By Fr. Frederick Edlefsen

Today is Good Shepherd Sunday. Our second graders will receive First Holy Communion at the 10:00 AM Mass and crown Mary – Queen of the May – with flowers. First Communion for our Hispanic children will be next Sunday at the Spanish Mass. These children are God’s garden. They are like a cantaloupe patch with eyes. Isaiah calls them God’s vineyard.

“Let me sing now for my Beloved

A song of my Beloved concerning his vineyard.

My Beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hill” (Isaiah 5:1).

We must tend this vineyard. We must also receive every Communion like it’s our first and last Communion. Earth and heaven come together in this happy encounter at every Mass.

Second grade is a good time for First Communion. Kids are entering the “Age of Reason,” beginning to grasp right and wrong. It’s an age of discovery but without the seriousness. In my opinion, they are entering the “golden years” of ages eight and nine. Play is learning. Learning is play. It’s an age of primeval rationality, curiosity, imagination – an innocent romance with adventure and discovery. Carl Schmitt, an American artist, said childhood is not just a preparation for adult life but “a thing unique and complete in itself – a masterpiece of God.”

“Nascantur in admiratione.” “Let them be born in wonder,” goes the old saying. Learning begins with delight. Delight leads to wonder. Wonder is God’s invitation to a love which leads to wisdom. Golden-age kids are becoming capable of loyal friendship, including with Jesus. Jesus stories provoke imaginations to learn about God and Creation. Miracles, angels, saints, Bible stories, art, music, poems, and prayers feed children’s maturing souls and imaginations. We humans must know the rhymes before the reasons.

Our children have received Christ’s Body and Blood. Teach them to live and love in the grace they receive. Form their hearts in the beauty of Catholic faith and morals. “Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, watching over them…” (1 Peter 5:2).

“The only cure for sagging or fainting faith is Communion. Though always Itself, perfect and complete and inviolate, the Blessed Sacrament does not operate completely and once for all in any of us. Like the act of Faith it must be continuous and grow by exercise” (J.R.R. Tolkien).