month to help you to stay getting ready for
your First Holy Communion
1) Make your Prayer Space a May Altar
2) Pray a Decade of the Rosary
3) Go to Mass on livestream
This booklet will help you to do these things
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Suggestions for the Parish in engaging the children
preparing for First Holy Communion
Communicate:
It may be possible to send an invitation to the children and their
families to encourage them to participate in your livestream
Mass/es. Let them know that you are aware that Bishop Denis has
asked them to do three things, referenced on the cover of this
booklet, as they continue to get ready for First Holy Communion
This could be done through one or more of the following
• Parish Newsletter
• Parish Facebook or Website pages
• Community Noticeboards
• School Communication
Engaging the Children during and after Mas
• Acknowledge and welcome the children at the beginning of
Mass
• If you have a small group of children, it might be possible to
name them or to have their names displayed somewhere in
the church where they can be seen from the webcam.
• https://sermons4kids.com/ might be useful if you would like
to direct your homily to the children
• Include them in the Prayer of the Faithful
• Invite other members of the parish to pray for the children
and their families as they get ready for First Holy
Communion
• If you have a music minister for this Mass, consider asking
them to sing a song from the Grow in Love programme; Mary
our Mother would be particularly appropriate in May. This
can be found on the Grow in Love website and the login
details are available on page 9 of this booklet
• Pray the Prayers After Communion and encourage the
children to join in with you
• If is possible invite the children to send in pictures of their
May Altar at home and put them up on parish Facebook page.
• You might like to make reference to some of the following
resources during Mass or on your local parish website or
Facebook page.
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https://www.graiguecullenkilleshin.com/ has a video of the Sunday Gospel
to watch and some fun activities to do
http://catholicmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/MWS4EasterA.pdf
also has some great resources for helping children and families
understand and participate in the Sunday Mass.
The following resource has been sent to all schools for distribution
to the children preparing for First Holy Communion. It is also
available for download on www.kandle.ie. Please feel free to
upload it to your own parish website or Facebook page also.
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1: Make your Prayer Space a May Altar
This picture from Scoil Mhuire Jn, Newbridge will help you to design your May
Altar. You don’t need everything in the picture or on the list. It’s just to help you
get started and you might think of other things to add
Blue or white cloth or
coloured paper
A statue or a picture of
Mary. There are 2 pictures of
Mary to colour on pages 5 &
6. Choose the one you like
best for your Prayer Space
Flowers
Candle
Bible
Take a picture of your May Altar and ask a grown up to send it to
the KandLe Facebook Page. https://www.facebook.com/KANDLEi/ Bishop
Denis would love to see it.
If you already have a Prayer Space, then you are just
going to make some changes. If you are making a new
Prayer Space, then have a think about where you would
like to put it in your house. Somewhere everyone can see
it is good because it reminds everyone in the house that
we can always talk to God no matter where we are.
Where can I find some flowers for my May Altar?
What else could I put on my May Altar?
What prayers could I pray to
Mary?
What do I know about Mary?
Think
About
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6
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2: Pray the Rosary
The Rosary is a prayer that we
pray to Mary using a set of beads
called Rosary beads. If you don’t have
Rosary Beads you can make some. The
beads help us to keep track of the prayer
and they help us to stay focussed on our
prayer.
Every time that we pray the Rosary, we
remember something about Jesus’s life on
earth. The Rosary helps us to think
about 20 different parts of Jesus’ life
from before he was born until he
went back to God in heaven. The
Rosary divides the different parts of Jesus’
story into four groups and calls them Mysteries. Each Mystery has
five stories. When we think and pray about one of the stories it is
called praying a decade of the Rosary.
They are the
• Joyful Mysteries
• Sorrowful Mysteries
• Glorious Mysteries
• Mysteries of Light
You will pray the Joyful Mysteries because you
have already talked about these in school and
you know all the stories.
1: The Annunciation
2: The Visitation
3: The Birth of Jesus
4. The Presentation of Jesus
5: The Finding of Jesus in the Temple
What is the
Rosary?
What about
the
Mysteries in
the Rosary?
What are
the
Mysteries
called?
The Joyful
Mysteries
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The Annunciation: Luke 1:26-38
This is when the Angel Gabriel came to tell Mary that God wanted
her to be Jesus’ mother
Joyful News: She said ‘yes’
The Visitation Luke 1:39-56
The Angel Gabriel told Mary that her cousin Elizabeth was going to
have a baby too. Mary went to visit her as soon as the Angel
Gabriel Left
Joyful News: Elizabeth’s baby was John the Baptist who told
everyone that Jesus was coming and baptised Jesus in the River
Jordan.
