Brynn's First Communion/Dana's Birthday

A couple of Sundays ago we participated with Brynn in her First Communion Instruction at our church. We started out as a full group of fifth graders with their parents in the sanctuary singing some songs, watching videos of the pastors explaining what communion means to them and going through a booklet of questions about communion that the students had received to work on.

The next couple of hours after that were spent making Matzoh bread, decorating their own chalices and preparing charoset as part of the Seder meal that was to come later.

After the kids were done at each of the stations, we gathered in a large group again to take part in the Seder meal and so the students could learn how to receive the bread and wine during their first communion which would be on Maundy Thursday.

As you may already know, the Seder meal is a Passover meal like what was shared at the Last Supper. The different foods and beverage are served in phases as follows:

"Bitter Herbs" consisted of romaine lettuce and horseradish to remember the bitterness of slavery that the ancestors suffered in ancient Egypt and also to remember how our sins impact God.

Charoset, a mixture made of walnuts, apple, cinnamon, sugar and juice, represented the mortar made by Jewish slaves to hold together the bricks and stones of Egypt.

Parsley was dipped in salt water to remember the suffering of the Jewish people and the tears shed in Egypt.

Roasted lamb represented the lamb that the Jews sacrificed on the night of Passover as well as representing the lamb that was sacrificed for the forgiveness of their sins.

Matzoh bread, which is unleavened bread, represented the bread that God commanded the Jewish people to make before he delivered them out of Egypt (also referred to as Mannah.)

Each of the four cups of wine (in this case juice) meant "I will bring out, I will deliver, I will redeem and I will take." In Exodus (6:6-7) it says "I am the Lord and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being a slave to them and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God."

Each table was served bite-sized portions to get a taste of each of the components. I think Brynn and her friend (pictured in some of the photos with Brynn) liked the Matzoh bread the best. Everything was actually pretty good, I thought, except I'm not a fan of horseradish.

The church did a wonderful job of putting the instruction together and explaining what communion is, why we take part in it and what it means. It was a nice refresher on things for Dana and me and I particularly enjoyed the Seder meal. Brynn's communion booklet gave the recipes for the Maztoh bread and charoset as well as the entire explanation of the Seder meal, so I think it would be neat to make the components of the Seder meal on Maundy Thursday each year. We'll see if we hold to that idea!

The church posted this on their Instragram account on Thursday morning.

The fifth-graders took their first communion during the Maundy Thursday service. Again, Hope did a nice job of recognizing the students during the service and even had a little dessert reception after the service.

Brynn will start confirmation next fall and then will be confirmed at the end of her ninth grade year.

She received a tiny wooden chalice which she is holding in her hand below.

It was a very special day. We are so proud of Brynn and so happy to watch her grow in her faith.

I now thoroughly have this song stuck in my head and have for the past week or more. We sang it during the communion instruction, during the Maundy Thursday service, I heard it at Tessa and Chad's house over Easter and I saw a video that someone posted on Facebook from their Easter church service and I could hear it playing there too. It really is such a good song; I thought I'd share it here.