Communion & First Confirmation follow up post

I have been officially confirmed as a Catholic! The mass was lovely (and very long) but I feel so life accomplished now.  I was confirmed as well as received my first communion. The bread was stale (and I said “thank you” to the priest instead of “amen”) and the wine was stronger than I thought it would be. 

I want to thank everyone who helped me through this journey.  It was truly the biggest thing I’ve done for myself thus far and I’ve had so much support from family, friends, my RCIA group, and my sponsor. As my priest said, this isn’t the end of the road but the beginning of a new chapter.

I still have a 2 months of RCIA left. And from there, I want to learn more about the church and the history so I can be a sponsor one day…so I am going to try to find some books to help me. I was already going to mass weekly so obvi…that will continue. 

Here are some pictures from my big day!

Me and my dad, little brother, step mom, and little sister before mass started.

Me with my little brother, mom, and big sister (mom and sis came in from NYC for the weekend!)

Me and little brother (who obviously isn’t very little anymore).

Me and my mom in front of the church altar before mass started.

Only photo in existence with me and all my (blood) siblings.

Me and my sponsor Karyl.

Here’s the link to the video of the confirmation (courtesy of my big sister), if you care to watch (and have 8+ minutes to spare).

First Communion & Confirmation

This Easter weekend, I will be able to scratch off a few things on my “to do before I die” list - I’m getting my first communion and confirmation!

As stated before in my post about Confession, I have been in the process of getting my first communion and confirmation for about 7 months now. Communion (also known as Eucharist) and Confirmation are two of the sacraments in the Catholic church.

First Communion is a person’s first reception of the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. Catholics believe this event to be very important, as the Eucharist is one of the central focuses of the Catholic Church.

Confirmation is a Catholic Sacrament of mature Christian commitment and a deepening of baptismal gifts.

This process actually started for me back when I lived in Orlando in 2009. I found myself on my own for the first time in my life so I was looking for some guidance. I started attending mass at a church in Winter Park. The church was pretty big but still felt very intimate and the community was very welcoming. After attending mass regularly for awhile, I was ready to commit to furthering my faith within the Catholic church and discovered the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) program. I joined the program (which met twice a week) but moved back to Norfolk midway through to accept a job and wasn’t able to complete the class.

The following fall, I registered for the RCIA program at a very big church in Virginia Beach. Although I was going to the class before mass every Sunday, I did not like the structure. There were about 40-45 people in it (compared to 15 in my class in Orlando) which was very intimidating. The teachings also seemed to always go over my head. I felt like it was more philosophical than factual and relatable. I eventually stopped going to the class and the church. I just wasn’t feeling it.

Finally…this past summer, I discovered my current church - Blessed Sacrament in Norfolk. I love everything about it. It’s a quaint church hidden in a neighborhood near Ward’s Corner that has one main priest, one nun, and a small staff of volunteers. The priest is a fun loving, straight-to-the-point/no bullshit kind of guy…and I love it!  This was also the first church I’d ever been to that the priest greeted everyone after mass ended. That meant a lot to me. I joined the RCIA program in the fall and have been taking the weekly class since September.

RCIA is a program to assist adults to prepare for the three Sacraments of Initiation (baptism, communion, confirmation). The class prepares us to officially enter the church as Catholics. Adults in the RCIA program are classified as Candidates (baptized) or Catechumens (not baptized). I was baptized so I am considered a Candidate. Each candidate/catechumen is assigned a sponsor, who is already been through the initiating sacraments and is a sound board for questions and guidance through the process.  Some people use their significant others as sponsors, which is definitely OK since many people convert in order to get married in the church. I was assigned a sponsor who has been Catholic since birth (and attended catholic grade school and catholic college!) and knows more about it than I could ever aspire to learn. She has been great to talk to and joke around with. I was lucky enough to get a sponsor with a fiery personality (like myself) so it has been very easy to talk to her. 

