CATECHETICAL MEETING OF THE HOLY FATHER
WITH CHILDREN WHO HAD RECEIVED
THEIR FIRST COMMUNION DURING THE YEAR
St Peter's Square
Saturday, 15 October 2005
CATECHESES OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
1. Andrea
Dear Pope, what are your
memories of your First Communion day?
I would first like to say
thank you for this celebration of faith that you are offering to me,
for your presence and for your joy. I greet you and thank you for
the hug I have received from some of you, a hug that, of course,
symbolically stand for you all.
As for the question, of
course I remember my First Communion day very well. It was a lovely
Sunday in March 1936, 69 years ago. It was a sunny day, the church
looked very beautiful, there was music.... There were so many
beautiful things that I remember. There were about 30 of us, boys
and girls from my little village of no more than 500 inhabitants.
But at the heart of my
joyful and beautiful memories is this one - and your spokesperson
said the same thing: I understood that Jesus had entered my heart,
he had actually visited me. And with Jesus, God himself was with me.
And I realized that this is a gift of love that is truly worth more
than all the other things that life can give.
So on that day I was really
filled with great joy, because Jesus came to me and I realized that
a new stage in my life was beginning, I was 9 years old, and that it
was henceforth important to stay faithful to that encounter, to that
communion. I promised the Lord as best I could: "I always want to
stay with you", and I prayed to him, "but above all, stay with me".
So I went on living my life like that; thanks be to God, the Lord
has always taken me by the hand and guided me, even in difficult
situations.
Thus, that day of my First
Communion was the beginning of a journey made together. I hope that
for all of you too, the First Communion you have received in this
Year of the Eucharist will be the beginning of a lifelong friendship
with Jesus, the beginning of a journey together, because in walking
with Jesus we do well and life becomes good.
2. Livia
Holy Father, before the day
of my First Communion I went to confession. I have also been to
confession on other occasions. I wanted to ask you: do I have to go
to confession every time I receive Communion, even when I have
committed the same sins? Because I realize that they are always the
same.
I will tell you two things.
The first, of course, is that you do not always have to go to
confession before you receive Communion unless you have committed
such serious sins that they need to be confessed. Therefore, it is
not necessary to make one's confession before every Eucharistic
Communion. This is the first point. It is only necessary when you
have committed a really serious sin, when you have deeply offended
Jesus, so that your friendship is destroyed and you have to start
again. Only in that case, when you are in a state of "mortal" sin,
in other words, grave (sin), is it necessary to go to confession
before Communion. This is my first point.
My second point: even if, as
I said, it is not necessary to go to confession before each
Communion, it is very helpful to confess with a certain regularity.
It is true: our sins are always the same, but we clean our homes,
our rooms, at least once a week, even if the dirt is always the
same; in order to live in cleanliness, in order to start again.
Otherwise, the dirt might not be seen but it builds up. Something
similar can be said about the soul, for me myself: if I never go to
confession, my soul is neglected and in the end I am always pleased
with myself and no longer understand that I must always work hard to
improve, that I must make progress. And this cleansing of the soul
which Jesus gives us in the Sacrament of Confession helps us to make
our consciences more alert, more open, and hence, it also helps us
to mature spiritually and as human persons. Therefore, two things:
confession is only necessary in the case of a serious sin, but it is
very helpful to confess regularly in order to foster the cleanliness
and beauty of the soul and to mature day by day in life.
3. Andrea
In preparing me for my First
Communion day, my catechist told me that Jesus is present in the
Eucharist. But how? I can't see him!
No, we cannot see him, but
there are many things that we do not see but they exist and are
essential. For example: we do not see our reason, yet we have
reason. We do not see our intelligence and we have it. In a word: we
do not see our soul and yet it exists and we see its effects,
because we can speak, think and make decisions, etc. Nor do we see
an electric current, for example, yet we see that it exists; we see
this microphone, that it is working, and we see lights. Therefore,
we do not see the very deepest things, those that really sustain
life and the world, but we can see and feel their effects. This is
also true for electricity; we do not see the electric current but we
see the light.
