First communion on a Saturday

[minncin]

Our parish has decided to offer First Communion during two masses this year, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. Our church gets really crowded on the First Communion Sunday and they are trying to alleviate the congestion. Also, some people have other family making their First Communion that day as well, so this way they can make it to all of them.
I’m torn because I really wanted my daughter to make her First Communion on Sunday, as is tradition, but the thought of doing it on Saturday is appealing because I would be able to invite everyone I want to be there and there would be room in the church.
Has anyone else had First Communion on a Saturday? What are your thoughts on it?

Thanks!
Cindy

 

[YADA]

"and the evening and the morning" make the day as our Hebrew roots would declare!

In the Liturgy of the Hours, there is no Saturday Evening Prayer , just Sunday Evening Prayer I. It seems in liturgical time Saturday is Sunday. But Sunday evening is not the beginning, we have Sunday Evening Praeyr II, we jsut have to party and celebrate the Easter of each week longer than 24 hours. After all, what does the clock understand about Death, Resurrection and Salvation!

I would have no reservations, invite your friends and family, celebrate this wonderful Sacrament.

 

[SMHW]

minncin:

Our parish has decided to offer First Communion during two masses this year, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. Our church gets really crowded on the First Communion Sunday and they are trying to alleviate the congestion. Also, some people have other family making their First Communion that day as well, so this way they can make it to all of them.
I’m torn because I really wanted my daughter to make her First Communion on Sunday, as is tradition, but the thought of doing it on Saturday is appealing because I would be able to invite everyone I want to be there and there would be room in the church.
Has anyone else had First Communion on a Saturday? What are your thoughts on it?

Thanks!
Cindy

Most everyone here who is older than 25 probably made his or her First Communion on a Saturday (assuming they were a child at the time.) That was the standard practice prior to the '90’s or thereabouts.

What I find a bit amusing is that many people, myself included, wanted our child to make his or her First Communion on a Sunday because we didn’t want the crowds. (Our parish has had the option for either Saturday or Sunday for the last 10 years or so.)

My thoughts are that it is somehow more appropriate to have a First Communion in the context of a Sunday Mass because it is a PARISH event, not a personal or family event. However, if you will have lots of guests and there is more room on Saturday, then perhaps that is the better choice. I know some people like to have parties or go out to brunch afterwards. They may prefer a certain First Communion day or time that best fits those plans.

 

[TableServant]

You didn’t specify, or I didn’t see, whether this was the Vigil Mass, which takes place Saturday evening, or during the Weekday Mass of Saturday, or a Mass only for the First Communicants.

If what we are speaking of is the Vigil Mass, then the Hebrew practice that YADA speaks of would come into play, here, in that the Vigil Mass is a Mass of the Day, i.e., the Vigil Mass on Saturday evening is a Sunday Mass.

Otherwise, you are not speaking of Sunday Mass, and, while I could understand the reasons for having the celebration on Saturday, I wouldn’t particularly like it.

Or, is it a preference for having First Holy Communion celebrated on Sunday as a calendar day? If that is the case, then I can’t advise you, as, again, the Church views the Saturday evening, or Vigil, Masses as Sunday celebrations.

Congratulations on your daughter’s First Holy Communion!

 

[minncin]

It will be during the Saturday evening Mass.
Thank you all for your perspectives. It has helped me a great deal.
Cindy

 

[netmilsmom]

minncin:

It will be during the Saturday evening Mass.
Thank you all for your perspectives. It has helped me a great deal.
Cindy

All God’s Blessings on your daughter.
Last year I was fighting tears all through my little girl’s.

Good Luck there Mommy!

 

[Kielbasi]

First communion on Saturday afternoon is old school, what was done back when I received first communion in the 60s.

Made more sense back in those days, as I was part of a class of a hundred kids, and with all of their relatives in attendance, to put first communion at an ordinary Sunday liturgy would make it harder for those ordinarily in attendance then.

I think with a much smaller class, it would probably be easier to have it at a regularly scheduled mass, but not in a huge parish.

 

[maryjk]

In my old parish, we had mass on Saturday, and two masses at that. There were over 75 children in second grade. I couldn’t imagine all the children, their parents, family and friends there during a regular Sunday mass. In my new parish, they do it in the afternoon on Mother’s Day, a Sunday. They have maybe 30.
I know that back in the 70’s I made mine on a Saturday. Then it was special the very next day to go up just like everyone else.

 

[Leslee68]

In my parish we have always had First Communion on a Saturday. There is absolutely no way we could have First Communions during a normal parish Mass. In fact this year we had to have four First Communion Masses and still had to bring out extra chairs/had people standing at the back at each Mass.

 

[asquared]

our school has its First Communion Mass on the Saturday afternoon after Easter, around 2-3 pm, they have about 40 communicants, with family the church is packed. We have about 120 for CCD, the children alone would fill 2/3 of the pews, so we give the parents the option of signing up for any weekend Mass (except noon, the most crowded) during the Easter Season, limit 10 families at each Mass, each family may have one pew reserved for child, parents, padrinos and other guests. Even then we get constant complaints. The preferred theology in most first Communion preparation resources provided in the past 20 years is that it be celebrated during the Sunday Eucharist, preferrably during the Easter season, and that the parent bring the child, not with the children separated from their families.

Since this entire area is filled with a lot of emotion centering on memories of “how it used to be” it is useful to have a reminder that the practice of 7 yr olds making first communion as a class is only about 100 years old, not an ancient tradition.