May 29, 2021
Click here to view this week's Mass. The video for the 4 PM vigil Mass will be available by about 7 PM on Saturday.
This past Thursday ten young people from our parish received the gift of the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Confirmation here at St. Andrew. They had prepared for a long time, learning what they needed to understand the Holy Spirit so that they could properly accept the Spirit into their lives. They were led by Barbara Burns and Jim Hill in the Confirmation program and had spent years before that in preparation. They are ready now, with the power of the Holy Spirit to continue the work of the apostles and change the world!
While each of our candidates for Confirmation are individuals, their preparation for receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit was all about community. It was about the community of their family making sure they had a ride to class. It was about their experiencing God at the family dinner table in conversations, even when the topics being discussed seemed to have nothing to do with religion. It was about coming together in community with each other at class - joining together with Barb and Jim and sometimes Kay and me. They came together in communion with all of us at Mass throughout the year. In all of these experiences of community they were learning about the Holy Spirit!
We read in sacred Scripture, "God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in him or her." (John 14:16) The love between God the Father and Jesus is the Holy Spirit. Together they are the Blessed Trinity which we celebrate today. You and I are drawn into the Trinity by the Holy Spirit - love. In loving those with whom we are in community - our families, friends, and even those we barely know - we become one with God our Father, Jesus our brother, and the Holy Spirit, making us all one.
May each of us pay particular attention to those with whom we are in community so that together we may draw closer to God!
Congratulations to all of those who received the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, in the Sacrament of Confirmation this year!
God's Peace,
Deacon Dave