The document provides a list of 20 things that the author believes children should know about God, humanity, Jesus, and the sacraments before receiving their First Communion. The list includes basics such as that there is one God who created everything, humanity was created good by God but also has free will to sin, Jesus is both God and man who died for humanity's sins, and the sacraments of Baptism, Reconciliation, and the Eucharist. The author explains that knowing these concepts will help children understand what they are doing when receiving communion and "mean what they say."

1. To understand the Eucharist, What does my child need to know?
Michael Pekar (C) 2010
Introduction
In the Roman Catholic tradition currently Eucharist is first received around the
age of reason, which Canon Law says is 8 years old. Canon Law is the Church’s
organizational guidelines. Canon Law requests that our children have a desire for
the Eucharist. Anytime we come together as a church and pray and worship in an
organized way as a community, that is liturgy. The Church has liturgical
guidelines. There is a general principle involved in liturgy that basically says,
“We need to mean what we say and say what we mean.” This especially applies
to the Sacraments. An infant cannot say or understand anything, but our 8 year
old children can understand and say a lot. For our children to “mean what they
say and say what they mean” they need to know what they are requesting when
they say they want to “go to communion.” If they desire the Eucharist, then it
makes sense that they need to know what they desire to the degree that their age
level can understand it. If a child is mentally handicapped, then all the Church
Canon Law asks is that they desire the Eucharist and understand what they can.
What should my child know (the minimum) before they receive the most precious
gift of the Body and Blood of Christ? As a parent of three and as a person who
has a Master’s degree in Theology and doing church ministry for over 15 years I
was embarrassed that when I asked the question of for myself I came up with a
very definite, “I not so sure.” The after some research I found that beyond
immediate sacrament preparation books, which focused only on the sacrament at
hand and assumed many things and the general elementary scope and sequence in
every major Catechetical text, there were little in regards to a list of minimum
requirements.
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2. What I was really after was not a requirement list but rather check points, as to
whether I as a parent had done a good job in preparing my child for their first
communion.
I was looking for basic elements of our faith that is really essential for a person to
understand the Eucharist, (as much as this mystery can be understood) as a regular
8 year old child. One year I found myself looking at our communicants and
saying to myself, “I hope they know...”. Most of the time there was an inner nod
of “yes” to the things I was looking for. . I began to develop this list that follows
This is a list of what I would hope every child (including my own) who receives
communion for the first time would know about the faith. If they know these 20
things, objectives, (actually it could be reduced to about 10-12, but I put them in a
sequential learning pattern) they will be able to mean what they say and say what
they mean when they receive their First Communion. It is not an inclusive list, in
other words I hope that their knowledge of the Catholic faith goes well beyond
this list, but this is what they need to know to understand the sacrament.. To put it
simply, the goal is to make sure that those who are receiving the Eucharist for the
first time know what they are doing.
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3. To understand the Eucharist what does my child need to know?
THEY NEED TO KNOW THIS ABOUT GOD
1. There is a God
2. There is only one God.
3. God is 3 in 1 . Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Trinity)
4. God can do anything God wants to do.
5. God created everything.
THEY NEED TO KNOW THIS ABOUT HUMANITY
6. God created us.
7. God created us very good.
8. God created us to love Him.
9. To do this, God gave us free will.
10. Since our beginning, we have had free will.
11. Since our beginning, sometimes we have loved God and followed Him,
and sometimes we have not loved God and sinned.
12. Know the difference between a sin and an accident or a mistake.
13. Know the difference between a sin and not knowing that something was
wrong.
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4. THEY NEED TO KNOW THIS ABOUT JESUS
14. Jesus is God and Man.
15. Jesus never sinned.
Jesus had/has a perfect friendship with God the Father and God the Holy
Spirit.
14. Jesus lived, showed us how to live, died on the cross, rose from the dead,
and is alive yet today.
THEY NEED TO KNOW THIS ABOUT THE SACRAMENTS
15. In the Sacrament of Baptism,
we become a part of the Body of Christ.
In Baptism, a new friendship with God has begun.
16. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation,
we confess our sins because we are sorry for them
and God always forgives us.
Our Baptismal friendship with God is healed.
17. At Mass, we will receive the Body and Blood of Christ.
Everything that makes up Christ, we receive.
Our Baptismal friendship with God is nourished.
18. Amen means I believe.
THIS IS NOT ALL THEY SHOULD KNOW ,
BUT WHAT THEY NEED TO KNOW
BEFORE RECEIVING CHRIST IN THE EUCHARIST.