Compared to the classes that teens take, the RCIA program follows the same topics but do emphasize more of the adult issues and topics that are more significant like marriage (and divorce), sins, morality…to name a few. We also go through the church traditions and mass.

One of the traditional practices in the Church at the time of Confirmation is choosing a name that will remind you of this sacrament. It is customary for a person being confirmed in the Catholic Church to adopt a new name, generally the name of a saint, thus securing an additional patron saint as protector and guide. It is recommended to choose the name of a saint who represents the type of Christian you wish to be.I chose Maria (my middle name), a derivative of Mary…and of the many Marys back in the day, I chose Saint Mary Magdelene. I wanted to choose my grandmother’s name, but we share the same name and you cannot use your born first name as your confirmation.

So after this weekend, I will officially be a Catholic and will be able to get communion during mass. This has been a long time coming but as I look back on it, I am glad that I was able to make the decision to get confirmed on my own (instead of being forced to as a teenager). It means so much more to me now than it ever could have back then. I’ve learned so much about Jesus, the church and about myself. I look forward to continuing my participation and religious education in the RCIA program as a sponsor. There is still so much to learn!

Sources: americancatholic.org, wikipedia.com, ourladyofgoodhelp.org

Reconciliation

Reconciliation is a fancy word for confession…as in the thing i HAVE to do in a few days.

Welp.

Since last September, I have been taking a class at my church called RCIA - Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults. I was baptized Catholic as a baby but never received my first communion. This class caters to adults who either were never baptized or who are looking to become Catholic (who are a different religion). Or people like me…who have heathen parents who never signed them up for confirmation classes back in grade school. 

Reconciliation is one of seven sacraments (ceremonies that point to what is sacred, significant and important for Christians). The other sacraments include Baptism, Eucharist (aka Communion), Confirmation, Marriage, Holy Orders (becoming a priest), and anointing of the Sick (healing of the mental and spiritual sicknesses). 

Reconciliation is something I have to do before my first confirmation over Easter.

Why do Catholics confess their sins to a priest?

Out of his great love, Jesus instituted this sacrament through which a sinner who is sorry receives pardon and peace and is restored to the fullness of grace with God.

In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Jesus provides us with a way of being reconciled to God and to those we’ve hurt, and to be strengthened in our connection to God’s entire family. This is more than symbolic; it is spiritual reality expressed through ritual.

Plus saying it out loud and to a human makes it WAY more real. 

The sins ::cue dramatic music::

As a result of Original Sin (remember Adam & Eve?), human nature is weakened. Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ’s grace, takes away Original Sin, and turns us back toward God. The consequences of this weakness and the inclination to evil persist, and we often commit personal or actual sin.

Actual sin is sin which people commit. There are two kinds of actual sin, mortal and venial.

Mortal sin is a deadly offense against God, so horrible that it destroys the life of grace in the soul. Three simultaneous conditions must be fulfilled for a mortal sin: 1) the act must be something very serious; 2) the person must have sufficient understanding of what is being done; 3) the person must have sufficient freedom of the will.

A venial sin is a relatively slight sin that does not entail damnation of the soul. Yikes.

How do you prepare for Confession?

Examine your Conscience

Before going to Confession you should make a review of mortal and venial sins since your last sacramental confession, and should express sorrow for sins, hatred for sins and a firm resolution not to sin again.

A helpful pattern for examination of conscience is to review the Commandments of God and the Precepts of the Church:

