Next Sunday, October 29th, Bishop Gregory J. Hartmayer will confirmed Emma Hendrix and Joey Iglesia Murphy as full members of the Catholic Church at the 11am Mass. On behalf of the entire parish I offer them our Congratulations! They have really worked hard to understand and learn as much about their Catholic faith as they could before receiving this sacrament. I am extremely proud of them. I also want to extend a sincere thank you to Katie Gillen for her hard work and dedication in preparing Emma and Joey for this Sacrament.
Katie is working towards her master’s degree this year and with work and family life she has a full plate. So, she is stepping down as Coordinator of our Religious Education Program. St. Peter the Apostle has kindly agreed to help us with the religious formation of our children. It is a broader experience for our children as they see that many of their classmates are also Catholic. I am grateful for the understanding and commitment of their parents and grandparents as they now take the extra time to drive their children to St. Peter’s on Wednesday evenings.
Confirmation, a sacrament of initiation, establishes young adults as full-fledged members of the faith. This sacrament is called Confirmation because the faith given in Baptism is now confirmed and made strong. During an infant’s Baptism, his or her parents and godparents make promises to renounce Satan and believe in God and the Church on the child’s behalf. At Confirmation, those being confirmed renew those same promises, this time speaking for themselves.
During Confirmation, the focus is on the Holy Spirit, who confirmed the apostles on Pentecost and gave them courage to practice their faith. Catholics believe that the same Holy Spirit confirms Catholics during the Sacrament of Confirmation and gives them the same gifts.
Traditionally, the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude (courage), knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. These gifts are supernatural graces given to the soul. The 12 fruits of the Holy Spirit are charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control and chastity — human qualities that can be activated by the Holy Spirit.
We pray for Joey and Emma that that having been embraced by God’s love in and through the Sacraments, they may ever seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit throughout their journey in this life so as to be happy with God for eternal life.
Odds and Ends:
We live such busy lives and, in a world, in which we are pulled in so many directions, I am grateful that so many of you are always willing to head in the direction of our Faith Community. I think we have a vibrant parish because of the commitment of so many of our members.
Thanks to all who came out for the Parish Clean-up Day. Our Church and grounds are beautiful.
Thanks to all who showed up to staff the parish table at the Tybee Community Day in the park. There were so many of you that next year, I might just advertise it as our parish picnic.
Thanks to all who participated in the Parish Day of Renewal. I am grateful to Tim Glemkowski for leading us deeper as a Faith Community into the Mystery of God’s Love.
I was reading through the google reviews of our parish and I laughed out loud when I came across this one from a year ago: “The new pastor is wonderful.” It was signed by my dear brother, Michael Ragan. It’s good to know that your family always has your back.
This Sunday we finished studying the Holy Father’s latest exhortation “Rejoice and Be Glad” in our Sunday School for Disciples. We have formed a wonderful little group, but we will be taking a break in November and will encourage everyone to join us when we return on December 2nd with our study of the Eucharist during the four Sundays of Advent. You can get a preview of the program “Presence – The Mystery of the Eucharist” on line at our formed platform.