Monday, May 1, 2017

First Communion


Many years ago, I attended the first communion party of a little girl who went to our church.  It was a delightful party--house crammed with people, children rolling around on the floors, animated conversation everywhere, excellent food.  There was a pretty, homemade coconut cake, and the dress worn by the first communicant was made of ivory silk and sewn by her mother.  It was what a Catholic party should be--joyful and unfussy, but with plenty of personal touches!

I long hoped that we would make Maria's first communion a similarly well-feted event.   After all, first communion is a pivotal moment in the story of a soul, and it's fitting that it should be celebrated in a big way.   But reality has a way of paring down our plans.  Between having a newborn and having a stomach bug hit our house this past week, I had doubts that we would even make it to the mass.

But we did make it, and so did our very dear friends, James, Dominic, and Imelda.  Having them there meant a great deal to us.  It was a beautiful service. Tears were shed.

We went home for  a festal family meal of baked beans, bacon, blackberries, and cornbread.  Maria requested the cornbread in lieu of cake.  I was happy to comply!

Maria spent her afternoon listening to the audiobook of The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict and gave no appearance pining for a party.  Hopefully, we'll have a party later, but today, it was lovely to just have the first communion.
The flower crown was a project of this morning.  The greenery and small flowers came from our yard, and the rest came from a $4 Aldi's bouquet.  I love that our humble yard violets found their way into the crown. Violets remind me of St. Therese.

Evidently, wearing white is contagious.



It's frivolous, but I'm so pleased with Maria's dress!  It came via Amazon from a company in Singapore where they make dresses to order.  The first time she tried it on, Maria complained that having such a high neckline was uncomfortable.  I tried to resign myself to the idea that Maria would wear the "backup" dress that I had found at a thrift store and bought in case the dress from the Orient failed to arrive in time.  But when I asked her which dress she would wear this morning, she said "the long one."  Her initial reaction was probably just nerves and contrariness.  Our biggest girl does not like primping and fussing!  I'm grateful she changed her mind.