In addition to a “like” button, we need a “makes total sense” button!
Fr. Jeff, you are so right about the reason for the delay in Confirmation: reserving it to the Bishop makes sense; waiting till age 14 doesn’t.
The idea of raising the age of reason does give me a lot of pause. My parish is building our Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program, immersing the youngest children in liturgy and scripture. There is such a divine simplicity to the deepest truths of the faith, I think we really can help them to grasp their essence early on.
Of course, the age of reason is also linked to first confession. I’d be interested in hearing your experience with children’s grasp of the reflection necessary for that!
That's a good point. While I think we've all met kids who are precocious and understand the Eucharist very well, in the normal course of human development most kids don't develop abstract thinking skills until age 11 or 12. That matches my own experience. When working with first Holy Communion classes, there are always at least a couple kids that want to know how Jesus can fit in such a small box. That's a good indicator that they don't quite grasp the Eucharistic presence.
I'm not saying that kids younger than 10 *can't* demonstrate a sufficient faith in the Blessed Sacrament to receive it; I'm just saying that we shouldn't *assume* they're able to do so until they're 10 years old. (In fact, I actually encouraged a woman talk to her pastor about having her child receive Holy Communion before the normal time last year.)
In addition to a “like” button, we need a “makes total sense” button!
Fr. Jeff, you are so right about the reason for the delay in Confirmation: reserving it to the Bishop makes sense; waiting till age 14 doesn’t.
The idea of raising the age of reason does give me a lot of pause. My parish is building our Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program, immersing the youngest children in liturgy and scripture. There is such a divine simplicity to the deepest truths of the faith, I think we really can help them to grasp their essence early on.
Of course, the age of reason is also linked to first confession. I’d be interested in hearing your experience with children’s grasp of the reflection necessary for that!
That's a good point. While I think we've all met kids who are precocious and understand the Eucharist very well, in the normal course of human development most kids don't develop abstract thinking skills until age 11 or 12. That matches my own experience. When working with first Holy Communion classes, there are always at least a couple kids that want to know how Jesus can fit in such a small box. That's a good indicator that they don't quite grasp the Eucharistic presence.
I'm not saying that kids younger than 10 *can't* demonstrate a sufficient faith in the Blessed Sacrament to receive it; I'm just saying that we shouldn't *assume* they're able to do so until they're 10 years old. (In fact, I actually encouraged a woman talk to her pastor about having her child receive Holy Communion before the normal time last year.)