Confirmation - 11th April 2024

This week we celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation in the parish and are to delighted to welcome Bishop Router to officiate. 

The Sacrament of Confirmation is the last of the Sacraments of Initiation which see these young people become adult members of the Church.  To aid them in that role they receive the Holy Spirit once more and the gifts of the Holy Spirit – wisdom, understanding, right judgement, courage, knowledge, reverence and wonder and awe in God’s presence. 
In history these were the gifts deemed necessary for any national leader to possess if society was to flourish, and they are the gifts needed for any soul to be an active and committed member of the Church, fearlessly living their faith daily. 

In a world that can be so dysfunctional at times, there is a great need for the steadying force that is our faith. 

Our faith is simple – love of God and love of each other, expressed in charity, care, solidarity with those in need, companionship to those in difficulty, hope for those in any struggle and joy as the centre of all we do. 

This week, I invite you to pray for all those who will receive the Sacrament, that as young people God may increase their faith and give them the courage and wisdom to live noble and upright lives. 

May God bless their families, that they too may grow in a faith that will help their children become the true adults in the Church that they stand and profess they want to be. 

Pray for us all, that our example and encouragement may help them to live lives of goodness and kindness, that all they do may be rooted in love, may come from God and may be completed by God’s holy grace.    

With best wishes – Fr O’Neill