Confirmation Before Communion?

Bishop Aquila of Fargo recently explained why he feels it would be better to move confirmation to an earlier age, and to be done before First Communion. I thought he made some excellent points:

Should the gift and strengthening of the Holy Spirit be denied young persons in their most formative years?” he asked.

Bishop Aquila also wondered whether the special attention and length of preparation given to confirmation makes many perceive it to be more important than baptism and the Eucharist.

The view that confirmation is a way for young people to make a personal commitment to their faith “distorts” the sacrament, he said.

“Confirmation is not marked by a choice to believe or not believe in the Catholic faith. Rather, as disciples, we are chosen by God to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit, to be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit generously bestowed by God, and we are called to cooperate with that grace,” he explained.

Confirmation confers a gift of the Holy Spirit that is ordered to “the life of worship,” the bishop said while summarizing Catholic thought. It helps the person achieve a “more perfect integration” into the body of Christ. This helps us understand how confirmation is ordered to the Eucharist.

In this light, it appears “odd” to have someone participate in the Eucharistic life of the Church if he or she has not received “the seal of the Holy Spirit, which perfects the personal bond with the community.”

I think he makes an excellent case, personally. I was first made aware of this perspective through some of the ladies on the NFP board, and since then it has seemed to me that the way things are set up now, Confirmation is often seen as "Catholic graduation." The problem with this is first, that it sends the message that confirmation refers to the teen growing up, maturing, and "confirming" their faith as their own choice, when in fact confirmation is Christ confirming US, it's a gift to us and not something we are doing ourselves. Secondly, as "Catholic graduation" it gives the impression that once you are confirmed, you're done learning about the faith, the way you're done with school when you graduate. In fact, confirmation should be the very beginning of a more involved faith life.

I also agree with the Bishop that typically, 7-8 year olds are much more likely to be receptive to faith, to the Holy Spirit, to learning about God and loving God than teenagers who often tend to be in a rebellious stage of life. Not only that, but why not send our young people out into the world with the best possible and most complete protection we have? The more grace they are armed with, the better chance they will be able to conquer the many temptations of the world. Children are being confronted with worldly temptations earlier than ever, I think. Waiting until the later teens to confirm someone seems like completely missing an opportunity to help them live a more virtuous life in a world which makes it extremely difficult to begin with. The more grace, the earlier, the better!

It makes sense to me, anyway! I think the bishop makes a great case, and I, for one, would love to see a trend towards earlier confirmation. What do you think?

Help Me Blog!

Hello friends! I know it has been a long while since I've posted here, as usual life happens and distractions keep me from fulfilling my intentions. Recently, I've been blogging quite regularly, but on my sewing blog. What has helped me keep this up is having a series and a weekly goal, knowing what is coming up next and what I'm going to be blogging about before I do it.

Originally, I started this blog as a way to work through and set to "paper" the many issues I dealt with upon my conversion. It was a great help and I didn't have many problems finding topics to write about or just being randomly inspired by some subject. But because I relied on sporadic inspiration, when that didn't come I just didn't write.

Part of the reason, as well, is that as the years have gone by and as I've lived the Catholic life more and more, the need I felt to write about my former beliefs has diminished. I love my Catholic faith more than ever, I'm convinced of its truth more than ever, and I'm just generally content! This is a great thing, but it also means there's nothing pressing me to write, lol.

With that being said, I do still want this to be an active blog! I've recently been feeling nudges and seeing signs out of the blue pointing me here, making me think I need to make this blog a priority and keep at it.

So, with that in mind I'm asking you, my dear readers, to help me out! I'd like to start making a deliberate effort to plan posts and write about subjects you will find interesting. While I do like to follow generally Catholic issues and topics, I do still want to keep my niche of seeings these things through the unique lens of having a CoC background. There are a million and a half just generally Catholic blogs, but only a handful with that unique viewpoint. So, what would you like to read about? I'll consider anything and everything related to the faith somehow. I particularly like the idea of having series of posts, because I'm much more likely to have a plan and stick with it! (That's what has helped me on the sewing blog.) Any ideas for a series of posts you'd like to read? (For instance, the last one I did here was The Church's Toolbox for Lent a couple years back.)

