Four Ways to Help Prepare Your Child for First Communion

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2. Real Presence. Friends are a high priority for your kids. Your children's experience of friendship can be a launching pad for talking about the Eucharist, the sacrament in which Christ is present to us and shares his life with us. Some possible lines for conversation are:

• "We like to be around friends, and our love for them grows when we're with them."

• "Jesus called us friends, and in the Eucharist he made it possible for us to be with him (see John 15:15)."

• "Jesus is really present in the Eucharist under the forms of bread and wine."

• "When we celebrate the Eucharist and spend time in Jesus' presence, our love for him grows."

3. Sacrifice. Christ's sacrifice on the cross was the offering of his Body and Blood to the Father as gifts for the salvation of the world. In the Eucharist, we offer the Father this gift of Jesus. It is the greatest gift we can give the Father, and we receive abundant blessings because of this. You can use the concept of gift giving to help your children understand the sacrificial element of the Eucharist. Here are some points to make:

• "We give gifts as a sign of our giving ourselves to people we love."

• "Friends like to share with us our gifts to them --like candy or toys--as a way of uniting themselves to us in love."

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