Friday, February 08, 2008
First Penance Workshop
Last Saturday we held our first workshop for the children about to go to Confession for the first time. The second one is tomorrow morning. We have about 120 students making their First Penance and First Communion this year so we have to do things in shifts!
Since both of us are doing this for the first time, I was nervous about how it would go, but things went very smoothly.
We built a 1/2 hour coffee and muffin period into the day so that everyone was present by the time we were ready to start and we were able to pass out all the materials. To begin we sent the children out in 4 groups to make Act of Contrition Holy Cards. We had pre-printed the Act of Contrition on index cards and provided the students with crayons to color them. We also gave them each a piece of paper so that they could write the Act of Contrition themselves to help with familiarization. While the children were working on their project, the DRE spoke to the parents about the importance of Confession and also gave some specific instructions about the night of First Penance such as the importance of being dressed properly. After the children returned, we showed them a video on making a good confession from the Truth in the Heart Series by the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. Then it was one of the priest's turn to answer some questions (we had a question box set out for the parents and children and they surprised us by stuffing the box with questions!) and then to perform a mock confession so that the children could see what will happen in the confessional. Finally, it was time to take them all to the church so that they could take a tour of the confessionals.
We tried to emphasize the importance of frequent confession - DRE, father, and sister in the video all noted how important it is make frequent use of the sacrament. One of the parents afterward told me that she really enjoyed the workshop and that it made her think about confession again. And, she went on to say that in her family they were going to schedule a monthly Saturday confession. Hallelujah!!
Since both of us are doing this for the first time, I was nervous about how it would go, but things went very smoothly.
We built a 1/2 hour coffee and muffin period into the day so that everyone was present by the time we were ready to start and we were able to pass out all the materials. To begin we sent the children out in 4 groups to make Act of Contrition Holy Cards. We had pre-printed the Act of Contrition on index cards and provided the students with crayons to color them. We also gave them each a piece of paper so that they could write the Act of Contrition themselves to help with familiarization. While the children were working on their project, the DRE spoke to the parents about the importance of Confession and also gave some specific instructions about the night of First Penance such as the importance of being dressed properly. After the children returned, we showed them a video on making a good confession from the Truth in the Heart Series by the Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. Then it was one of the priest's turn to answer some questions (we had a question box set out for the parents and children and they surprised us by stuffing the box with questions!) and then to perform a mock confession so that the children could see what will happen in the confessional. Finally, it was time to take them all to the church so that they could take a tour of the confessionals.
We tried to emphasize the importance of frequent confession - DRE, father, and sister in the video all noted how important it is make frequent use of the sacrament. One of the parents afterward told me that she really enjoyed the workshop and that it made her think about confession again. And, she went on to say that in her family they were going to schedule a monthly Saturday confession. Hallelujah!!
Labels: DRE