So it is with the Risen
Lord: we do not see him with our eyes but we see that wherever Jesus
is, people change, they improve. A greater capacity for peace, for
reconciliation, etc., is created. Therefore, we do not see the Lord
himself but we see the effects of the Lord: so we can understand
that Jesus is present. And as I said, it is precisely the invisible
things that are the most profound, the most important. So let us go
to meet this invisible but powerful Lord who helps us to live well.
4. Giulia
Your Holiness, everyone
tells us that it is important to go to Mass on Sunday. We would
gladly go to it, but often our parents do not take us because on
Sundays they sleep. The parents of a friend of mine work in a shop,
and we often go to the country to visit our grandparents. Could you
say something to them, to make them understand that it is important
to go to Mass together on Sundays?
I would think so, of course,
with great love and great respect for your parents, because they
certainly have a lot to do. However, with a daughter's respect and
love, you could say to them: "Dear Mommy, dear Daddy, it is so
important for us all, even for you, to meet Jesus. This encounter
enriches us. It is an important element in our lives. Let's find a
little time together, we can find an opportunity. Perhaps there is
also a possibility where Grandmom lives". In brief, I would say,
with great love and respect for your parents, I would tell them:
"Please understand that this is not only important for me, it is not
only catechists who say it, it is important for us all. And it will
be the light of Sunday for all our family".
5. Alessandro
What good does it do for our
everyday life to go to Holy Mass and receive Communion?
It centre's life. We live
amid so many things. And the people who do not go to church, do not
know that it is precisely Jesus they lack. But they feel that
something is missing in their lives. If God is absent from my life,
if Jesus is absent from my life, a guide, an essential friend is
missing, even an important joy for life, the strength to grow as a
man, to overcome my vices and mature as a human being.
Therefore, we cannot
immediately see the effects of being with Jesus and of going to
Communion. But with the passing of the weeks and years, we feel more
and more keenly the absence of God, the absence of Jesus. It is a
fundamental and destructive incompleteness. I could easily speak of
countries where atheism has prevailed for years: how souls are
destroyed, but also the earth. In this way we can see that it is
important, and I would say fundamental, to be nourished by Jesus in
Communion. It is he who gives us enlightenment, offers us guidance
for our lives, a guidance that we need.
6. Anna
Dear Pope, can you explain
to us what Jesus meant when he said to the people who were following
him: "I am the bread of life?".
First of all, perhaps we
should explain clearly what bread is. Today, we have a refined
cuisine, rich in very different foods, but in simpler situations
bread is the basic source of nourishment; and when Jesus called
himself the bread of life, the bread is, shall we say, the initial,
an abbreviation that stands for all nourishment. And as we need to
nourish our bodies in order to live, so we also need to nourish our
spirits, our souls and our wills. As human persons, we do not only
have bodies but also souls; we are thinking beings with minds and
wills. We must also nourish our spirits and our souls, so that they
can develop and truly attain their fulfilment.
And therefore, if Jesus
says: "I am the bread of life", it means that Jesus himself is the
nourishment we need for our soul, for our inner self, because the
soul also needs food. And technical things do not suffice, although
they are so important. We really need God's friendship, which helps
us to make the right decisions. We need to mature as human beings.
In other words: Jesus nourishes us so that we can truly become
mature people and our lives become good.
7. Adriano
Holy Father, they've told us
that today we will have Eucharistic Adoration. What is it? How is it
done? Can you explain it to us? Thank you.
We will see straightaway
what adoration is and how it is done, because everything has been
properly prepared for it: we will say prayers, we will sing, kneel,
and in this way we will be in Jesus' presence.
But of course, your question
requires a deeper answer: not only how you do adoration but what
adoration is. I would say: adoration is recognizing that Jesus is my
Lord, that Jesus shows me the way to take, and that I will live well
only if I know the road that Jesus points out and follow the path he
shows me.
Therefore, adoration means
saying: "Jesus, I am yours. I will follow you in my life, I never
want to lose this friendship, this communion with you". I could also
say that adoration is essentially an embrace with Jesus in which I
say to him: "I am yours, and I ask you, please stay with me always".
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