An Evening At The Cathedral

Yesterday evening at the cathedral...my youngest child made the sacrament of Confirmation.

I'll urge my daughter to set some time aside each day to be still and quiet.  Yes...it's especially hard to do when you're a teenager but it's sooooo necessary.   I'll tell her that often the Holy Spirit speaks softly within us and with us.  We can hear him in the voice of our conscience and in our heart.  The more receptive we are to the the Holy Spirit within us...the more he becomes the center of our life.  We form a relationship with Christ this way and we can feel his presence.  So...just for a few moments be still and relish the quiet.  Shhh...... 

Confirmation is the sacrament that completes Baptism....

The people of Ephesus were baptized in Christ, but Paul laid hands on them to seal them with the Holy Spirit.

Acts 19:5-6

This sealing refers to the sacrament of  Confirmation.

In the Acts of the Apostles...which were written a few decades after the death of Jesus...Peter traveled about to confirm new Christians by imposing hands on those who previously had been baptized so that their hearts might be filled with the Holy Spirit.  The gift of the Holy Spirit is the strength from above in which an individual puts the grace of his Baptism into practice through his life and acts as a "witness" for Christ. 

To be confirmed means to make a covenant with God.  As an individual professes their belief in God...God in turn says...he believes in them too...and he will give them his Spirit...his very self.  He will belong entirely to them.  He will never separate himself from them....in this life or in heaven.  He will be in their body and their soul...in their words and deeds.   Even if they forget him...he will still be there on good days and bad.