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5. Explanation, elaboration and hints
Having listed what the children need to know, I thought it might be a good idea to
express a little about why they need to know some of these things. I also thought
it might be helpful to express a little of how one might go about talking about
each topic. If you come can up with a better way explain it that is great. The goal
is not memorization, but understanding of these 20 things.
THEY NEED TO KNOW THIS ABOUT GOD
1. There is a God
Can you imagine sending a child to receive the Eucharist who does not
know that there is a God? How can they say they want to receive God, if
they do not know God exists? To know that there is a God is more than
just stating that, “yes there is a God.” It is believing that there is a God.
Talk about how you pray to God. Pray to God as a family. Talk about
how you rely upon God in your life. In your family life do you live with
God or do you merely talk about Him from time to time?
2. There is only one God.
What we are after here is to know that it is not as if we believe in God A,
and other people believe in God B and C and there are gods up in the
heavens having it out among themselves. (This is very ancient Greek-like
and ancient Egyptian-like.) Indeed, the revelation that there is only one
God is not so radical today, but in Moses’ time, this was radical. The
Hebrew people were in the minority in believing in only one God. Indeed,
it took them many generations to go from believing that their God was the
most important of all the other Gods to believing that the
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6. other gods are not really gods at all. There is only one God period. For
our children, it is important for them to know that there is only one God.
We can also talk to them about how worshiping things like a cow, a bird
or the sun may seem silly to us today, but ask them what things take their
or their family’s attention away from God. If anything takes priority over
prayer to God, worship of God, and following in God’s ways, then those
things have become our god. As you talk about these things with your
child, you can point out that these are in the 10 Commandments and go
ahead and open up the Bible and find them in Exodus 20.
3. God is 3 in 1 . Father, Son and Holy Spirit
At this level, we do not expect our children to have the same
understanding as an adult of the Creed, but it is important that they believe
in the Trinity. Let them know how we came to believe this. That God
told us he would send the Messiah, and He did send Jesus. Jesus told us
that He came from the Father and He is God’s Son. Jesus revealed to us
that He would send the Holy Spirit, who is also God. God is Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. One of the things that sometimes get confused at this age
is the eternal existence of the Trinity . Sometimes children will get the
idea that it is like the following: there is God the Father, and then later
God grew to include, God the Son and then later God grew to include God
the Holy Spirit, too. This is NOT what we believe. This is how God
became revealed to us, but God has always been God the Father, the Word
of God, and the Holy Spirit of God. Depending upon the child, you might
read with them and discuss the beginning of the Gospel of John. 1:1-18.
You may want to illustrate the Trinity always being and coming to know
the Trinity slowly in an example like the following. You might say, “You
gradually came to know things about grandma. First thing you learned is
that this is my grandma.
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7. Then later you understand that grandma is really my mom’s mom. Then
later you came to understand that grandma used to be a child too. All of
these things about grandma are true and they were all true when you were
little, but you came to understand them gradually. It is not as if she was a
grandma and then later poof she became a mom and later poof she also at
one time was young. So too God was always God the Father, Word, and
Holy Spirit.” Examples like this, perhaps you can come up with a better
one, can help our children understand what we mean when we say that
God is three persons in one God and always existed that way.
4. God can do anything God wants to do.
OK this is simple, why bother with this? If we do not believe this, we
cannot believe in the Sacraments. It takes a belief in a great God who can
and does do anything He wants to believe that God changes this bread and
wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. Sometimes we make our God too
small. Sometimes people become small in their prayers We really don’t
believe God can do anything: we put the laws of nature, or financial
realities, or other limitations of our world above God’s ability. Sometimes
we do not doubt God’s ability, but we doubt God’s desire to help us. God
can indeed do anything and God loves us a lot and will do anything for us.
As much as we love our children, God loves them a zillion times more.
God can do anything and God wants to. God wants to be close to us and
He wants us to be close to Him. That is why God gives us the great
miracle of the Eucharist, which, once we begin, we can receive every
Sunday.
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8. 5. God created everything.
A second grader will often ask something like, “Who created God?” It is
really important that they understand that no one created God. God is the
one who creates everything and gives it life. They need to know that
everything that is good has been created by God, who is good. All human
beings, all living beings, everything in this universe and anything else that
is, if it exists, it has the “Made by God” stamp on it.
