Growing Faith

Girls in white dresses and boys in dark suits, the children and young teens of Mary Immaculate parish in Pacoima lined up at the church door.

“I’m doing it because I’m a daughter of God,” said Denise Castellanos, 13, of Reseda.

After months of training, about 400 youngsters from 8 to 14 years of age gathered on a recent Saturday for the traditional First Communion Mass.

Each September, the church’s Religious Education Program begins classes that are held over 10 months to prepare parents and children for the ceremony, said Marina Interiano, the program’s director.

Each child and parent must make a verbal commitment that they will finish the classes, which are held at various homes.

There, the parents conduct Bible study sessions and hold social events for the children, Interiano said.

“Our emphasis is that the whole family commits themselves and after this process that they stay a family,” she said.

During the recent Saturday’s four Masses at the packed church, Father Thomas Rush once again reminded the children of the virtues of love and justice and, indeed, family.

“If we are going to receive our first Communion,” he said, “then we must receive the responsibility to live like a family.”

Then some of the children took to the altar themselves and recited prayers for other kids who, among other things, suffer from hunger and the trauma of divorce. They prayed for the Lord to guide their parents to be good Christians.

“We beg you, Lord,” each child said at the end of his or her prayer.

Outside afterward, they posed for photographs with their families before heading off to individual celebrations.

“We are Christians and we want [our children] to follow the same,” said Concha Uribe.

Said her daughter, Yasmin, 9, fresh out of the church: “I received God.”

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“Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.”

--Mark 10:14