I heard a story recently about a young Priest who was fielding questions during children’s Mass. One child asked the Priest why he bowed his head before he began to preach on Sunday. The priest answered, “I’m praying that the Lord will give me a good homily.” The child then asked, “Oh, then why doesn’t God answer your prayers?”
Well, let’s pray that God answers “our prayer” today.
Children let me share with you what I call “The Pancake Story.”
2 Brothers, Joe and Mike and coming downstairs for breakfast one day. Their mother is making pancakes and the boys start arguing over who will get the first pancake…
Mother sees this as a teachable moment and says, “boys, if Jesus was here today, he would say: ‘Let my brother have the first pancake.’”
With that Joey says to his brother Mikey, “Mikey – you be Jesus today!”
Children (of all ages), in today’s Gospel Jesus is praying for us to God the Father, that we will be like Jesus everyday. Jesus prays that we will come to know that we are loved by God and every time we receive Holy Communion, we are reminded that we a loved, that He cares about us, that he wants us to be His friend.
But you know, Jesus wants us to share His love with others by the way we live daily. Something we all can do every day that says to others: I love you… God loves you.
Boys and girls, I hope your parents have told you about their First Communion because it is day none of us should forget. (If not ask them later today to tell you.) Today is a special day, but so is every time we receive Communion. Jesus wants to be part of each of our lives. Please let Jesus into your life!
My thanks to everyone who has made this day possible: Parish Staf, Deacon Andy, Rachel Collet and the Faith Formation Teachers, the Parish Community, relatives and friends of our children, but especially parents – the first & best teachers of your children in the ways of life and the ways of faith. Please continue in your everyday living to witness to the love of God in your lives. Your child needs you to not only hope and pray that they will be a person of faith; your child needs you (and, in fact all of us) to be a person who lives their faith with them every day.