I haven’t been to many First Communions. I became Catholic as an adult, as did my brother John, so I didn’t grow up with the sacrament, nor did I have many Catholic friends whose children passed through this stage. From this limited experience, I understood that this typically occurs outside of a regular Sunday mass. Not so at Our Lady of Perpetual Help here in Toronto. The children receiving for the first time did so during mass with their families, with no other to-do than an acknowledgement of the importance of the day in the homily, a brief assembly at the front of the church, and a request that the children process out of the church first for photo op immediately after mass on the front steps of the church. The priest spoke about the reason for this: that the children are becoming part of a larger community and that while this is an important step in their lives, it is something that they do together with the body of Christ in the Church. John’s eldest son Jack went through this with his classmates this morning. After the service we convened to their home for lunch with family and friends. A snap of Jack with my men: