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Realm: Religion - Subrealm: 1st Communion
May. 2nd, 2006 06:14 amI guess I´m a Protestant, in the sense that I´m a western Christian who´s not RC. (Admittedly, in our Eucharist centered, priest mentored, saint´s day observin´, bishop confirmin´, chasuble wearin´, procession farin´, incense twirlin´, candle burnin´, apostolic succession, non-Augsburg Confession, Exsultet singin´, oft sacring-bell ringin´ little world, it can be a little hard to tell sometimes.) One way you can REALLY tell we´re not Catholic is that we don´t do the First Communion thing.
We baptise, we confirm. There´s endless argument about whether you start giving communion immediately (so that the child will have been receiving communion for as long as they can remember) or at confirmation (when they´ll be in a position to understand what it means, among other arguments). Just to make life more complicated, the Old Catholics DO do First Communion--they were, in fact, doing the whole preparation thing on Palm Sunday. Annoyingly, they weren´t having a service last Sunday, and I was in a church mood but had gotten severely bored with the Lutherans the previous week. (The guy preached on how Easter ought to be a time of rejoicing, to leave guilt behind...and managed to make it sound dreary). First Communion in the Münster reminded me a lot of a baptism at St. John´s North Haven: lots of kids and lots of Catholics who clearly hadn´t been to church regularly--or at all--in years. (And as such, the first service I´ve been to here that had a leaflet, even if they left out some bits--the Creed, for example--that the more clueless might have found helpful). Vaguely decent preaching, and not TOO odd (lots of other people not taking communion, for example), although it didn´t do much for the lack of Easter-ness in my life. And it did have some cool music. Including several verses of A Gaelic Blessing that I didn´t know and which are much more...stereotypically irish.
"May you always have a pillow to rest on, clothing and daily bread,
May you be in heaven for forty long years before the Devil notices you´re dead!"
We baptise, we confirm. There´s endless argument about whether you start giving communion immediately (so that the child will have been receiving communion for as long as they can remember) or at confirmation (when they´ll be in a position to understand what it means, among other arguments). Just to make life more complicated, the Old Catholics DO do First Communion--they were, in fact, doing the whole preparation thing on Palm Sunday. Annoyingly, they weren´t having a service last Sunday, and I was in a church mood but had gotten severely bored with the Lutherans the previous week. (The guy preached on how Easter ought to be a time of rejoicing, to leave guilt behind...and managed to make it sound dreary). First Communion in the Münster reminded me a lot of a baptism at St. John´s North Haven: lots of kids and lots of Catholics who clearly hadn´t been to church regularly--or at all--in years. (And as such, the first service I´ve been to here that had a leaflet, even if they left out some bits--the Creed, for example--that the more clueless might have found helpful). Vaguely decent preaching, and not TOO odd (lots of other people not taking communion, for example), although it didn´t do much for the lack of Easter-ness in my life. And it did have some cool music. Including several verses of A Gaelic Blessing that I didn´t know and which are much more...stereotypically irish.
"May you always have a pillow to rest on, clothing and daily bread,
May you be in heaven for forty long years before the Devil notices you´re dead!"
