How to Explain the Eucharist to Children

History of the Eucharist

This diving into the story of the Exodus could take place over a span of time : from 5-7 years of age. There is no rush, and it will simply be a matter of watching short videos or films of the story of the Exodus. Once our children have a good grounding in what the Exodus meant and the Passover meal used to celebrate it, we can then gently lead them to the Last Supper: which was the last Passover meal that Jesus ever celebrated. All you need to do is to show them an appropriate video once or twice a year (more if they ask for it!) and then get them to notice an important feature of the video or, as they get older, ask them a question (examples are given below).

My hope is that slowly, over the years, your child will see the connection of our Catholic Eucharist with the Passover. This connection may not happen till they are ready to make their First Holy Communion, at the very earliest. It may happen years later! But you, with God, will have planted the seeds and God will make them grow in His good time. All you need to do is to scatter some questions in front of them after they see a video/ film and God will make the connections for them when they are truly ready. One day they will say to you “Dad/Mum now I get it!”

Me Making Sense of it All

I don’t know about you but growing up I didn’t have any understanding of the Exodus or the Passover meal having anything to do with the Eucharist that we received every Sunday at mass. I only realised this through reading a book called 'This is My Body'  by Fr. Ian Petit - in my 30’s! It was eye opening! Suddenly everything made sense.

 This is My Body

We could simply teach our children the facts of the Eucharist: it is Jesus’ body and blood, soul and divinity ie the entirety of Jesus. We could teach them that this happens through a miraculous process called Transubstantiation. But true and wonderful as these facts are….I see them suspended in air without any roots. I was happy to believe these suspended truths for years. But once I saw that it all came from the celebration of the Passover meal…which celebrated freedom from bondage in Egypt- my mind was opened, and I had an Epiphany moment! It all made more sense!

This travelling through history and time can be done in a very gentle way and, I hope, will give children an understanding of the Eucharist that will be ingrained into their souls for life. How carefully God has planned everything: gliding from Passover to Eucharist. From a hurried meal and freedom from the pains of Egypt to a relaxed Eucharistic meal in church and languishing in the freedom from our sins! We have been truly spoilt by God!

If you are happy to go with me on this journey, this is what it could look like:

Teaching the Exodus

We can start by reading the story from their children’s bible and the actual bible and showing them short/longer videos about the Exodus depending on their age. These could be watched just before the start of Lent, on the Feast of Corpus Christi and as many times as your kids ask to watch it!

For Five-year olds

These 5 min videos will give the basic story of the Exodus. You could use any videos that you like. I chose these as they allow for the short attention span of a 5-year-old and don’t include some of the misguided protestant views about the Exodus that I came across.



It would be enough to mention that God wanted to have a relationship with His people and while they were in slavery in Egypt, they couldn’t worship the Lord their God. In Egypt, only the pagan god’s were allowed to be worshipped. Somehow, they had to get free to worship and to commune with God - and God had a clever plan to free them.

You can also say that the Jewish people were freed from being slaves through the blood of a spotless male lamb. The blood of this lamb was smeared on the wooden door posts and along the wooden lintel, above the door (connection here with Jesus’ blood on the wooden cross).

For Six-year-olds

This is about 27 mins long so you may need to do this in two sittings depending on your child’s attention span. You could simply ask your child this question: How did God protect His people from the plague of the death of the eldest children in Egypt? They don’t need to give a perfect answer or any answer at all….the point here is that they are thinking about God. How wonderful is our God that He wanted to protect His children from death.

For Seven-year-olds   

If you can, it would be great if you could watch The Prince of Egypt from 1988. This is a much longer animated version about the Exodus.  If they aren’t able to watch this in one sitting, they could watch it in manageable bites on consecutive days. Each time you restart the film you could see what they remember about what they last watched.

The Prince of Egypt 1998. Here is a short clip from the film:

Of course, use whatever film you feel appropriate….I just like this one!

You could ask them questions such as:

• How did God plan their escape from the death of the first-born children?
• How did the angel of death know to Passover the homes of the Israelites?
• How did they get the blood?
• Do you know what it is called when the lamb was killed to protect the children of Israel from death? It begins with the letter ‘S’ (sacrificed).

Just one or two questions each time your kids watch this film is enough… you will, of course, know which questions your kids will be able to respond to.

The Last Passover Supper

From about 7 years of age, you can start to explain that after the first Passover happened, God asked the Jewish people to celebrate Passover, once a year, with the same meal that their ancestors would have eaten. In fact, they celebrate it as if they were there with their ancestors. It’s not like they are just eating this meal as if they were ‘play-acting’ a memory – they are celebrating it, with all their senses, and thus making it present today!

I find this pretty amazing!

I am sure that a 7-year-old, with their great imaginations, will be able to time-travel and see that whenever the meal of the Passover is celebrated, it makes it present to the Jewish people today. How do the Jewish people make the Exodus present at their Passover meal? They make it come alive again to all their senses.

• They make it present to their hearing by listening to the story of the Exodus.
• They make it present to their sight, smell and taste by seeing and eating the meal that was eaten in a hurry so many years ago (Unleavened bread, wine, roast lamb and bitter herbs)
• They make it present to their touch by holding the bread and glass of wine in their hands and by dipping the bitter herbs into salt water to remind them of dipping the hyssop (a small green plant) into the blood of the lamb which was then smeared on the doorposts and the lintels of their front doors.

At around 7 years of age, you can explain that on this Passover Supper night Jesus, a Jew, added some special words that would change the Passover meal forever and make it the first Eucharistic meal ever. Jesus said that the bread WAS His body and that the wine WAS His blood!

So, as the Passover meal celebrates the freedom from slavery, in the same way, the Eucharistic meal at mass celebrates our freedom from sin forever. This, of course, took place on the cross when Jesus was brutally crucified. We, like the Jewish people at Passover, make the meal PRESENT again. Through the action of the Holy Spirit, the priest says the words that make present Jesus’ Body and Blood: “This is My Body” and “This is My Blood”.

You could also explain that the Jewish people still celebrate when the angel passed over and that this allowed them to leave Pharoah and his slavery. They crossed the Red Sea by a miracle and travelled a long distance until they could enter the Promised Land.

Now that Jesus changed the Passover Supper, we can now celebrate an even more important freedom - from the slavery to sin. We can explain that because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, where He shed His Blood on the wood of the cross – now, if we say we are truly sorry, God will pass over all our sins, and instead of going to Hell, which even one sin deserves, Jesus will give us freedom from sin and Hell and give us a safe passage to Heaven. Heaven is even more beautiful than the Promised Land on Earth. In fact, Heaven is the New Promised Land! It is our homeland.

Transubstantiation



We can also explain that when Jesus says the words “This is my Body” and “This is my Blood” that He really meant it. The bread and the wine become his body and blood in a miraculous way that remains invisible to our eyes. This is Transubstantiation. You could then perhaps show them this short video of a little boy talking about preparing to make his First Holy Communion:

If only we could see what is actually happening supernaturally in the mass….watch this and let your souls rise! If you think this will help your child, why not show it to him/her too at the right time? The Holy Spirit will show you when it is right.

I have covered a lot here and you only need to offer what you think your child is ready for. Every child is different. Keep asking God to show you which concepts of the Eucharist your child is ready for. Even if you feel that God is nudging you to mention something that you feel might be a little advanced for your child...go with it. Trust what you feel God is saying to you. 

I hope that this has been of some help in raising your children Catholic.

The Real Presence

For those of us who need help in believing the real presence, God has graciously given us Eucharistic miracles to help us believe. If you need some help right now – check out this short video from ‘Pints with Aquinas’.