Dear Parishioners:
Last Sunday we welcomed
Bishop Robert Brennan to St. Timothy for the celebration of the Sacrament of
Confirmation for our 8th Graders in the Class of 2020. It was a wonderful moment in the life of the
parish with our Bishop taking on his primary role as successor to the Apostles
in the action of imparting the Gift of the Holy Spirit to our students.
The Sacrament of
Confirmation is one of the three Sacraments of Initiation in the Catholic
Church: Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist.
When these three Sacraments are received, we are understood to be “fully
initiated” in the Catholic Church.
Baptism makes us
children of God and opens the doorway to Heaven and to the other Sacraments in
our journey of Faith. Confirmation strengthens
our Faith and gives us the capacity to serve as a witness to the world of the
truth of the Gospel. Baptism and
Confirmation are received only once.
Holy Eucharist is the
repeatable Sacrament of Initiation. Each
time we receive the Eucharist, we renew our pledge of Faith and we are nourished
and strengthened to live the Life we have received in Jesus Christ. The reason we do not have “open Communion” as
other Faith communities do is that for us Eucharist expresses first and foremost
our unity as members of the Catholic Church.
It is not something that we merely “get” to receive. It is an expression of who we are.
The responsibility to
participate in the Mass each Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation flows from the
nature of the Sacrament as well as being the fulfillment of the Third Commandment
(“Keep holy the Sabbath”). In the “Amen”
we respond to “The Body of Christ” and to “The Blood of Christ,” we express our
personal choice to live out the relationship we have with Christ and His
Church.
Congratulations to our
newly Confirmed and to their families!
May we all grow in our response to the Gifts of the Spirit at work in
our hearts.
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