Pope urges careful preparation for First Communion

(April 23, 2012) Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday urged adults to prepare children for their first Holy Communion with love and reverence. The Pope’s exhortation came prior to his weekly midday ‘Regina Coeli’ prayer with a large crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square. Speaking to them from his studio window overlooking the square, the Holy Father noted that First Holy Communion is usually administered during Easter Season, and he urged “pastors, parents and catechists to prepare for this feast of faith well, with great fervour, but also with sobriety.” This day, he said, continues to be “memorable as the moment when they first came to understand the importance of a personal encounter with Jesus.” Christ promised the Church His continued presence in “the Word and the Eucharist,” the Pope said, reflecting on Sunday’s Gospel where Jesus appears to his disciples after appearing to two of them earlier on the way to Emmaus. The Pope observed that after showing them “very realistic signs” of Himself, Jesus helped the disciples “open up to the gift of faith” – which in turn helped them understand the things prophesied about Him in the scriptures. Even today, the Pope said, "the Saviour assures us of his real presence among us through the Word and the Eucharist". "He is still gifting us His peace and opens up life to happiness and invites us to become His witnesses to the ends of the earth, in our world marked by evil and suffering, pain and fear ", the Pope said.