Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
At the time of Pentecost which was a feast in which the Jewish nation
our heroes all sitting in the same place. My Bible includes the foot note
“probably praying.” I guess that there were reasons to think that they were
praying, and maybe they were. Perhaps they were praying for God to reveal
to them what they were supposed to do now. Look at this group of very
ordinary people. Put yourself in their place. The last few months have
changed their lives forever. First, they tasted the bitter pill of complete
defeat and watched while evil triumphed and Jesus, whom they thought was
the Christ, died on the cross, a most horrible and shameful way to die. Then
they experienced the ineffable joy of the Resurrection, they had Jesus
among them again. Perhaps the time for the triumph of Israel had arrived!
They thought that they were beginning to understand, but they did not
whole world to preach the Gospel, and yet they were all gathered in one
place, basically doing nothing. I think that they simply didn’t know where
to begin. They were afraid and not without cause. So they were sitting
out. When in doubt, talk it out. Safe behind closed doors they could
Confirmation - The Gift of the Holy Spirit 2
seemingly make progress without taking risk. I don’t want it to seem that I
am being unfair. The fact that they were sitting around, trying to blend into
the wood work makes what happened next even more miraculous. Suddenly
there came a noise like a strong driving wind. This great wind herald a new
action of God. The noise was great and filled the entire house where they
were at. An where they were at was the upper room, which is symbolic of
going up to Mount Sinai as Moses did. Tongues of fire came to rest on each
of them, and the fire symbolized the presence of God. Think of other times
There an angel of the LORD appeared to him in fire flaming out of a bush. As he looked
on, he was surprised to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed. So Moses
decided, "I must go over to look at this remarkable sight, and see why the bush is not
burned." When the LORD saw him coming over to look at it more closely, God called
out to him from the bush, "Moses! Moses!" He answered, "Here I am." God said,
"Come no nearer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is
holy ground. I am the God of your father," he continued, "the God of Abraham, the God
of Isaac, the God of Jacob." Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. But
the LORD said, "I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard
their cry of complaint against their slave drivers, so I know well what they are suffering.
Therefore I have come down to rescue them from the hands of the Egyptians and lead
them out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk & honey…
And of course God led the Jews out of Egyptian bondage in a pillar of
Confirmation - The Gift of the Holy Spirit 3
And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them
along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they
might travel by day and by night; 22 the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar
So we can see that the tongues of fire are the visual representation of God.
What happened next is quite amazing. These humble fishermen left the
place where they were at. And the place was no ordinary place, it was in the
upper room. This was the place where Jesus sat and gave us his Body and
Blood. God had already done something new in this place. So we hear a
great rush of wind which heralds a new action of God. Fire appears and
came to rest on each one of them. Then these people who moments ago were
sitting around and doing basically nothing get up and in that moment the
Church is born. They began to fearlessly preach the Word of God in places
where just moments before they were afraid to be seen. Each person in the
crown heard what was being said in their own language proving that the
church’s mission was not to a preach Christ to just a few people in a small
proclaims Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah and tells all the good news that
Confirmation - The Gift of the Holy Spirit 4
death itself had been defeated by the resurrection. He then tells them just
what to do, repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. At the start
of the day the church numbered the eleven apostles and a few miscellaneous
women. At the close of the day three thousand people were baptized. All of
this because the Holy Spirit infused these somewhat ordinary men. The Holy
Spirit makes it possible for men and women to overcome our human
frailties. He brings us many gifts. But before we get into them, a story:
Maximilian Kolbe was a priest during World War II. He was an amazing
publish books and pamphlets and helped run a daily Catholic news paper
juggernaut invaded Poland and launched the war. Maximilian along with a
number of his fellow priests and brothers were arrested and sent to Auschwitz
slave masters so he was not sent immediately to the gas chambers. He was put
to work and it was very hard work indeed. Kolbe did his share and more. He
remained a man of prayer and faith. Now, one thing you learned early in the
death camps was to blend into the woodwork. Every book I have read about
survivors in the camps shows that each survivor made themselves useful to their
keepers and blended into the background, not calling attention to themselves.
Some of the survivors had to become more zealous then their captors in
Confirmation - The Gift of the Holy Spirit 5
enforcing the camps rules. Maximilian did not do this. One day there was an
prisoners for allowing the escape. He chose ten men at random from the
One man cried and begged for mercy. The SS were not known for being
merciful men. Maximilian had not been slated to die, but with extraordinary
courage he asked if he could take the place of the crying man. The SS was
surprised but allowed Maximilian to take the man’s place. They were led
away to the dungeon. They were given no food or water and one by one they
died. Finally Maximilian was the only one left. On August 14, 1941, tired of
followed the Gospel until the very end of his life. He worked hard for the
Lord and when push came to shove, he showed great love by giving his life
for another. This marvelous selfless act was done because he allowed the
Holy Spirit to work in and with him. The holy spirit gives us the courage to
be a follower of Christ.
