As confirmed Catholics we have an obligation to attend Sunday Mass and the other Holy Days of Obligation of the Church. This obligation allows us to use God's gift of our free will in obedience to the precepts of His Church. Sunday Mass is also an opportunity to join the community in worship. Peter and I have come to see the Mass as the time and place where our first faith community, the family, can join the larger faith community, our parish, in worship. A fourth reason relates more directly to how a child's faith develops.
Children learn by repetition, through consistency, and from example.
The candles, stained glass, and bright colours capture their attention and the weekly repetition gives them time to extract the full meaning from each movement, song, and prayer. With so much to learn in a busy childhood, a child will learn first what relates directly to his everyday life. When the Sunday Mass is part of their regular routine, children will learn in a lasting and significant way how to be Catholic. They also learn through repetition how to maintain the habit of weekly attendance, even when it's difficult or we have something we'd rather do. Mass. Of course, there are practical difficulties to attending Mass as a family.