Last Saturday Fr Michael and the confirmation preparation team, (Ger, Moira and Frank) completed the last of four ceremonies for over 200 young people. Over the course of October about 50 young people and their parents attended each of the four preparation evenings on the Monday prior to their special day. Some of our young people had because of COVID19, been waiting for up to two years.
Fr Michael and the team wanted to make the preparation and ceremony a prayerful and enjoyable experience for all our young people. The parish bought a copy of wonderful booklet ‘your child’s Confirmation,’ and we encouraged the young people and their parents to try to read this booklet before the ceremony, as we felt it would really add to their experience on the big day. We encouraged mum and dad to share their own experiences of their confirmation day and what it meant for them. We also asked them as a family, to say some prayers together, perhaps remembering a sick or deceased loved one.
During our preparation evening we had a few minutes of silence after we heard the famous story from the Acts of the Apostles, Ch 2:1-13, the decent of the Holy Spirit upon the terrified disciples of Jesus, who were lost without him. You could hear a pin drop as the Taize music ‘Veni Sancte Spiritus- Come Holy Spirit’ was played. We really wanted to convey to our young people that the experience of the Holy Spirit changed Jesus’s life at his baptism by John. It was then that Jesus began his wandering ministry that would change the lives of many and the course of history. The Holy Spirit changed the lives of the early followers of Jesus after he had been executed, when they too experienced the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and this gave rise to our first Christian church community.
The confirmation booklet explained the history of Confirmation and that all the three special ceremonies of baptism, eucharist (or Holy Communion) and confirmation are part of an initiation or journey to becoming a Christian within our faith community. While we cannot see God, we can experience God’s presence at special moments in our life we use signs or symbols called sacraments to acknowledge this. At Confirmation we are asking the Holy Spirit to be part of our lives.
Finally, we used the booklet to offer suggestions for prayers to say and a way for our young people to pray with some of readings from the New Testament about the life of Jesus and his message of love and forgiveness.Praying is being open, from our heart or emotions to having a relationship with God, taking a moment of silence, asking the Holy Spirit to be with us, to guide us, to love us, so we can place ourselves in a position to experience God’s presence.
If you have a favourite part in the Gospel readings, you could repeat it slowly a few times – This is a beautiful reading to start with?
John 13: 34-35
I give you a new commandment-
Love one another;
just as I have loved you,
you must also love one another.
By this love you have for one another,
everyone will know that you are my disciples.
What does this message say to be me today?
by Deacon Frank
Coverage of our Confirmation service was also in the Irish Catholic