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| "Do This in Memory" |
You are here, and you're gathered here in the special place around the altar, because you're preparing for your first holy Communion. Isn't that right?
I'm sure that your parents and your Teacher in school have been teaching you to say "Thank You", haven't they? Why do we say "Thank You"?
We say "Thank You" when we are given a present. When we sit down for dinner, we thank the person who prepared the meal, and the person who laid the table. We say "Thank You" when a person does something nice for us, or when they give us something nice. Isn't that what we have been taught to do? We always thank somebody, don't we?
Who can you think of that you say "Thank You" to? Our Mums. Of course. And our Dads? Yes. To Granny and Grandad. If we have sisters and brothers and they show us something, or give us something, or do something nice for us. Our friends and neighbours, on the football pitch, in the school yard or at the playground. No matter where we are, we always say "Thanks", don't we?
There's someone else that we say "Thank You" to very often, but its easy to forget. Who is that, do you think? I'll give you a hint: we come here to Church to say this special "Thank You".
That's right, we come to Church to say "Thank You" to God. But, what do we have to say "Thanks" to God for? God doesn't give us things like our Mum & Dad do, or even the extra nice things that Granny and Grandad might give us sometimes. No, God gave us something far more important than nice things. God gave us life itself. God also gave us the earth to live in and to share with other people. And finally, God loved us so much that he asked his own Son, Jesus, to die for us. He asked Jesus to die on the Cross, so that all of us could live forever.
So we come here to Church to say "Thank You" to God for all the things that God has done for us, especially for giving us his Son, Jesus. Can you imagine what God must feel like when we come to Church to say thanks to him? To say thanks to God for giving us his Son? I'm sure that it makes him very happy when we come to Church, to give thanks.
Does anyone know what we call the time that we come to Church every week? I'll give you a hint, it begins with M...
Mass! That's right!
There's another word that we can use instead of 'Mass'. It's kind of a fancy word. I don't expect you to know it. It is a word that a lot of the adults here will have heard before, but they might forget what it means. This other word that we use for Mass is "Eucharist". Spell it with me: E-U-C-H-A-R-I-S-T = Eucharist. It's a greek word. Greek was a very important language when Jesus walked on the earth, so the Greek language is very important in the family of Jesus. Its probably even more important than the English and Irish language that we use all the time.
So, this fancy greek word: "Eucharist" means "Thanksgiving" in English. "Eucharist" then is a word that we can use instead of "Mass", and "Eucharist" is a word that also means "Communion". So, when we come to Mass, we are coming to celebrate the "Eucharist", which is the most important way that we have of saying "Thank You" to God. This way of saying "Thank You" means that we become really big buddies with God. And God becomes really big buddies with us. That is what "Communion" means: we become thankful friends of God, thankful friends of Jesus.
Have you ever forgot to say "Thank You" to somebody? What happened? So, just like that, we try to remember to say "Thank You" to God. And, just in case we might forget, God asks us to say "Thank You" in this special way, once a week, every Sunday, here in the Church. We call this "Sunday Mass" or "Sunday Eucharist", or even "Sunday Thanksgiving", and that is what we're doing here, right now.
So, now I want you to go back to where your parents are because we're going to continue on with our Sunday Thanksgiving to God.
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