Reconciliation and Communion Information

Sacramental Preparation Meeting

First Reconciliation – Tuesday, March 8, 2016 at 9:30 am

 Students wear school uniforms.

 Parents will sit with their child in the Church.

 When it is your child’s turn, you may receive the sacrament along with your

 Please present your child to the priest and let them do Reconciliation.

 When your child is done with Reconciliation, you can receive Reconciliation if

you want to.




First Communion – Saturday, April 23, 2016 at 10:00 am

 Students will meet in the second grade classroom at 9:30am.

 Immediate families will find their pew marked with their child’s banner.

 Other family members will find seats throughout the church.

*Girls – white dresses, white shoes, white socks/tights, shoulder length veils,

NO MAKE-UP, NO GLOVES

*Boys – black or navy slacks, white long-sleeved collared shirt, navy tie




Banners should be approximately 12 x 18 inches in size, and can be

purchased online. Banners should also include your child’s name. They will

be affixed to the pew the child and their immediate family members (no

more than 4 adults) will sit.




 Photography:

The school has hired a new photographer this year. The photographer will be

the only person allowed in the aisles or on the altar. Please stay seated and

refrain from picture taking during the entire ceremony out of respect to all



Here is a list of ideas to put on First Communion banners

 Your Name

• The Date of your First Holy Communion

• Grapes, wheat, chalice

• Crosses

• Lamb

• Church

• Stained glass window

• Hearts

• Hosts

• Dove

• Monstrance

 Rosary

Materials Needed to Make a First Communion Banner:

• Big piece of felt or other fabric for background

• Wooden dowel

• String

• Glue

• Assorted colors of felt (the stiff kind works best)

• Sharp Scissors

• Glitter glue or Fabric paint and craft jewels (optional)



Start by having you child sketch out what they want their first

communion banner to look like. Let them design the first

communion banner themselves- it will be more special to them

that way! Some different symbols you can suggest for their first

communion banner could include a chalice, dove, host,

monstrance, lamb, grapes, wheat, cross, angel, bible, Jesus fish,

or even a rainbow. Don’t forget to leave room for your name and

possibly the date.




When they’re ready, have them cut their symbol pieces out of

felt. We found that the stiff felt was easier to work with than the

floppy kind, and I love the felt with glitter!


Have them keep arranging their pieces and designing their first

communion banner until everything is where they want it. Then

they can glue the pieces down. You can either make an attempt

to cut the letters of your child’s name out of felt, or you can look

for pre-cut felt letters at your craft store. You can even buy iron-

on letters. You could also just use your fabric paint to write on

the name and date, which would be a lot easier than cutting the

letters out.



Once the felt pieces are all down, your child can embellish their

first communion banner with glitter glue and fabric paint or even

fake jewels! The possibilities are endless, so be creative!

When your child is finished decorating the front of their banner,

let it all dry before moving on. Now you need to be able to put

the dowel through the back so it can hang up. Here’s how we

went about doing that- and yes- a picture is worth a thousand

words.

We let it dry like this.

It worked really well!


Tie on your string to your dowel and you’re all finished!

Now that wasn’t so bad… was it?

What do you do with a first communion banner? Well, it’s

displayed at the first communion mass. We will hang them off the

sides of the pews.