THEY NEED TO KNOW THIS ABOUT HUMANITY
6. God created us.
God created everything naturally flows from or to the belief that God
created us. It is important that our children believe that way back in the
beginning of the human race God created us. We just did not poof up by
accident. God created us. Read with them the two stories of creation. The
Chapter 1 story of creating of man on the 6th day and later on women so
that man would not be lonely, gets at the great truth that men and women
are created for one another. The Chapter 2 story of God creating man and
woman out of His breath and out of the dirt of the earth, gets at the great
truth that man and woman are created by God and we are from earth stuff
that was created by God and we are given life by the breath of God. We
are alive because we have the breath of God within us. But do not leave
off there. Depending upon how much we have shared with our children
about the growth of children inside of a mother, we need to let them know
that not only did God create the first man and woman, but God continues
to create. All of us came to be because of a mother and father and God’s
creative presence. It is God who gives us our first gift the most important
gift of all, life. In our society’s “culture of death” it is crucial that our
children know that all life comes from God.
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9. 7. God created us very good.
There are many important truths from the Genesis stories of Creation that
we should know, but the truths presented in 7-10 are foundational. At the
heart of many troubles today are people who believe that they are not
good, or are not worth much, or are only worth what they can acquire in
material wealth, or control, or fame. God created us good. We have an
innate desire within us for the good. Deep down, we want to help people,
we want people to be happy. God created us this way. Ask your child
how they feel when they do something good or helpful. In the Chapter 1
story of creation, God created everything good, but creates us very good.
8. God created us to love Him.
It is a good thing to memorize the great commandment to love the Lord
your God with all of your heart, mind, and soul and love your neighbor as
yourself. In fact, our children should know this. At the minimum, they
need to know simply that God created us to love Him.
9. To do this, God gave us free will.
We need to talk to our children concretely about free will. You say you
love your parents, and when your parents ask you to do something and you
do it, then you show them that you love them. If they ask you to do
something, and you do not do it, then, with your actions, you show them
that they are not that important to you at that moment, you do not love
them as much as something else at that moment. While parents are made
sad when their children disobey, they are filled with joy when their
children obey. If children were robots, (some children love robot
examples) parents would never be sad with their children, but they would
never be
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10. happy with them either, and their children would not really have the
ability to love the parent. For parents to experience the joy of the love of a
child, they must also be willing to experience the sadness behind a
disobedient child. The same is true with God and us. God our Father, or
as Jesus called Him “Daddy” loves us, and He wants us to love Him, but
He will not force us. If God forced us, it would not be love. Read the
great stories about freewill in the Bible to your children. Read Genesis 1-
3, Mary’s yes in Luke 1, and parables of Jesus the Good Samaritan, Luke
10:29-57, the Two Sons, Matthew 21:28, The Lost Son, Luke 15:11-32.
10. Since our beginning, we have had free will.
The Creation myths of Genesis are a way of saying that, since the
beginning, things have been this way. One of the major truths of the
Creation myths of Genesis is that, from our beginning, God gave us free
will to love Him or not.
11. Since our beginning, sometimes we have loved God and followed Him,
sometimes times we have not loved God and sinned.
Sometimes as adults, or as Church, we become so focused on original sin
we forget about original creative grace. The Creation stories write about
sin and our choosing to be separate from God and disobey Him and try to
pretend that we are God, but they also write about choosing to follow
God. Adam was not always disobedient to God. He did name the animals
and supposedly did other things he was asked to do. But our first parents,
who were given freewill to love God or not, did ,at some point, sin.
Genesis reveals to us the truths that since the beginning, we have had a
tenancy to sometimes follow God (Creative Grace , love and respect for
God) and sometimes we have had a tenancy not to not follow
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11. God (Original Sin, disrespect for God). This has been our struggle ever
since. Do we love God or not? Do we respect God or not? Our children
need to know that their parents, themselves, and all human beings struggle
to love God. Sometimes we do well in the way we love God and others
and sometimes we do not. When we love God, we are happy and God is
pleased. When we choose not to love God, we call that sin. When we sin
we hurt ourselves and others and separate ourselves from God.
12. Know the difference between a sin and an accident or a mistake.
Sometimes at this age they confuse and accident and a sin. They need to
understand that a sin is something they chose to do, or not do, that they
knew was wrong and they went ahead with it anyway. An accident is
something that happens that is bad, but no one did anything wrong. It just
happened. Examples are numerous. You ran into each other, you dropped
the cup, the cars hit each other. You can also talk about accidents that
could have been avoided had they obeyed the rules. Then while it is an
accident, to the degree they broke the rule they need to know to that
degree it is a sin. If you hadn’t run across the wet floor like we asked you,
then... if you did not play ball near the window like we asked you to, then
...
13. Know the difference between a sin and not knowing that something
was wrong?
A child needs to know that if they did not know something was going to
cause harm, if they accidentally cause a problem, it is not their fault, they
did not sin. They didn’t know that the pop-up on the computer would
take them to a bad web site. They did not know that was a sign for poison.