Thank you so much for sharing this little corner of the internet with me, I can't tell you how much it means to me when people find anything I write worth spending the time to read. I'm sorry I've been such a slacker, but with your help I hope to remedy that! Looking forward to hearing your suggestions. :-)

Just Because...

Just wanted to share this video with some lovely images of prayer cards, set to the music of the film Les Choristes by Bruno Coulais. If you haven't seen this film, go rent it and watch it! It's a beautiful story and the music is divine. :-)

Their Eyes Were Opened

A blessed and happy Easter to all!! It seems like forever since I've sat down to blog about anything faith-related, but as I've been busy writing lately on the topic, I felt inspired to do some blogging here. I'm going to try to post more regularly than I have doing been the past year or so.

I wanted to share something that I heard related to yesterday's gospel. I was listening to our local Catholic radio station yesterday and was struck by one priest's explanation of the gospel, the story of Jesus meeting the men on the road to Emmaus, as including a kind of description of the mass. "The mass?" I thought, "How so?" I waited eagerly to hear the connection. The text of the gospel was Luke 24:13-35:

That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred.

And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him. He asked them, “What are you discussing as you walk along?”

They stopped, looking downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?”

And he replied to them, “What sort of things?”

They said to him, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him.

But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel; and besides all this, it is now the third day since this took place. Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning and did not find his Body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive.Then some of those with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women had described, but him they did not see.”

And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”

Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures.

As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther. But they urged him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.

And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight.

Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem where they found gathered together the Eleven and those with them who were saying, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

In the mass, we begin with the Liturgy of the Word, in which we usually read something from the Old Testament, a Psalm, something from the New Testament, and then a reading from one of the four Gospels. These readings are all connected in some way, they have a common theme or message. Sometimes, it's not so clear how they are connected, and in the homily the common thread is, hopefully, explained to us. In the Liturgy of the Word, we receive Jesus, the Word, in scripture.

But our reception of the Word doesn't end there, in fact this is the preparation for receiving Christ Himself in the Eucharist, the Word made Flesh. Thus we proceed, after the Liturgy of the Word, to the Liturgy of the Eucharist - the source and summit of our Christian life. We believe as Catholics that Jesus is really, substantially present there: Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity.

And so with that short description of the two parts of mass in mind, we turn again to yesterday's gospel.

They stopped, looking downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know of the things that have taken place there in these days?”

And he replied to them, “What sort of things?”

They said to him, “The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over to a sentence of death and crucified him.

But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel....

And he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”

Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures.

The Liturgy of the Word! And yet, though they were talking about Him and hearing scripture interpreted about Him, they did not yet recognize Him. What did He do that finally caused them to recognize Him?

And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight.

The Liturgy of the Eucharist! It was when He blessed and broke the bread and gave it to them that their eyes were opened and they saw that He was actually there, present in their midst.

Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?”

In the mass, the scriptures touch our hearts and prepare us to see Him and receive Him fully.

Then the two recounted what had taken place on the way and how he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

And then we receive Him and come to know him fully in the Eucharist. Wow!

Perhaps this made such a big impression on me because it seems to be a description of my own journey in some way. Though steeped in scripture from an early age, it was not until I experienced the Liturgy of the Eucharist at mass and saw the Bread being blessed and broken for me that I recognized Christ, the Word made Flesh, right before my very eyes. What a privilege to be able to see Him, recognize Him with the eyes of faith, and to say with St. Thomas the Doubter, "My Lord and my God!"

Overdue House Pics!

So we've been moved in and unpacked for a few months now, loving the new house! I'm finally getting around to posting some pics here, better late than never. :-)