Yesterday was Crackerjack's last official CCD class before his First Holy Communion next month. All that's left is banner-making day and rehearsal. During this class, the kids were shown another movie, an animated video called "Maria's First Communion." It was simple and sweet. One thing that caught my attention in the short story was how Maria's family prayed for her every night for the month leading up to her special day. They lit her baptismal candle at dinner, and asked Christ to help her prepare to receive.
On the way home from class, I asked CJ if he'd like to do something like that in our family and the answer was a resounding, "Sure!" So before heading home, we swung into the craft store. We chose several sheets of felt for his banner (brought me right back to my 70s childhood, I tell you) and the materials to make a simple candleholder. He chose the colors and decorative details, and not surprisingly we ended up with a lot of red. :)
So today after we ate lunch (and after we mucked around outside looking under leaves - more on that later) we set down to craft.
Here are the few materials we gathered:
From left to right: unfinished wooden candleholders (we only needed one, but I couldn't get a smaller package; no worries - I'm sure we'll come up with some more projects), a package of stickers (CJ wanted doves to represent the Holy Spirit), a holy card (which we didn't end up using because I made something else), the baptismal candle, red paint and red glitter. (The red felt just served here as backdrop, but it will be put to use in the banner before too long.)
Here's my CJ at work. Please indulge me more than one shot. He worked so hard at this!
Peace be with you, CJ!
And here's how it all turned out:
On the right is the finished candle. We had to wrap a bit of paper towel around the base of the taper because it was loose inside. It's hard to see in the picture, but the candleholder is embellished fairly generously with glitter. That's m'boy!
This was a very easy, child-friendly craft. Perhaps you have your family baptismal candles handy and might invite your children to do the same? If not, you could purchase a taper, just special for your child - in his or her favorite color, of course. This candle would be lovely to use during quiet times of prayer or meditation.
I made the prayer card on the left. I used a prayer for a child's First Communion found in Let's Say Grace by Robert Hamma. I printed it out on white cardstock, cut it down to size, and added a picture of CJ (that's him just before class yesterday). I added a wheat sticker I happened to have on hand (symbolic, of course, of the Eucharist) and a few other stickers as well.
This simple craft will grace our family table and will remind us to pray for our dear Crackerjack's special intention - a blessed and holy First Communion - every night.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing our joy in our day! Have a great night!
