Children to bake altar bread for family Mass

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I quote from my parish bulletin dated November 20, 2005:

“In preparing the unleavened altar bread from wheat flour and water, children experience an age old tradition which with careful instruction ties the Mass to the Passover story of the Hebrew people and to the Passover meal Jesus shared with his disciples on the night before he died…altar bread will contain only wheat flour and water. No leavening or additional ingredients will be added. The bread will be consecrated into the Body and Blood of Christ and distributed only at this Mass…If you have questions concerning the Family Mass or any of its educational elements, I welcome and encourage you to personally speak to me…”

OK. I have concerns but I wanted to air them before a more sympathetic ear before I call.
  1. What about crumbs and the possible profanation of Jesus Christ?
  2. In your explanation of the passover meal, will you also make clear the passover sacrifice and how Jesus is the perfect sacrificial lamb?
  3. How does this help the children to appreciate these sacred mysteries and will it increase their believe in the real presence and their reverence for the Eucharist?
Any suggestions as to another approach, something I should leave out or add in?

Thanks for your help.
 
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kmmd:
I quote from my parish bulletin dated November 20, 2005:

“In preparing the unleavened altar bread from wheat flour and water, children experience an age old tradition which with careful instruction ties the Mass to the Passover story of the Hebrew people and to the Passover meal Jesus shared with his disciples on the night before he died…altar bread will contain only wheat flour and water. No leavening or additional ingredients will be added. The bread will be consecrated into the Body and Blood of Christ and distributed only at this Mass…If you have questions concerning the Family Mass or any of its educational elements, I welcome and encourage you to personally speak to me…”

OK. I have concerns but I wanted to air them before a more sympathetic ear before I call.
  1. What about crumbs and the possible profanation of Jesus Christ? I don’t understand your concern here, as before the Consecration, the species are not the Most Sacred Body or Most Precious Blood. What do you mean?
  2. In your explanation of the passover meal, will you also make clear the passover sacrifice and how Jesus is the perfect sacrificial lamb? How has that failed to happen in this Mass?
  3. How does this help the children to appreciate these sacred mysteries and will it increase their believe in the real presence and their reverence for the Eucharist? **How does it not? I think their MAKING of the Eucharistic bread focuses more on history, which is perfectly valid. The MASS (the Confection of the Sacrifice) and their catechists should teach them about the Real Presence in the Eucharist. Is your issue with the making of the bread? As far as I can see, the only problem would be if the children aren’t washing their hands or keeping their hands out of their noses and mouths post washing! **
Any suggestions as to another approach, something I should leave out or add in?

Thanks for your help.
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i think its a great idea. in fact I have always thought that would be a great exersize for like a confirmation retreat (put together a mass, and thus understand what goes into it. select the readings [from the list in the lectionary], write the petitions, bake the bread, etc)
 
My son did this the weekend before his First Communion. They made the bread, wrote the petitions and the like. It was a wonderful way to help the children to become part of the mass. Then when the priest said the words at the consecration, they saw their bread turned into our Lord. It was a wonderful experience.
 
I like it too, though I don’t have first hand experience. I actually love that the pastor used this as a teaching moment for the rest of the parish on the licit elements for altar bread. 👍
 
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kmmd:
I quote from my parish bulletin dated November 20, 2005:

“In preparing the unleavened altar bread from wheat flour and water, children experience an age old tradition which with careful instruction ties the Mass to the Passover story of the Hebrew people and to the Passover meal Jesus shared with his disciples on the night before he died…altar bread will contain only wheat flour and water. No leavening or additional ingredients will be added. The bread will be consecrated into the Body and Blood of Christ and distributed only at this Mass…If you have questions concerning the Family Mass or any of its educational elements, I welcome and encourage you to personally speak to me…”

OK. I have concerns but I wanted to air them before a more sympathetic ear before I call.
  1. What about crumbs and the possible profanation of Jesus Christ?
  2. In your explanation of the passover meal, will you also make clear the passover sacrifice and how Jesus is the perfect sacrificial lamb?
  3. How does this help the children to appreciate these sacred mysteries and will it increase their believe in the real presence and their reverence for the Eucharist?
Any suggestions as to another approach, something I should leave out or add in?

Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...
This is wonderful. They are actually sticking to the wheat flour and water.

Be happy they are following the Church. Take it from someone who has had to dump more than one plate of what looked like tiny slices Sara Lee creamy-strawberry cake just before Mass so that I could re-fill the “gift bowl” with hosts.
 
…altar bread will contain only wheat flour and water. No leavening or additional ingredients will be added…
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I’ve heard it said that it’s easier to convince kids that it is the Body of Christ than that it is bread 🙂

All joking aside, we do the same thing in the Ad Altare Dei religious emblem program for Catholic Boy Scouts when we get to the chapter on the Eucharist.
 
All they are doing is baking bread. It is the right kind of bread with the right ingrediants. They then bring the bread as an offering to the Mass. I recently listened to Archbishop Fulton Sheen describe this ancient practice. (I think it was in the Life is Worth Living series).

The bread is not consecrated into the Body until the Mass. Then it is the priests duty to worry about the crumbs when he divides the Body.

This whole practice is very traditional because we are all supposed to bring something to the Mass. This is why the offering is taken immediately preceeding. This is also the point were we present our gifts and our entire bodies, souls, venial sins and worries. We mentally place them on the altar for the sacrifice.
 
In many Orthodox parishes (Orthodox Church) each week a different family bakes the bread that will be used at Liturgy. It is a very awesome idea.
 
In Redemptionis Sacramentum, It says the following:
Hosts should obviously be made by those who are not only distinguished by their integrity, but also skilled in making them and furnished with suitable tools. (No. 48)
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I should think that this would rule out altar bread made by children. Appealing to obedience in this parish gets one no where.

You see, I belong to a parish where we hear more about “community” than about Jesus. Family mass is a time to honor families, readings from the Children’s lectionary will be used (even though there will not be primarily children at the Mass), the children will do the readings, etc. I don’t know if they will do it this time, but in the past, the priest has invited the children to surround the altar during the consecration and to imitate his hand motions.

Most of the children who were involved in these activities 10 years ago, no longer attend Mass. So to say that it is meaningful to the kids, well it might be in some way, but not in one that solidifies their faith.
 
In my parish, we do not bake the altar breads, HOWEVER, we do something similar with our children.

We have an Easter Traditions Saturday where the children make the ARTOS, the Easter Paska that sits on the empty grave of Our Lord during Bright Week.

They also make their own smaller paska for their Easter basket along with a butter lamb and they also get to make a traditional Easter egg.

With each step, the kids are taught about symbolizm and tradition of what we are doing and why they should continue doing the same.

It’s worked for the last 8 yrs and looks like we’re gonna continue…
 
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