Confirmation Class of 2024
-Michael Sullivan
Saturday, May 18, 2024, marked a special day in the lives of 24 young people in our Church. At the 4pm Mass on a bright Saturday afternoon in the city of Stroudsburg, these 24 children were confirmed into the Catholic Church by Father Michael Quinnan.
The Mass began with the Confirmands processing in, double file, and genuflecting reverently in front of the altar. Mass continued as normal with the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, the story of the Holy Spirit filling the hearts of the Apostles in the Upper Room. “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.” Acts of the Apostles 2:2
I then read a reading from Paul to the Galatians. “Brothers and sisters, live by the Spirit, and you will certainly not gratify the desire of the flesh. For the flesh has desires against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. These are opposed to each other so that you may not do what you want.” Galatians 5:16-17
Deacon Phil read from the Gospel of John “On the evening of the first day of the week, when the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them ‘peace be with you!’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again, Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone of his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” John 20:19-23
Father Quinnan brought all these readings together for us in his homily. He talked, first, about the Sacraments. A confirmation student answered Father’s question. What is a Sacrament? “A Sacrament is an outward sign, instituted by Christ, to give grace.” Nina Fardella answered. “The outward sign of Confirmation is the laying on of hands and the grace we receive is the Holy Spirit in the forms of Gifts.” Father Quinnan explained to the Confirmation candidates. God sends the Holy Spirit to us, and the Holy Spirit fills us with His Love, the Love of God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
Father Quinnan went on to explain how the Apostles were afraid in the Upper Room, hiding in fear, until the Holy Spirit descended upon them and filled them with the fortitude needed to share the Good News of the Risen Christ. “They went from being fearful, to fearless. They went from being unsure to certain. They went from being disciples who didn’t know if God was really alive, to people convinced that not only was He alive but that He was with us, to help us.”
“The second reading was about the tension between the things that we want and the things that God wants and how sometimes it seems like we are fighting a battle.” Paul explains in that reading how the Spirit helps us, guides us, to the will of God, opposed to the will of the flesh. Father Quinnan explained that “in the Gospel, we hear how the Spirit is promised to the disciples and how Jesus stands before them, and he breathes on them. It’s a very significant thing to say. When Adam was being formed out of the mud of the earth, God breathed on him, and he came to life. So, when Jesus breathes on the disciples, they’re reinvigorated. They come to life.”
We pray that the Confirmation students are reinvigorated by the Holy Spirit, that they come to life through Christ. We pray that they continue their journey in the faith and in the Catholic Church. Pope Francis has invited the youth to make their voices heard. The Pope said “we need more than ever to draw upon your creativity in order to explore new paths, always in fidelity to our roots” and he reminded us all that the youth are “the living hope of the Church on the move.”
We invite the youth to make their voices heard in our Parish. And we pray that this generation of Catholics will be a living testimony to the Love of Christ.
The newly Confirmed are as follows:
Andrew Ahnert
Emmy Alvarado
Mikolaj Baranski
Robert Cohowicz
Gian Dela Cruz
CJ DeVito
Nina Fardella
Erin Farrell
Keegan Henning
Leonardo Krajewski
Blake Loja
Ryan Marcewicz
Valentina Masache
Dania Melchoir
Michael Meneses
Aisling O'Gallagher
Gilbert Perez
Lyla Rettaliata
Diana Siolkowski
Daniel Stephens Jr.
Brett Svensson
Gracelyn Wade
Shannon Wood
Charles Zugel