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Number of pews reserved for each first communicant: 1
Number of pews in church: 54
Number of first communicants: 52
(I really hope the rest of the families in the parish are aware of this situation, because I'm afraid it's going to get ugly at about 10:35 AM.)
UPDATE: Milo's godfather suggests "helmet cam" as a means of getting the communion photo.
I suppose that’s why round here they often do first communions on Saturdays. That way all the extended family can come and it doesn’t disrupt Sunday Mass.
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We had first communion last Saturday, and showed up an hour and a half early to get a pew near the front… I wish first communions were spaced through the year.
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Our parish seems to have tried several different tactics over the years, from scheduling a special extra First Communion mass, to dividing the communicants up and spreading them across more than one of the weekend masses.
I appreciate the difficulties of the logistics involved, but I really hope that last week the congregation was warned so that they know to avoid the 11 AM mass if they possibly can. (We were out of town last week so I don’t know if an announcement went out from the pulpit. I just checked last week’s bulletin PDF, and the only notation is “Mass/First Communion” on the weekly schedule.)
And I’m not saying this because the regular parishioners will cramp my style, but because there will be a lot of people standing, and I feel sorry for them! The first communicants and their families and guests have reserved pews, and everybody else can only fill in where there happens to be room here and there.
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Hee. Well, we have the same problem. 35 first communicants in a church that seats 130–that’s about 10 rows of seats with 12 chairs each and a few benches in the back. Each First Communicant gets six reserved seats and that’s it. So we spread them out over different Masses. We wouldn’t even be able to get them all in the church if we tried to do it all at once. 🙂
Have fun.
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We WERE warned, in a clear but playful tone by Fr. D. that the 11:00 Mass would be full-to-bursting of First Communicants.
Which is fine by us.
And which is why we’re attending the 9:00 a.m. Mass!
(Plus we need to get to confession and those are only offered at that time.)
Also, I must disagree respectfully with Mrs. Darwin. I LOVE the First Communion Mass–the music, the majesty, the collective sense that this beautiful group of almost-innocent souls are going up to Him for The Very First Time.
You can see by the way I’m waxing poetic…but even better yet, you will see for yourself today.
My prayers are with your family & especially with Milo. Give him my best!
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How was it, logistically?
We had 43 First Communicants, but they have to share 3 families per pew, which I suppose is enough for parents and godparents or parents and a few siblings. Beyond that, it’s a fight for seats in the back 3/4th of the church. We arrived 15 minutes before Mass and got the back row of the Marian chapel. Thankfully, my husband didn’t sing in choir so we had a 2:3 adult: child ratio on a day when Mass took an extra 20 minutes.
I felt bad for a family we know from school who are members at your church who must have come to our church to avoid First Communion, but ended up squeezed into the side somewhere when they arrived at 9:58. So much for thinking ahead!
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I didn’t notice any problems, but then, I had a reserved pew!
They reserve one pew per communicant and tell us that we have to be in it early. A few minutes before Mass the ushers would fill people in where there weren’t many. The family in front of us took up their whole pew and half of ours.
A lot of people stood in the back and sat downstairs where there is a closed-circuit TV projection of the Mass, I hear.
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