F E AT U R E
BAPTISM
RECONCILIATION
EUCHARIST
CONFIRMATION
MARRIAGE
HOLY ORDERS
ANOINTING OF THE SICK
TIME TO RETHINK THE SACRAMENTS? EVERY YEAR CHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILIES CELEBRATE FIRST COMMUNION AND CONFIRMATION, YET ONLY A SMALL NUMBER REMAIN CONNECTED WITH THEIR PARISH AFTERWARDS. PERHAPS IT IS TIME TO SHIFT THE FOCUS FROM TEACHING FAITH TO EXPERIENCING IT BY CHRISTINA MALONE
A
s I’m writing this it is the beginning of May, and parishes all around Ireland are getting ready for the season of First Holy Communions and Confirmations. It’s no secret that preparation for these celebrations takes up a lot of time and energy in the calendar of schools, parishes and families. In the preceding months, people in parish ministry often gather the families who are preparing with their children for these sacraments and talk about the ‘three-legged stool’. This image describes how faith is handed on through schools, families and parishes, working t o g e t h e r w h i l e a l w ay s remembering that parents are their children’s first teachers. In recent years, that stool has been ‘wobbling’. Schools are doing their best. Parishes are trying to catch up, and families do everything they can to make sure the day is one to remember. Over the past 20 years I have come across
20 REALITY JULY/AUGUST 2022
different models and programmes to prepare for the sacraments, from Do This In Memory to Faith Friends, from The Bridge to Called by Name. These programmes have tried to be as inspirational and engaging as possible to reach out to families. And still, experience shows, many won’t return or stay connected after the day of celebration. It is a graduation model of initiation, which raises questions about why children are not returning to us after the sacraments. We’ve had programme after programme, yet many in church ministry are wondering: why are the nets still empty (Jn 21:6)? In a homily at his installation as bishop of Galway, Bishop Michael Duignan spoke about “threshold moments” for the Irish church. The reality is that the church is going through big changes and the effect, he said, is that the church as we know it is crumbling. There is clear evidence of this