  1. Have God and the pursuit of sanctity in Christ been the goal of my life? Have I denied my faith? Have I placed my trust in false teachings or substitutes for God? Did I despair of God’s mercy?
  2. Have I avoided the profane use of God’s name in my speech? Have I broken a solemn vow or promise?
  3. Have I honored every Sunday by avoiding unnecessary work, celebrating the Mass (also holydays)? Was I inattentive at, or unnecessarily late for Mass, or did I leave early? Have I neglected prayer for a long time?
  4. Have I shown Christlike respect to parents, spouse, and family members, legitimate authorities? Have I been attentive to the religious education and formation of my children?
  5. Have I cared for the bodily health and safety of myself and all others? Did I abuse drugs or alcohol? Have I supported in any way abortion, “mercy killing,” or suicide?
  6. Was I impatient, angry, envious, proud, jealous, revengeful, lazy? Have I forgiven others?
  7. Have I been just in my responsibilities to employer and employees? Have I discriminated against others because of race or other reasons?
  8. Have I been chaste in thought and word? Have I used sex only within marriage and while open to procreating life? Have I given myself sexual gratification? Did I deliberately look at impure TV, pictures, reading?
  9. Have I stolen anything from another, from my employer, from government? If so, am I ready to repay it? Did I fulfill my contracts? Did I rashly gamble, depriving my family of necessities?
  10. Have I spoken ill of any other person? Have I always told the truth? Have I kept secrets and confidences?
  11. Have I permitted sexual thoughts about someone to whom I am not married?
  12. Have I desired what belongs to other people? Have I wished ill on another?
  13. Have I been faithful to sacramental living (Holy Communion and Penance)?
  14. Have I helped make my parish community stronger and holier? Have I contributed to the support of the Church?
  15. Have I done penance by abstaining and fasting on obligatory days? Have I fasted before receiving communion?
  16. Have I been mindful of the poor? Do I accept God’s will for me?

This is some heavy shit. 

During Confession

After examining your conscience and telling God of your sorrow, go into the confessional. 

Begin your confession with the sign of the cross, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. My last confession was _________ weeks (months, years) ago.”

The priest may read a passage from holy Scripture.

Say the sins that you remember. Start with the one(s) that is most difficult to say.  After confessing all the sins you remember since your last good confession, you may conclude by saying, “I am sorry for these and all the sins of my past life.”

Side note: I have a running list of sins already built. I will not forget anything…I wouldn’t want to have to return any time soon.

Listen to the words of the priest. He will assign you some penance (Penance is a clear and decisive rejection of the sin committed, together with a resolution not to commit it again, out of the love one has for God and which is reborn with repentance). Doing the penance will diminish the temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven. When invited, express some prayer of sorrow or Act of Contrition.

At the End of Confession

Listen to the words of absolution, the sacramental forgiveness of the Church through the ordained priest.

As you listen to the words of forgiveness you may make the sign of the cross with the priest. If he closes by saying, “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good,” answer, “For His mercy endures forever.”

After Confession

Give thanks to God for forgiving you again. If you recall some serious sin you forgot to tell, rest assured that it has been forgiven with the others, but be sure to confess it in your next Confession.

Do your assigned Penance.

Resolve to return to the Sacrament of Reconciliation often (once or twice a year is pretty standard). This sacrament is a powerful help to get rid of our weaknesses, grow in holiness, and lead a balanced and virtuous life.

—————

I’ll be making my first confession this upcoming week. I wholeheartedly believe that I will cry my eyes out. I am not even going to try to lie to myself. It will suck. I have learned, though, that confession isn’t just about admitting sins, it’s also about owning up to bad habits and short comings and that is something I am ready to do. For instance, one of the things I will be attempting to choke out during my reconciliation is my inability to forgive. 

The worst part of this whole thing is it ain’t like in the movies. There isn’t a confessional booth (see below).  It just me and ol’ boy…Face. To. Face. 

Welp!

Source: americancatholic.org, newadvent.org, catholic.org

Why is your Christmas tree still up!?!

Well that’s easy. Because it stays up until El Dia de los Reyes…DUH!

Epiphany (aka Theophany, Three Kings Day and El Dia de los Tres Reyes) is a Christian celebration of the revelation of the birth of Jesus to the wider world. This is embodied most in the story of three wise men visiting a newborn Jesus with gifts, found in the Gospel of Matthew 2:1-12.

The Feast of the Epiphany, marking the end of the 12 Days of Christmas, is generally observed on January 6.