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12. The did not know that when soap gets in your eyes it stings. They did not
know that jumping would cause the soufflé to fall. If they did not know it
was wrong, then they did not sin. They should know some basic Christian
morals.
THEY NEED TO KNOW THIS ABOUT JESUS
14. Jesus is God and Man.
Remember, God can do anything. Jesus was God and Man, and still is.
This is important. If Jesus is not God, He cannot save us and tell us what
God is like. If Jesus is not fully human, then He cannot be an example for
us to follow, does not know what we go through, and has not joined God
to the human race. At this point, they do not need to know the
ramifications of this belief, but believe that Jesus is God and Man. Can
you imagine a communicant going to receive Christ in the Eucharist and
now know that Jesus is fully God and Man?
15. Jesus never sinned. Jesus had/has a perfect friendship with God the
Father and God the Holy Spirit.
This is crucial. Jesus had to learn how to speak. Jesus probably made
mistakes in learning math. Jesus never sinned. (Mary and Joseph had it
easy in the area of discipline.) Jesus is the first human being to never sin.
Jesus had and has a perfect friendship with God the Father and God the
Holy Spirit because Jesus never sins. Because Jesus never sins and Jesus
is fully man, Paul calls Jesus the “new Adam.”
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13. 16. Jesus lived, showed us how to live, died on the cross, rose from the
dead, and is alive yet today.
They need to know that Jesus lived and told us how to live in the Gospels.
They need to know that Jesus, being obedient to the Father’s will, died on
the cross and then rose again. Can you imagine a child receiving the Body
and Blood of Christ and not knowing that Jesus rose from the dead? They
should know a lot more about Jesus, but, at the minimum, they need to
know these things.
THEY NEED TO KNOW THIS ABOUT THE SACRAMENTS
17. In the Sacrament of Baptism, we become a part of the Body of Christ.
In Baptism, a new friendship with God has begun.
Remember, God can do anything. Can you become a part of your mom or
dad or a friend’s body? No. The closest we can get is big hugs. In
Baptism, we become a part of the Body of Christ. Paul’s analogy of
Baptism is great here 1 Corinthians 12:12-26. Remember, did Jesus ever
sin? No. What type of friendship does Jesus have with God the Father
and God the Holy Spirit? Perfect. If we are a part of the body of Christ in
Baptism, then we have the same relationship with God the Father and God
the Holy Spirit as Jesus does. Perfect. In Jesus’ body, we are united with
God. This is a new friendship that God gives us. Remember, God can do
anything, and He wants to do anything He can to help us love Him.
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14. 18. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we confess our sins because we
are sorry for them and God forgives us. Our Baptismal friendship
with God is healed.
You just cannot get any better than the parable of the Lost Son in the
Gospel of Luke 15 to explain God’s forgiving love. Every friendship,
even the one that began at our Baptism, unfortunately has times when we
need to say, “I am sorry, please forgive me.” This is what we do in the
Sacrament of Reconciliation. If we are sorry and forgive others, God will
always forgive us no matter what we did wrong. God loves us so much.
The thing that hurts the most is that we allow our sin to separate us from
God. God will always forgive us.
19. At Mass, we will receive the Body and Blood of Christ. Everything
that makes up Christ, we receive. Our Baptismal friendship with God
is nourished.
There is a lot that they should know about the Eucharist, but it is essential
that they know that, at Mass, the bread and wine become the Body and
Blood of Christ. Everything that makes up Christ, we receive.
Remember, God can do anything, and He loves us so much. Jesus Christ
knew that, even with being created with the desire to love, even with being
in His Body that we would need to continually nourish our Baptismal
friendship, so he gave us Himself in the form of bread and wine. Talk
about what happens to a plant if you do not water it, or a friendship if you
never see each other? So too we need to nourish our Baptismal friendship
with God by receiving the Body and Blood of Christ every Sunday.
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15. 20. Amen means, I believe.
They need to know that this is a Hebrew word that means I believe. So
when we put it at the end of a prayer, it means, I believe all I just prayed.”
When we put it as a response to “The Body of Christ”, we are asserting
our belief that “yes I fully believe that.”
THIS IS NOT ALL THEY SHOULD KNOW ,
BUT WHAT THEY NEED TO KNOW
TO UNDERSTAND EUCHARIST.
What if they are already receiving and do not know this?
We do not earn or deserve any of the Sacraments, they are a free gift and
invitation from God. Have them continue to receive the Eucharist, but have them
grow into a deeper understanding of what it is. Growing in closer to God in
knowledge, love and faith is a life long process.
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