November 15 and November 16

The Thirty-Third Sunday In Ordinary Time

From Deacon Dick~

From Your Faith Communities - Confirmation 2025

This weekend Bishop Ed will confer upon you and 22 of your fellow disciples the grace of the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Confirmation.  Is this merely a formal rite of passage OR does Conformation have lifelong implications?  Consider this story which applies to each of us!

There’s a legend as to why some trees are Evergreen.  When God created trees, God gave a gift to each one and set up a contest to see which gift would be most useful. Only one rule – each had to stay awake & watch over earth for 7 days. At first, all the trees stayed awake, but a few fell asleep. The trees whispered to each other in the wind to stay awake … but still more fell asleep. Only cedars, pines, spruce, fir, and holly were awake.  So to them God said:  Because of your patient endurance, I shall make you guardians of the forest.  Even in winter your brother and sister creatures will be protected in your branches. Others will lose their leaves … but I know you Evergreens will stay awake.

Confirmation offers us the grace to stay awake in Christ.  But we tend to forget and fall asleep to the indwelling of God’s LOVE.  Our relationship with Christ begins to fray … we start to regard Jesus as an abstract idea … with no relation to our daily lives.

Confirmation reminds us of the path of our faith journey.  Baptism → Confirmation → Leading to Table of Lord where we encounter with living Christ.  Please don’t forget!

Our faith communities’ prayer for you is that, as the Evergreens of our time:

• Others may find life within your branches.
• You may find life within the Community of God’s Church and especially through your personal encounter with the Lord in the Eucharist

We wish you God’s blessing on your journey!