Dear friends,
Hope things are going well with you all and I pray that you all have a good time. All the same, the things that are going on around the world is a bit worrying. All we need to do is to pray that people become more and more good hearted and live life peacefully.
It is a pleasure to let you know that 25 of our parish children got confirmed last Sunday and the celebration went well. Bishop Callahan was saying that confirmation does not guarantee that one becomes an adult in the church, but it is growing into adulthood. The sacrament of confirmation gives one all the gifts of the Holy Spirit which will enable him/her to grow into adulthood. With that in mind I would say that everyone who received the sacrament of confirmation is growing into adulthood, with all the gifts of the Spirit.
When one receives the sacrament of confirmation, it is not in any way that the Christian life comes to a completion. I would say only when you receive that sacrament you start virtually the act of living a mature Christian life. Because, with all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we really understand and realize the true meaning of what a Christian life is. It is not only coming to church once a week, attend the mass and be done with it. The real Christian life starts after the mass is over. The mass gives you a boost to live the Christian life in a meaningful way. It is after the mass that we nourish and cherish the gifts of the Holy Spirit that we received in the sacrament of confirmation.
We are not called to be ritualistic Christians but realistic Christians. While rituals are important in the Catholic life, those rituals are and should be the expression of our real life as Christians. If those rituals do not express our real life, they become meaningless and worthless. We are not people who live a meaningless, worthless and empty life. We are people who are called to live a solid life of Christ and Christian values. If we could live such a life, Christianity would not be an object of mockery for people of other religions and atheists. We should not give room for that, because we believe in a God who was and is in the History, which is true and real.
Let us check our lives and make it more Christian and meaningful.
God bless,
Yours sincerely in Christ Jesus,
Fr. A. Antony
Hope things are going well with you all and I pray that you all have a good time. All the same, the things that are going on around the world is a bit worrying. All we need to do is to pray that people become more and more good hearted and live life peacefully.
It is a pleasure to let you know that 25 of our parish children got confirmed last Sunday and the celebration went well. Bishop Callahan was saying that confirmation does not guarantee that one becomes an adult in the church, but it is growing into adulthood. The sacrament of confirmation gives one all the gifts of the Holy Spirit which will enable him/her to grow into adulthood. With that in mind I would say that everyone who received the sacrament of confirmation is growing into adulthood, with all the gifts of the Spirit.
When one receives the sacrament of confirmation, it is not in any way that the Christian life comes to a completion. I would say only when you receive that sacrament you start virtually the act of living a mature Christian life. Because, with all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we really understand and realize the true meaning of what a Christian life is. It is not only coming to church once a week, attend the mass and be done with it. The real Christian life starts after the mass is over. The mass gives you a boost to live the Christian life in a meaningful way. It is after the mass that we nourish and cherish the gifts of the Holy Spirit that we received in the sacrament of confirmation.
We are not called to be ritualistic Christians but realistic Christians. While rituals are important in the Catholic life, those rituals are and should be the expression of our real life as Christians. If those rituals do not express our real life, they become meaningless and worthless. We are not people who live a meaningless, worthless and empty life. We are people who are called to live a solid life of Christ and Christian values. If we could live such a life, Christianity would not be an object of mockery for people of other religions and atheists. We should not give room for that, because we believe in a God who was and is in the History, which is true and real.
Let us check our lives and make it more Christian and meaningful.
God bless,
Yours sincerely in Christ Jesus,
Fr. A. Antony