After surviving the 1906 earthquake her family moved into a tenement flat
Confirmation - The Gift of the Holy Spirit 6
is an amazing thing because this is a woman who early in life lived in sin
with a man and even had an abortion. She was sent to jail on several
occasions. Her move to Chicago allowed her to have a sympathy for the
ordinary person leading an ordinary life. At the start of World War I, she
signed up for nurses training. She was not yet a Catholic but she liked the
Catholic way of life. She became convinced of the existence of God. After
having a baby conceived in a common law marriage she entered the Catholic
the pain of poverty that was touching many people. She prayed for a way to
make her talents work for the poor. She met up with Peter Maurin. Peter and
wrote that each home should have a Christ Room where strangers could be
given comfort and rest as they were ambassadors of God. They started
houses that helped the poor. They were opposed because “the deserving
poor” were not the only ones that they would help. Their homes were
social worker once asked how long the poor could stay. Day answered “We
let them stay forever. They live with us they die with us and we give them a
Christian burial. We pray for them after they are dead. Once they are taken
Confirmation - The Gift of the Holy Spirit 7
in, they become members of the family. They are our brothers and sisters in
Christ. She was also quoted as saying when someone told her that Jesus
said we would have the poor with us always, her reply was “Yes but we are
not content that there should be so many of them. The class structure is our
making and by our consent, and not God’s and we must do what we can to
change it.” She also took some unpopular stands in opposing wars. She
took literally Christ’s words; “Put away your sword, for whoever lives by
faith in Spain. Day looked beyond the obvious and saw the background and
told people to “take another look at events in Nazi Germany.” She accurately
predicted persecution of the Jews. After World War II, she opposed drilling
for civil defense. She was sent to jail every year at the time the drill was
held. She said “We don’t have faith in God if we depend on the atom bomb.”
She was greatly in favor of civil rights and once in 1957 she went to the
together. One house had been hit by machine gun fire and the KKK burned
crosses on the communities land. She was almost shot by a passing car,
ducking down - the bullet went and hit the steering column of her car. She
spurned honors and once a certain Mother Theresa of Calcutta came to visit
Confirmation - The Gift of the Holy Spirit 8
her and pinned a profession cross on her dress. This is a cross worn only by
Charity. One of her most famous sayings is “If I have achieved anything in
Another life, so very different then Kolbe’s and yet so alike. They both in
their own way sacrificed their lives for others. They overcame the natural
When you are confirmed you are anointed with oil. Oil is a sign of
abundance and joy. It cleanses and limbers muscles and is a sign of healing
when used on wounds. The oil used in the confirmation rite is not the same
as in the baptism rite. The oil used is chrism which is also used to anoint a
priests hands. Those anointed with chrism share more completely in the
confirmation is only received once. This seal is shows that the soul of the
anointed is owned by the Holy Spirit. The effects of Confirmation are many.
y It gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the
faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ, to confess the name
Wisdom - desire for the things of God, and to direct our whole life and
all our actions to His honor and glory.
Piety - love God as a Father, and obey Him because we love Him
Fear of the Lord - have a dread of sin and fear of offending God
If we look at the lives of the saints, and a saint is nothing more then a person
who developed a great desire to love God with their whole heart, their whole
mind and their whole soul, we will find in each of them these gifts at work.
These gifts are not only for “saints” they are for “sinners” too. For as we
can see in the case of Dorothy Day, sinners are many times people who have
Confirmation - The Gift of the Holy Spirit 10
not yet undergone conversion. When I was in the monastery it was my honor
of the brothers that I was going to tell the students that they might not feel
any different after receiving the sacrament. He told me that I should not say
anything of the sort for I could not know what effect the sprit would have on
them. To this day, I believe that this was some of the wisest advice I had
ever received. When you are confirmed the Holy Spirit is going to come
upon you just as it did for the apostles at Pentecost. My advice to you is to
accept the gifts of the Holy Spirit and be ready for anything. We may never
be asked to die for the faith as the early martyrs were. We are only asked to
live the faith as best as we can. God has provided this wonderful gift of
us. This great sacrament completes Baptism and makes us as they said in the