Due to a technical error, the following contemplation on Confirmation was not included in the update, please find below, 
With warm wishes,
Selina 

Setting Sail into Adulthood

 

"A huge storm came up. Waves poured into the boat, threatening to sink it. And Jesus was in the stern, head on a pillow, sleeping!
They roused him, saying, “Teacher, is it nothing to you that we’re going down?”   
He awoke and told the wind to pipe down and said to the sea, “Quiet! Settle down!” The wind ran out of breath; the sea became smooth as glass.

(Mark 4:37-40 - The Message translation)

Imagine a sky full of stars, with a ship sailing on the ocean beneath. Imagine you are sailors of the past, who look up to the specific star constellation you need to set the course of navigation. You know the star to follow and by setting the course at night in this way, you follow the necessary direction across the seas, even in the light of day with a blue or cloudy skies.

One aspect of growing up is that we gradually leave the 'family' ship that we have sailed in all those years and start to sail in our own ship too. We are also busy building ships with others; friendships and relationships where we sail for a while with others. However, the journey of adolescence can be a stormy time, amidst the ocean of life, with huge waves of emotion suddenly overwhelming us. We need someone to call on who can calm the wind and the waves. 

In the gospel event quoted above, the disciples had to awaken Christ to help them amidst the storm. For teenagers, as for us, we have the possibility too, of calling on Christ for comfort and calm. Christ 'slumbers' in each one of us, leaving us free to awaken him or not. It may not only be in times of crisis that we awaken him, it can be in simply speaking directly to him, briefly, throughout our day. It could be an experience in the  Act of Consecration of Man, that He awakens, when we hear 'Christ in you' spoken. 

On the new ship of youthhood for a teenager, Christ can show how to sail and "show us the ropes" and most especially, teach us how to 'anchor down'. Christ has illumined every Spirit star in the spirit sky, through the reality of the first Easter. Meanwhile, the experience for a teenager is that the sky full of stars and which star to follow? Which star is mine? 

You might like to think about your own experiences as a teenager and perhaps, in your own homes, you might like to inwardly accompany the young people in this Sacrament, to be celebrated this Saturday at 10 am (due to a large number of confirmands and their families and guests, we are unable to open the event to the congregation).
One way of contemplating what happens in the sacrament of Confirmation, is that the young person experiences, if only for a few moments, the closeness of their own 'star'. This experience of their Spirit together with the One who illumines their star aids them to navigate through the voyages of life. The confirmand may come to an experience,if formulated in words could be;
"I feel my star and my star feels me..."

- Selina

Confirmands 2021