John's First First Communion

Actually, it was his third. He attended two last year (1 at St. Patrick's in Carlsbad and 1 at St. Anastasia in Los Angeles), but he was still in Maureen's tummy at the time. Anywho, we had the great privilage to attend the First Communion at St. Brendan's yesterday. I liked the fact that it started on time and ended on time. Too many times, these ceremonies start and end late. I laud the efforts of the staff at St. Brendan's for keeping it on time. And, they didn't make sure that every child was involved in some way. Nothing annoys me more than a religious ceremony where all the kids have to participate. Back in my day, two kids did the readings, two kids did the petitions, and two kids took up the gifts.

We'll see if I have the same thing to say about St. Anastasia's ceremony next week. I already have one thing against the St. A's ceremony. They refer to it as a "First Eucharist". Maureen and I had a bit of an arguement about that yesterday. She doesn't know why, but she posited that it may be more liturgically correct to call it a "First Eucharist." I don't know about you, but I like to call it First Communion since that is what it is.

By the way, he didn't attend the ceremony in his jammies and try to eat his feet. Bonehead that I am, I didn't get any shots of him in his outfit. It was a navy blue Ralph Lauren polo shirt, a nice set of white pants, and matching white shoes. He looked like he belonged at the yacht club.