First Holy Communion - September 2017

First Holy Communion
ST. IGNATIUS PARISH
17th September 2017


I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
– John 6:51
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The bread of life... The cup of joy...
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Remembrance of Our First Holy Communion 17th September 2017
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Message from Fr. John Dunn
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I t is with great pleasure that I introduce this wonderful Album
of photos of the First Communion of these children from St Ignatius’ Parish in 2017.
I thank Gina, Jenny and Holly and all their helpers for the gift of their love, time and commitment to the children.
I thank, too, all the parents and those others who played a role in the children’s journey to full membership of the Church in First Communion.
Thank you, Warren, for taking the photos with such skill and combining them into a memorable album.
Above all, I pray that the children may remember their journey to First Communion with gratitude and nd in their communion with Jesus Christ the source and goal of a beautiful and loving Catholic life.
Fr. John Dunn Parish Priest
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Messages from
our dear co-ordinators gina, jenny & holly
I feel so privileged to be a part of your faith journey this year as you prepared for the Sacraments of Reconciliation, Con rmation and Eucharist. As you prepared for these Sacraments you developed your
understanding of :
• forgiveness and reconciliation and learnt about the Ripples of Love and Hurt and how you can make a difference in the daily lives of everyone around you.
• how the Holy Spirit is powerful and that no one can control the Holy Spirit, just like releasing the balloon lled with air, we cannot direct or tell the Holy Spirit where to go. Being open to the gifts of the spirit; courage, reverence, wisdom, understanding, right judgment, wonder & awe, knowledge.
• how Jesus nourishes us when we hear the gospel and receive Jesus in the Eucharist. God accepts us as we are when we come to Mass and we learnt how we all feel, hear and see differently from each other, so when Jesus speaks to us in the Gospel we all take away different messages to help and support us on our life’s journey. When we receive Jesus and say “Amen” we are saying “Yes” we believe and “Yes” we will be “Christ-like” in our lives through our words and actions.
We are so blessed to have each other and it has been an amazing team effort .
Children, the effort and thoughtful responses you put into your homework modules was awesome. Reading through all your responses brought me so much joy and gave me an insight into the beautiful hearts and gifts you have. The pinnacle was seeing you all receiving Jesus for the rst time – you were all so excited and happy.
Your Parents gave priority to your faith journey, making time at home to guide and encourage you in completing your homework modules, bringing you to the sessions & mass.
Parent Group Leaders were committed to the new programme format, preparing themselves prior to the sessions and leading the small groups with lots of energy and knowledge.
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Jenny & Holly are passionate about helping you all learn in a way that is fun, interactive and meaningful. They spent hours brain-storming how to deliver the learning in a creative and fun way.
Father John is our Shepherd who leads us with integrity, gentleness, immense knowledge and understanding of the teachings of Jesus. He spent many hours with your parents, guiding and supporting their role as your rst teachers of faith.
A HUGE thank you to everyone involved in your journey and I leave you with ....
“Love grows when you share it, so Love God, Love yourself so you can Love others and Love Life”
God Bless you today and always.
- GINA
T amariki, it has been a privilege to share our gifts with you and being part of your faith journey – thank you.
St Ignatius is your parish, your home. We want you to feel welcome in this place, your place.
As you grow, you will experience many of life’s joys and challenges and Church will always be yours to come and spend time with your friend Jesus.He is always here and we are here to welcome you always with open arms.
I hope today you feel the presence of God’s loving arms wrapped around you as you join in unity with this faith community.
- JENNY
S uch a pleasure to get to know these beautiful children during the sacramental programme sessions.
- HOLLY
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Prepararations for the Eucharist
The groups discussed the following topics:
“What would our world look and feel like if we all shared our gifts generously with each other?”
“What can we do in our lives every day to make a difference?”
“In what way can you share your gifts to help others?”
Using colour, words and illustrations, our parent helpers created the children’s re ection of how our world would look and feel like.
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Eucharist Session 1 Activity on“Our Gifts”


