All I Really Need to Know About First Communion

by Eileen Marie Connor, OP
Adapted from Robert Fulghum’s Poem: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

All I really need to know about First Communion I learned from a Dominican Sister, my late aunt, Sister Peter Marie Behrens, OP. First Communion Wisdom is not at the top of the graduate school mountain, and attaining a Master’s Degree in theology but there in her “classroom” on visiting Sunday at her convent and when she came home to visit with me and my family. We learned how to practically apply the principles of First Communion Preparation that–in a nutshell are simply the words of Jesus to his disciples at the Last Supper: “Do this in memory of Me.”

• Practical integration of this Theology of First Communion can best be demonstrated in the following ways:
• Share everything
• Play fair
• Don’t hit people
• Put things back where you found them
• Clean up your own mess
• Don’t take things that aren’t yours
• Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody
• Warm chocolate chip cookies and a good cup of hot chocolate—provided by your First Communion teacher—is a great way to begin your religion class; some of us need this type of motivation so that we can learn!

Knowing these principles empowers you to live a balanced life—learn some, think some, and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some!

Take any one of these concepts and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your community or family life, or your work or government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all—the whole world empowered one another to live a balanced life—learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some—as my aunt did!

And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together!   And as Jesus said: “For wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them…”