Introduction

by Don Maurizio Benzi

«On October 15 next, God willing, I shall hold a special meeting
in the Vatican of catechesis for children, in particular for those of Rome and Lazio who took their first communion this year»
(Pope Benedict XVI)

At the Angelus of Sunday 12 June Pope Benedict XVI, referring to the Eucharistic year «decided on by the beloved Pope John Paul II in order to stimulate increasing amazement in the minds of believers about this great Sacrament», reminded us that the Sunday mass «must be felt by Christians not as an imposition or a burden, but as a need and a joy». The Sunday mass is a beautiful thing for families («parents are called on to make known to their children the value and importance of the response to the invitation of Christ that summons the whole Christian family to Sunday mass») and for the parish («first communion, a real feast for the parish community, that welcomes its younger children to the table of the Lord for the first time»). Then, like a parish priest at the end of mass, the Pope went on to make an announcement: «On October 15 next, God willing, I shall hold a special meeting in the Vatican of catechesis for children, in particular for those of Rome and Lazio who took their first communion this year ».
In response to these indications we offer some thoughts from Saint John Bosco taken from The preventive system in the education of the young, a brief text (seven pages) of 1877.

Collated by Don Maurizio Benzi