God feeds his people in the most personal and intimate way. When we receive the Eucharist, we are being fed by God and changed in mind and heart by this most wondrous gift. Fed by the Lord provides at-home scriptural formation for children preparing for First Communion. This resource, written for the adults who guide them, nourishes relationships between children and parents as well as the Lord who feeds them. Fed by the Lord focuses on twelve stories of God feeding his people. By studying together the actions of God in Scripture adults can prepare children to connect with the Word of God––Jesus Christ––who reveals himself through this biblical journey and comes to us personally in the Eucharist.
Leonard J. DeLorenzo, Ph.D., teaches theology at the University of Notre Dame, where he also directs Notre Dame Vision within the McGrath Institute for Church Life. He was born on the East Coast (New Jersey), spent part of his childhood in the South (Tennessee), grew up for the most part on the West Coast (California), but has lived in the Midwest longer than anywhere else (Indiana). His travel beyond these quarters of the United States includes leading pilgrimages to Italy and Malta, as well as journeying somewhat regularly to the edge of the observable universe in a planetarium where he works collaboratively with a professional astronomer and astrophysicist.
DeLorenzo is the author of Witness: Learning to Tell the Stories of Grace that Illumine Our Lives (Ave Maria Press, 2016) and Work of Love: A Theological Reconstruction of the Communion of Saints (University of Notre Dame Press, 2017). He is currently editing a volume to which he is also a contributor dedicated to Dante, Mercy, and the Beauty of the Human Person (forthcoming from Cascade Books).
I gave this to myself as homework a year out from my oldest’s First Communion. It’s excellent, offering a clear and thoughtful program of at-home sacramental preparation that can supplement a parish program or be combined with other efforts for full preparation at home. I’m excited to use these ideas (perhaps with some adaptation, since my child tends to be resistant to things that feel like school at home) as our family begins preparing our children for their upcoming sacraments.