Components of catechesis in preparation for First Reconciliation include:

• Learn of God’s unconditional love for us
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• Learn of Sacramental forgiveness and reconciliation.
   
• Recognize the presence of good and evil in the world and their personal capacity for both.
   
• Recognize the need for forgiveness, not only from parents and others but from God.
   
• Explore the meaning of the symbols, gestures, prayers, and scriptures of the Rite of Reconciliation.
   
• Learn that the faithful are “obliged to confess all serious sins committed after baptism”.
   
• Learn that true forgiveness comes from repentance, confession, reparation, and absolution.
   
• Learn that a mortal sin is of a grave matter committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.
   
• Learn that the priest is given the faculties to forgive in the name of Christ.
   
• Learn that a priest is bound by the seal of confession to keep absolute secrecy. (NDC 133-136)