A Conversation About the Last Supper and Eucharist with Hispanic Teens

Wednesday's Confirmation class (Eucharist and Mass Part II) went even better than I hoped the kids seemed honestly interested and engaged - they even asked a lot of questions. My plan was liturgical catechesis on the Mass as meal and sacrifice from Scripture.    We sat in a circle and started with the scripture story of the Last Supper from Luke.  Side by side with the Bible, I had them looking at the full text of the Mass, English on one side, Spanish on the other (since they all go to Spanish Mass).

We read the story - and we talked about the events of the Passover as background. We pulled out phrases that were similar in the Last Supper story and matched them to phrases in the Mass.  As we talked through the details of the Passion and connected it to Jesus' sacrifice, they seemed genuinely intrigued by the story.  I found that they did indeed have many of the pieces, but that most of them have never connected them.... and certainly never fully connected them to the Mass. (I think we are going to have a lot of fun when it gets to be Lent and Passiontide - I can really see this group wanting to act out the Stations.)

They learned that those plaques on the wall in church with the crosses (the Stations) are connected to the story of Jesus' last moments, that everything we do in the liturgy of the Eucharist is connected to that story - and I think they finally put some pieces together...  best discussion yet!

I am a bit sad I won't see them next week (have a work commitment and I have gotten my aide to sub for the Sacrament of Penance lesson.)  But we will be back together soon.