Dinner at home can be an education in the Eucharist says husband and wife team.
By Karen and Derek Boylen
Having dinner together in the Boylen household doesn’t happen without the usual amount of chaos. Children are hungry, Daddy walks through the door welcomed by a frazzled wife trying to get the last parts of dinner prepared whilst keeping the starving masses from raiding the pantry cupboard. We all sit down, a bit quieter, in anticipation of a yummy dinner.
We say grace and then begin to eat. We talk about the best parts of our day, which sometimes results in laughter or arguments about who gets to claim a particular part of the day as their ‘best’. We discuss something we learned during the day or about an item of news that daddy brings up. We encourage the children (and ourselves!) to use courtesy and manners with their family. We come together as family to nourish our bodies and celebrate our unity.
Celebrating the Eucharist begins at home in moments of everyday life. The basis of Eucharist is, in essence, eating together as a family. We realise our communion with each other as we share our ‘daily bread’. We give thanks to God and ask him to bless our food and lives.
Sometimes we may have an uncut loaf of bread that we cut and share on the table, sometimes it is a bowl of salad that we pass around, sometimes it is a jug of water. We sometimes light a candle to remind us of Jesus’ presence. In these small ways we teach our children about Eucharist, when we invite Jesus to be part of our family meal. Preparation for Eucharist often begins when children are preparing to receive their first Holy Communion; however, moments of communion are present in our lives every day.
Another opportunity to bring the Eucharist alive for our family is when we hold or attend celebrations; birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas and Easter. These celebrations are important to us because they create space for us to talk to our children about the Mass and Eucharist.
At these times we talk to them about choosing and giving gifts, about sharing in cake and food, about creating memories which unite, about the joy we share. Just as we regularly celebrate all kinds of events, the Mass is our regular, weekly, celebration of faith and has many of the same characteristics.
Our regular family celebrations give us plenty of opportunities to explore with our children various dimensions of the Mass. The Mass is a celebration, we come together in joyful hope, we come together as a Catholic family, we offer God our gifts, we remember Christ’s loving sacrifice, we share in the Body of Christ; a sacred meal.
Attending Mass together, as a family, is the pinnacle of our Eucharist experience. We are participating in our Catholic family meal and celebration. We can point out parts of the Mass which relate to our children’s life experience.
Preparing our children for the Eucharist is in essence preparing them to be part of the Body of Christ. When a person receives the Body of Christ at Mass they are saying “YES.” They are saying yes to Christ and yes to being in communion with the Church; Christ’s body. When we gather as a family for dinner and celebrations, we are also saying yes. Yes to each other and yes to belonging.