The Nativity Luke 2:1-21
This mystery tells the story of how Jesus was born
Joyful News: God sent us Jesus to show us how much he loves us.
We celebrate this every Christmas
The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple Luke 2:22-38
All Jewish babies are brought to the temple after they are born
just like you were brought to the church to be baptised. Mary and
Joseph brought Jesus.
Joyful News: Anna and Simeon had waited in the temple for years to
welcome the saviour that God had promised to send. They prayed and
worked while they waited. They were so happy when they saw Jesus.
The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple Luke 2:41-52
When Jesus was about 12 years old Mary and Joseph brought him
to Jerusalem to see the temple for himself. While they were there
Jesus got lost
Joyful News: They found him in the temple telling the priests all
about God.
Remembering the Stories
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We begin by blessing ourselves
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
• We pray the Our Father
• We pray Ten Hail Marys
• We pray the Glory be to the Father
We end by blessing ourselves again
The Decade Rosary Bead help us to pray one
decade of the rosary. There are just 11 beads
one for the Our Father and the Glory be and 10
for the Hail Marys.
Pray a Decade of the Rosary with your Family
Why not ask the rest of your family to pray one decade of the
rosary with you. You could light the candle in your Prayer Space
before you begin to pray. One person could take it in turns to lead
the rosary.
Bless yourself
• The leader begins by praying the first part of the Our Father
and then everyone joins in
• The leader prays the first part of the Hail Mary and everyone
prays the second part. We do this ten times.
• The leader prays the first part of the Glory be to the Father
and everyone joins in
Take a minute to ask God to take care of anything or anyone that
you are worried about. Take a minute to say thank you to God for
something good that has happened today
Bless yourself
How to Pray One Decade of the
Rosary?
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Our Father
Our Father,
Who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy Will be done,
on earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily
bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who
trespass against us.
And lead us not into
temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Amen.
Hail Mary
Hail Mary full of grace, the
Lord is with thee
Blessed are you among women
and blessed is the fruit of thy
womb, Jesus
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now
and at the hour of our death.
Amen
Glory be to the Father
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit
as it was in the beginning
is now and ever shall be
world without end. Amen.
The Prayers of the Rosary
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Download and colour a picture for each Joyful Mystery
http://www.thecatholickid.com/joyful-mysteries-rosary-coloring-pages/
Watch:
The Annunciation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrYvuYwPAvU
The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il9Z39tDhGE
Read:
The Joyful Mystery stories in your bible. They are all in the Luke’s
Gospel from Chapter 1, verse 26 to Chapter 2, verse 52.
Make: A One Decade Rosary Beads
https://www.catholicicing.com/easy-rosary-craft-for-kids/
Learn More
You can log into Grow in Love website
https://app.growinlove.ie/en/login using the following log in
details.
Username : [email protected]
Password: growinlove
You will find more about the Rosary in Lesson 1 of the Seasonal
Lessons in Second Class.
Things to Do
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3: Go to Mass on Livestream
Going to Mass on Livestream is very different from actually being
in the church. But it keeps us connected to our parish and most
importantly to God. It is a way of staying together even though
we have to be apart at the moment. Mass will probably seem very
different when we are looking into the screen on our laptop,
phone, television or tablet. The priest might be on his own. There
might be someone to read and sing. You can still join in the
prayers and listen to the readings and what the priest has to say.
Doing this will help you to get ready to celebrate your First holy
Communion and will mean that when the time is right you will
really understand what it means to receive Jesus, the Bread of
Life, for the very first time.
Find out if your parish has Mass online
https://www.kandle.ie/webcam-mass-schedules-during-coronavirus/
If your parish is not online check the list to see if some of your
neighbouring parishes are
Decide to go to Mass online on Saturday evening or Sunday
https://www.graiguecullenkilleshin.com/ has a video of the Sunday Gospel
to watch and some fun activities to do
http://catholicmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/MWS4EasterA.pdf
also has some great resources for helping children and families
understand and participate in the Sunday Mass
Revise and Learn the Prayers of the Mass in your Grow in Love
Book or on the Grow in Love website using the log in details on
page 9.
What Happens at Mass on pages 14-15 will help you understand
better the different parts of the Mass.
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WHAT HAPPENS AT MASS?
It is always better to celebrate with others. It’s not much fun
being alone, it’s much better to share special times with family
and friends. As members of the church we gather to celebrate that
we belong to a special family, a parish or faith community.
Everyone in our faith community believes that God loves us very
much, that Jesus came to show us how much we are loved by God
and that we should live our lives as God would want us to. They
also believe that the Holy Spirit helps us to be like Jesus.
As members of this special family we gather every Sunday to
celebrate the Eucharist. We come together for Mass.
To help us understand Mass better we can break it up into a
number of different parts
1: WE GATHER: THE MASS BEGINS
We come together as members of our parish family,
to celebrate God’s love for us and our love for God.
We remember that Jesus is with us in a very special
way at Mass.
Even as we enter the church, we are beginning
our mass, we bless ourselves with holy water to
remind ourselves of our baptism. Mass usually
begins with a holy song or hymn and a procession. The priest, the
servers and sometimes the ministers of word process in from the
back of the church as the hymn is sung. We all stand while this
happens because we are an important part of this celebration. We
are the community of faith, the assembly, and we believe that
Jesus is really present in every part of our Mass, particularly in
communion but, also in the Word, our priest, our ministers and in
each one of us. Our prayers and actions at the beginning of mass
are part of the Introductory Rite. This helps us to get ready to
celebrate.
The Penitential Act is part of the beginning prayers and helps us to
remember that God always loves us and is always ready to forgive
us.
We all pray the Gloria together and then listen to the Collect which
is led by the priest.
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2: WE LISTEN TO GOD’S WORD: THE LITURGY OF
THE WORD
At Mass we hear the Good News that God loves us
when we listen to the readings and gospel.
After the Collect we sit down to listen to the
Word of God. There are usually three readings from the Bible.
Between the first and second readings the psalm is sung or prayed.
It is how we respond to God’s word. The third reading is called the
gospel which means ‘good news.’ Before the gospel we stand and
greet the ‘good news’ with a song of joy, the ‘Alleluia.’ After the
gospel the priest talks to us. This is called the homily. It helps us to
understand more fully the readings that we have heard and also
suggests ways that we can live the gospel in our everyday lives.
At the end of the homily we stand to profess our faith by praying
the Creed. The Liturgy of the Word finishes with the Prayer of the
Faithful, when we pray for all those who are in need.
3: WE BRING OUR GIFTS, WE REMEMBER, WE GIVE
THANKS: THE LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
We bring bread and wine to the altar. We
remember that God loved us so much that he sent
Jesus. We give thanks for the gift of Jesus and we
remember what he did at the Last Supper. The gift
of bread and wine that we bring to the altar
becomes the body and blood of Jesus.
After the Liturgy of the Word some members of the community
bring the bread and wine to the priest. At this time there is also a
collection when we give money. This money is our way of saying
that we are prepared to share what we have, to help the
community in which we live. We call this part of our Mass the
Liturgy of the Eucharist. The word Eucharist means ‘thanksgiving’
and so at this time we give thanks to God. We remember that God
loves us so much that he sent Jesus to save us. We give thanks for
this gift and we get ready to share in the Bread of Life. The priest
leads us in praying the Eucharistic Prayer. During this prayer we
remember what Jesus did at the Last Supper. The priest lifts up
the bread so that we can all see it and then he says, ‘This is my
body.’ Then he lifts up the chalice and says, ‘This is the chalice of
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my blood.” The bread and wine become the body and blood of Jesus
and we believe that Jesus is really with us.
4: WE SHARE IN THE BREAD OF LIFE: THE COMMUNION RITE
We are invited to the Table of the Lord to share in
the Bread of Life.
When we share a meal with others, we come
closer together and this is what happens at Mass.
Before we go to the table we stand and pray the
Our Father together. This is the prayer that Jesus
taught his disciples. We share a sign of peace with each other to
show that we are always ready to forgive and make peace. The
priest takes the large Host and breaks it just as Jesus broke the
bread at the Last Supper. We pray the Lamb of God together. Then
we are invited to the altar table to share in Jesus who is the Bread
of Life. We spend some time after receiving communion in silent
prayer remembering God’s love for us and getting ready to bring
that love into the world with us as we leave the church.
5: WE GO FORTH TO LOVE AND SERVE THE LORD:
DISMISSAL RITE
We are sent from Mass with God’s blessing to go and
announce the Gospel.
At the end of Mass, we are sent to bring God’s love
out into the world. We are asked to go and do what
Jesus did, to love one another, to help one another, to care for one
another. We have received the Bread of Life and this helps us to
live like Jesus. The priest asks us to stand and we leave the church
with God’s blessing.
