Remember

Remember why you chose the Saint you picked for Confirmation? Confirmation is a sacrament in the Catholic Church in which you publicly confirm your decision to be a catholic and are officially welcome into the church. Many years ago we would use the expression “becoming a soldier of Jesus Christ”.

Choosing just one saint was difficult since I had a great devotion to so many. Finally I made the decision and selected St. Bernadette Soubirous, a peasant girl from Lourdes, France. At the age of fourteen she began to have visions of a lady, who told her that she was the “Immaculate Conception”. She was drilled by the authorities, but was consistent about what she saw. Her humility was extraordinaire.

During that time in my life my little sister and I were in a foster home in which we were suffering both physical and mental anguish. Hunger and sadness were plentiful. Reading about the story of St. Bernadette made me realize that we had much in common in many ways, she was severely poor, and later on in life she was in constant pain that she offered up to God. Her life made my life bearable as difficult as it was, for she strengthened my faith.

I modeled my life after hers, praying and offering my sufferings to the Lord. One of the things that finally convinced me to choose her was that she did not remember her lessons, she could not memorized her prayers and therefore was kept back from receiving the sacrament of Holy Eucharist with her class. I identified with that, because when I made my first Holy Communion could not memorize all the prayers, but I believed with my whole heart that Jesus was present in the Eucharist.

Later on when I became Director of Religious Education I made choosing a saint as a role model an important and elaborate part of the program and practiced that faith was more important than memorization. No child would ever be detained from receiving a sacrament because he or she could not memorize a prayer.