The main theme was that we all see, hear and feel different....we used a few activities to highlight this
• Feelings on post-it notes and that God accepts us as we are
• Children looked at 3 different images and had to write down what they
saw (they all saw different things)
• They were given a word to write into a sentence
(There, Wood, Sea...) Of course they used different
forms of this this word to create their sentence.
• They were given a gospel to read and write down
what message they thought Jesus was giving us.
The children re-enacted the Last Supper by gathering around the meal table with a child acting as Jesus sitting in front of the bread.
The child acting as Jesus washed everyone’s feet.
The children were asked “What do you think Jesus was teaching us by washing the feet of his disciples?”
Jesus said “We are here to treat each other with the same love and respect.”
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Eucharist Session 2 Activity on“Feelings”
Eucharist Session 3
Activity on“Washing of Feet”


Grace Buxton
Receiving Jesus for the First Time
My gifts are...creativity and inventions and making people happy
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Gretel Ward
My gifts are...being kind and funny
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Christopher Hoy
Receiving Jesus for the First Time
My gifts are...considering others and being kind
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Lily Sutton
My gifts are...Kindness And Empathy
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Luca Gibbon
Receiving Jesus for the First Time
My gifts are...sharing my knowledge about things I know about with other people
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Stella Gordon
My gifts are...being helpful, a good listener and a supporter to family and friends
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Phoebe Dodd
Receiving Jesus for the First Time
My gifts are...very good to younger children and the gift of making people laugh.
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Sasha Gibbon
My gifts are...seeing the good in other people and making them smile
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Layla Dyer
Receiving Jesus for the First Time
My gifts are...making people laugh and reading books to other people
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Tyler de Reuck
My gifts are...being inclusive of others and sense of fun
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Adam Wilson
Receiving Jesus for the First Time
My gifts are...making people laugh & helping others without being asked to
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Ruby Topp
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Madison Brown
Receiving Jesus for the First Time
My gifts are...being kind and helping others
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Gracie McGuinness-Price
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Lola Good
Receiving Jesus for the First Time
My gifts are...being generous, kind and thoughtful to others
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Scarlett Henderson
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James Vettori
Receiving Jesus for the First Time
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Cormac Driver
My gifts are...creativity and thoughtfulness
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Thomas Lees
Receiving Jesus for the First Time
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Felix Littlejohn
My gifts are...Always trying my best in everything, and helping others
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Alice Cussins
Receiving Jesus for the First Time
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Madison Hay
My gifts are...being kind and generous
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Cohen Faitaua
Receiving Jesus for the First Time
My gifts are...understanding and peacemaker
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Emily Griffiths
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Sofia Leon
Receiving Jesus for the First Time
My gifts are...compassionate to animals and kindness
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Ava Ryall
My gifts are...perseverance & being brave
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Isabella Ensor
Receiving Jesus for the First Time
My gifts are...sharing happiness and caring for animals
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Lucy Ponsonby
My gifts are... being peaceful and generous
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Evelyn Pryde
Receiving Jesus for the First Time
My gifts are...making people laugh and helping people solve their problems
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Elin Rush
My gifts are...kindness and singing
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Trudie Rush
Receiving Jesus for the First Time
My gifts are...being caring and playing netball
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Isla Arnold
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Mia Clarke
Receiving Jesus for the First Time
My gifts are...being happy and being gentle with animals
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Leo Morrison
My gifts are...Empathy and Humour
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Reid Anderson
Receiving Jesus for the First Time
My gifts are...empathy for others and being caring
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Kobi Conroy
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Lucas Anderson
Receiving Jesus for the First Time
My gifts are...I am giving and unsel sh
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Kyran Fernandes
My gifts are...being happy and making others happy
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Maximiliano Serrano
Receiving Jesus for the First Time
My gifts are... joyful, caring and happy
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