| 11. The principal parish program relating
to the sacrament of penance will take place for those who
are about ten years of age to prepare them for the celebration
of the individual (1st) rite of reconciliation.
With a couple
of years of experience a communal form of reconciliation,
a child of about ten years of age will be ready to make the
step to the individual rite. When readiness for this form
of the sacrament has been determined, each child is enrolled
in the parish program for sacramental preparation. The arrangements
for this sacramental preparation program would be similar to the sacramental
preparation for confirmation and first communion. It will include some sessions
for parents as well as activities for the children; elements of the program
could take place in the parish, in clusters of families meeting in home groups,
or within each family.
Locating the parish preparation at this point in the child's
religious journey has several advantages. It ensures that
the child is actually introduced to the individual rite of
penance. It enables the child to understand the sacrament
with a greater degree of moral maturity. It makes it clear
that penance is not a sacrament of Christian initiation and
keeps it separate from confirmation and first communion.
It gives the parish community an opportunity to engage with
the family - for evangelisation if necessary - some two or
three years after the parish preparation program for confirmation/eucharist.
Church documents insist on a distinct catechesis for penance
and eucharist, which are to be separated from each other
by a suitable period of time. There are sound educational
and pastoral reasons for this. If too closely linked, penance
will be seen simply as a necessary preparation for eucharist
and the value of the sacrament in its own right is lost.
Children may cease to celebrate the sacrament regularly because
they lack an appreciation of its unique contribution to their
spiritual life.
Children should be introduced to penance as a sacrament
in its own right, with its own purpose and value. This necessitates
a period of on-going experience of the sacrament supported
by suitable instruction. Only by being led carefully to prepare
for and celebrate penance regularly and over a lengthy period
can we hope to establish a genuine appreciation by the child
of this sacrament. The pattern established by the archdiocesan
policy will achieve this. |
