First Holy Communion

Holy week is usually a busy week. This year it was a whirlwind because at the last minute it was decided, due to an unexpected turn of events, that my oldest daughter should receive her First Holy Communion on Easter Sunday. Here's how it happened. When I contacted our parish priest in early November about making arrangements, he suggested that she receive individually sometime during the Easter season instead of with the religious ed. class, since she was prepared at home, but no date was set at that time. So I put off buying a traditional dress for her to wear at the sacrament, since she was growing so fast.

Not too long before Easter, I contacted Father to remind him that we needed to schedule a date for my dear daughter's big day. As it turns out he had just been diagnosed with prostate cancer.  What with his schedule being fairly tight before his surgery, and the upcoming surgery and lengthy recoup time, we decided to push up the date of her First Communion instead of putting it off for a long time. After all, she was ready. So on Tuesday of Holy Week, he suggested that she receive Our Lord alongside another little girl who is home educated.

The whirlwind of a week wasn't what I would have chosen, but it seems that God had different plans than mine... no surprise there! First of all, when we had tried to go to the Sacrament of Penance on the previous Saturday, there had been too many people, and the time for confessions ran out before we had our turns. So I needed to get my girl to Confession. We took her to Reconciliation on Tuesday night at the local retreat center run by Franciscan Friars. She was brave, despite the weirdness of their confessional setup, having never received the sacrament there before, and was even first in line.

Next we needed to decide what to do about a dress. I made a few stops Tuesday afternoon on the way to the retreat center in hopes of buying a simple, white dress but I couldn't find anything modest enough. It was all spaghetti straps. I contacted some folks that would be likely to have loaners. I scanned Craigslist. Nothing. So we picked out a dress online WEDNESDAY. Once we found a place that would ship quickly and accepted returns (no small feat) we looked at literally hundreds of dresses. She found only a few that had sleeves, and she quickly narrowed it down to her favorite. She also wanted a veil (although she thought gloves were ridiculous.) She was excited. It was supposed to arrive by Holy Saturday (expedited shipping- ouch!) but I was nervous that it wouldn't or that it wouldn't fit. 

I went a little overboard with the dress. I'm not usually like that. But because of the inability of family to come, the fact that we had previous plans for the afternoon with my in-laws (who are not Catholic) several hours away, and the last-minuteness (I would have preferred to help her make a final preparation with a retreat or novena or something), I wanted to make sure that her First Communion was a big deal in another way. Also, I knew that the other girl receiving would be wearing a traditional dress, so I didn't want my sweetie to feel anymore self-conscious than she necessarily would be. 

All week, between Easter preparations, school work, the Sacred Tridduum events of the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord's Supper, the solemn commemoration of Jesus' passion and death on Good Friday, the outdoor Way of the Cross with the Friars, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, etc., my daughter read voraciously, reviewing pertinent books, re-reading biographies of the saints, etc. She was ready!

The gorgeous dress arrived promptly on the morning of Holy Saturday. We all admired it. She tried it on. It barely fit, but it lived up to her expectations. She was very happy.

Then we noticed that the veil was missing. After contacting the company that I ordered from, it was discovered that it was mistakenly left out of the shipment. So my sister (who was the only one able to come) headed out with us to track one down. We hit the bridal store, but they only had two choices that my little one was not overly fond of. Plus, they were pricey. We then hit a fabric store and a craft store. Finally she decided that she wanted me to make one, so we bought the necessary and desired materials (which included stick on rhinestones in various sizes!) and I made it late on Holy Saturday after my sister had carefully ironed the tulle. My daughter loved it. 

On Easter Sunday, during the 7:30AM Mass, my big girl received the Blessed Sacrament for the first time. She was radiant, confident, and ready. She followed along attentively with her missal, and she had written a prayer of thanksgiving to meditate on after Communion that she used. I didn't even have to take my two year old out during Mass! 

Easter was a very long and hectic day, and there was not as much focus on the sacrament as I would have liked, but I did make her a First Communion cake similar to the one I had made for my son when he received Our Lord for the first time, and some molded chocolates that looked like chalices and hosts. Plus, we fit in all the Easter festivities too!