Monday, May 19, 2014

Celebration of Confirmation


At our Baptism, the Holy Spirit was given to each of us to free us from sin, make us sons and daughters of God and to give us new life in Christ. In Confirmation, our hearts are imprinted with a permanent seal that marks us forever as Christians and we are given the strength and gifts needed to be true witnesses of Jesus Christ. Jesus promised his disciples and all of us that the Holy Spirit would be sent forth from the Father to be our Helper and Guide, so that we would not be alone in our journey.  
When we open our hearts to the Holy Spirit, we allow the gifts of wisdom, understanding, right judgment, courage, knowledge, reverence and wonder and awe in God’s presence to fill our hearts. 
The Holy Spirit then dwells within us to give us wisdom to know where God is leading us, understanding to know how to use our gifts to help others, right judgment so that we can always choose what is good, courage so that we may have strength to live out our faith, knowledge that we may truly know God in our lives, reverence so that we may respect and honor all that comes from God, and wonder and awe so that we may always recognize the greatness of God and all that He has done for us.
Strengthened by these gifts we can fulfill our potential as sons and daughters of God and to act as witnesses of Christ.  As our Helper and Guide, the Holy Spirit guides us to the Way that Jesus calls us to, helps us to recognize the Truth of Christ in a world that can be confusing, and leads us in the right direction so that we may have Life and have it more abundantly. 
This past weekend in our parish, we will be witnesses to the presence of the Holy Spirit who will fill the hearts of 42 young people and 9 adults in the Sacrament of Confirmation.
As we celebrate with them let us pray:
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful

and kindle in them the fire of your love.