Posted on 05/25/2006 9:47:23 AM PDT by NYer
This bears a remarkable resemblance to the program in use in my (now former) parish.
My daughter's confirmation was much more reverent and solemn. What's more, they actually had to learn stuff . . . and take tests about the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit, and the Seven Sacraments, and so forth.
She chose a militant saint like Michael -- St. Martin of Tours. I think his association with horses had something to do with it . . .
Good article! Of course, the entire Church has been afflicted with the Catechesis of the Terminally Stupid/Immature, so at least he wasn't alone.
I was really fortunate here in St. Augustine. Quite by accident, I attended a confirmation (of 8th graders) at the Cathedral. The Bishop (Bp. Victor Galeone, the one episcopal spokesman who dared to come out against his "brother bishop," Lynch, on behalf of Terri Schiavo) gave a great homily, discussing truth, martyrdom, and all that good stuff. He had the kids on the edge of their seats as he told them the story of a 14 year old Cristero, now canonized, who had been beaten, had the soles of his feet cut off and was then forced to walk to the place where he would be killed, and finally was shot to death while yelling Viva Cristo Rey. And the Bishop did a good examination of the kids followed by the best Trinity for Idiots explanation I have ever heard!
Things are looking up.
More proof (this is a joke -- refrain from wad-ifying the panties) that the RC Church is especially blessed: No church so thick with jerks could have survived this long unless God were with us.
My sympathies.
ROFL!!!
Sounds like my marriage-encounter retreat.
LOL
I've heard this sort of nonsense ... I attended such a retreat as this back in the '70s. I would have hoped that they had gone the way of the dodo bird by now.
Oddly enough, my 'Engaged Encounter' retreat, 'way back when, in the Dreadful Diocese of Richmond, no less, was sane and very useful.
************
LOL! Some things just beg to be made fun of.
My wife and I (engaged at the time) left halfway through the weekend - about the time her roommate asked if she could switch rooms with me and sleep with her fiance, and just after the deacon running the program refused to correct couples from promoting pre-nuptial agreements and co-habitation (during a group discussion).
Same thing here, or thereabouts.
It's sickening having middle aged morons trying to run a Confirmation program. Watching "Finding Nemo," doing everything visually. I had no idea we were confirming children...
Why don't these people treat the kids like the adults they are supposed to be in the Church??
PS - My Confirmation head person does the same garbage...
Gee whiz... mine was much better. We had something to eat after the Good Friday service, then we had the sponsor time where we went through the questions, then we went into an upper room where we were told we all had to be very quiet and to use the bathroom before we went in because we needed to stay in our seats. Then we had faith journeys by all the second year catechumens and all the candidates... must have been forty or fifty people. It was tedious. They said we might go all the way to 10:30, but thankfully we were all out of there by 9:30.
I know I'm making fun of this, and I certainly think it could have been done better. But watching the UB2s (catechumens) relate to each other made all of us candidates want to be closer to each other too, and I noticed a definitively heightened sense of fellowship among us for the rest of our time together, which ended last Sunday when we were confirmed and received our first communion. I also kept thinking of the stories throughout the rest of the Triduum. Boring yes, but I wouldn't trade the experience for the world.
In the Episcopal Church, which I fled, they have come up with a liturgy for girls upon reaching puberty. As an older priest I admire put it in his monthly column, one sure way to make sure a 12 year old girl never darkens the doors of a church again is to make her get up in front of the congregation and talk about her period.
I am the sponsor of a young man for his confirmation this coming Tuesday. He is my son's best friend. I am so honored that he picked me.
There were no retreat leaders,ice-breakers, games, T-Shirts, felt banners, juggling clergy, singing nuns, Christian Rock, Cheers about our awesome God, references to Leo Buscaglia, trust exercises, crying, blaming our parents, primal screaming, books about Jesus and Buddah, John Lennon's Imagine,labyrinths, Renew Trees, coloring books, or scavenger hunts.
Let me guess: There's the ceremonial slamming of the door, and then slamming it again because the first one wasn't loud enough. There's the ritual groan or scream (there's a combination noise 13 year old girls can make which is indescribable, but once you've heard it you never forget it) and the bursting into tears. There's the playing of music really really really loudly. There's the father stalking around the sanctuary "breathing threats and slaughter" against anything the ever thought of wearing trousers. And at the end there's the incredibly sweet climbing into the lap or mother or father while the parents fight to hold back tears knowing that the little girl they love so much is leaving them as she turns into an equally but differently lovable young woman.
Am I close? After all, I used to be an Episcopalian ...
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