ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on ethnographic data in the religious instruction classes to illustrate one aspect of socialization to religious sensation realized through rehearsals of religious ritual. It focuses on First Communion rehearsals, which took place during the second year of the two-year program and constituted the principal exit competency. The chapter illustrates how the tension between the ritual nature of the rehearsal and the improvisations that emerged in the performance of the ritual created physical and spiritual conditions that teachers used to socialize types of religious sensations relevant for the culminating ritual of First Communion. It addresses the aspect of socialization through an examination of literacy practices meant to inscribe the body and the physical space of the classroom with signs and symbols invoking multiple types of spiritual presence. The chapter illustrates the ways children experience religious belief through the senses, through the body.
