Terry Battaglia
Associate for Youth Ministries
It Was a Wonderful Confirmation Day at St. Paul’s on April 28!!
God must be smiling! The 10 members of Confirmation 2012 prepared diligently in the eight months leading to Confirmation. On April 28, Confirmation Day, they publicly confirmed their baptismal commitment to Christ and to their baptismal promises. Now, through May 20, they are completing their classes and their chosen ministries in St. E’s 9-month program for maturing as the more-adult “People of God” that Jesus calls them to be.
Helped by Parents and Sponsors, Confirmands Will Continue to Grow over This Final Month of Their Program
During this final month of our Confirmation Program, parents and sponsors can help their confirmands grow by encouraging and facilitating their pursuit of their chosen ministries and their attendance in class. Worship services in May, the May 12 Outreach Dinner/Auction, and the May 19 Parish Work/Fun Day—these are just some of the events where their ministry is needed and welcome. Sunday Classes are on May 6, May 13—and, lastly—on May 20.
On May 20, we will celebrate as a Parish Family our Confirmands’ commitment to growing with us in the knowledge and love of God.
May Prayer for the Confirmation Class
Each month we ask parents and sponsors to pray for the Confirmation class, and especially for their child or candidate. But there is no reason to limit the group of people praying so narrowly. Each monthly prayer is offered in dialogue with one of the questions asked of candidates in the Confirmation service, questions which are as lively for adults as they are for young people.
The question:
Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself? and Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
The prayer:
Lord, make N an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let N sow love, where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith, where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that N many not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. [Adapted from “A Prayer attributed to St. Francis,” BCP, p. 833.]
St. E’s Nine-Month Confirmation Program Helps Our 8th Graders Mature in the Knowledge and Love of God
At St. Elizabeth’s, our Confirmation Program gives our eighth graders an opportunity to mature in those vital ways. The program is structured around nine months of prayer, study, service, and fellowship so that the young participants practice living as more-adult Christians—mentored by parents as well as by numerous older teens and adults from the parish family. Happily, growth is very evident in participants who commit themselves to the program. And, happily, many of them continue to be actively-growing people of God in our faith community during their high school years beyond Confirmation.
5.08.12
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