Drawing of St. Theresa, the Little Flower,
as a First Communicant
Dear Spiritual Mothers,
The Catholic Church has so many saints. All the saints strove to live holy lives. And lucky for us, many of them wrote reflections or memoirs that can inspire us forever. One of the greatest saintly autobiographies is from St. Therese of Lisieux. She left behind a spiritual legacy in which she recounted the key moments of her life. (read “Story of a Soul”, her autobiography)
We thought that the First Communicants would be in April/May, but the virus…… So some of the parishes are thinking they might be still coming up now that we are opening up around here. So just in case they will be having First Communions, here is a thought about it from St. Therese.
St. Therese shared a lot about her experience of First Communion. St. Therese can help the young person in your life, whether that is a child or grandchild, niece or nephew, neighbor, or a Catechumen, enrich their First Holy Communion experience. Please be sure to share this with them so that their First Communion day will be unforgettable just like St. Therese’s was!
The child should ask God for a big favor. It’s not at all like making a wish and blowing out the candles or even requesting Christmas presents. This story is about what St. Therese did.
The troubles of people she met along life’s journey always found a way into her heart. One day walking with her father, she saw a poor man, and she offered money to him, but the man refused her donation. She wanted to help in some way but then she realized a better way to help the man.
St. Therese remembered hearing that on our First Communion Day we can obtain whatever we ask for. Although she was only six years old at the time, she said: “I’ll pray for this poor man the day of my First Communion.” Five years later on her First Holy Communion Day she kept her promise. She asked for that poor man the Best Graces that God could give on the day of her First Communion.
In our lives we encounter so many people. We might never know what happens to the person we pray for, but through our prayer we entrust them to God and ask Him to take care of them. That’s what Therese did. Encourage your First Communicant to have a special intention. It could be a sick family member or someone from school or the community, or the Coronavirus sick and dying, or to pray for a vocation to the priesthood or religious life for themselves or another, or all of those to pray for. God wants to give a special grace, His Best Graces. He wants us to ask. Don’t miss this opportunity!
If we don’t know anyone who is making their First Communion, we can still offer that special petition or prayer for anyone in need on that special day in our own parishes. We can find out the anniversary of our own First Communion and on that day offer that request to God. And don’t forget our Priest-sons! We can offer a special request to God for our Priest-son on the day of his Ordination, or his birthday, or his own First Communion day whenever it was, and then offer it on the day of your parish’s First Communion, or our Diocese’s Ordination date.
God loves a generous giver!
God bless you all,
Mary Anne Gronotte 859-468-4732
Judy Newberry
Carole Zerhusen
Much of our life we might qualify as wasted. Yet, perhaps we
have bought into the lie that the Almighty cannot bring a greater good out of
it. Today hand over the pain of a past mistake to Jesus and ask Him to
transform it into something great.