In this story, Magi (wise men) from the east follow a star to Jerusalem, where they ask the presiding king, Herod, what he knows about a newly born “King of the Jews.” This sounds like a challenge to Herod, who gathers his priests to learn where and who is this king. They relay a prophecy that Messiah will be born in Bethlehem, and Herod sends the Magi there, saying: “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” The wise men — Gaspar, Melchior and Balthasar — eventually find Mary and her son, Jesus, to whom they bow and worship. The Magi give Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, and then return home, for a dream told them to bypass Herod.

While Roman Catholic and Protestant Christianity focuses on the story of the Magi, Eastern Christians, like the Greek Orthodox, celebrate the baptism of Jesus on Epiphany and consider the day to be more important than Christmas.

Traditionally, Epiphany is observed by blessing the home (recalling the Magi’s visit to Jesus’ family), blessing water (especially the Jordan River, where Jesus was baptized), exchanging gifts, performing “Magi plays” (to tell the story of Jesus’ childhood) and feasting, most notably on a “King Cake.”

El Dia de Los Reyes is a widely celebrated day throughout Spanish culture. In Latino immigrant neighborhoods across the country, some Christmas trees are still up, waiting for this last marker of the holiday season. Bakeries have been churning out Rosca de Reyes, doughnut-shaped pastries that contain a hidden plastic baby Jesus, meant to be consumed surrounded by family. Parades feature live camels and Latino kids with plastic crowns, who march down major urban avenues with their parents watching on proudly. And the night of January 5th, those same kids leave an empty shoe outside for the Kings or put a box of grass, corn, or other camel food under their beds, expecting to wake up to some small gift. A family tradition I’ve always held on to is keeping all Christmas decorations up until January 6.

Here is a link to a video I found on Washingtonpost.com that shows various celebrations across the world. 

Now if you will excuse me…I have a Christmas tree to start taking down. :-(

Source: huffingtonpost.com, foxnews.com

All Saints Day

Happy November!

I use the term “happy” very loosely here.

It is becoming apparent that November is a very solemn month. Coming off of Halloween, we go straight into All Saints (November 1) and All Souls Day (November 2) - both days celebrating the departed. On top of all that, all of November is consider the Month of Holy Souls, which is to serve as a reminder to Catholics of their duty to pray for the suffering faithful in Purgatory. The Holy Souls are those who have died in the state of grace but who are not yet free from all punishment due to their unforgiven venial sins and all other sins already forgiven for which satisfaction is still to be made. They are certain of entering Heaven, but first they must suffer in Purgatory.  

Welp.

All Saints’ Day (in the Roman Catholic Church officially the Solemnity of All Saints), often shortened to All Saints, is a solemnity celebrated on November 1 by parts of Western Christianity, and on the first Sunday after Pentecost in Eastern Christianity, in honor of all the saints, known and unknown. In the Western calendar it is the day after Halloween and the day before All Souls’ Day.

In Western Christian theology, the day commemorates all those who have attained the beatific vision in Heaven. It is a national holiday in many historically Catholic countries. Christians who celebrate All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day do so in the fundamental belief that there is a prayerful spiritual bond between those in purgatory (the ‘Church Suffering’), those in heaven (the ‘church triumphant’), and the living (the ‘church militant’). Other Christian traditions define, remember and respond to the saints in different ways; for example, in the Methodist Church, saints refer to all Christians and therefore, on All Saint’s Day, the Church Universal, as well as the deceased members of a local congregation are honored and remembered.

Did you know that there are over 10,000 saints! Crazy talk!

If you feel compelled to learn more about Catholic saints, you can find out more info by visiting www.catholic.org. 

And tomorrow, boys and girls, we’ll learn about All Souls Day!

Source: wikipedia.com, catholicculture.org, catholic.org

The End of the World as We Know it follow up to the follow up post

Hey ya’ll!

It’s been awhile. Sorry, I suck at life…and have been too busy for my own good.

BUT in case you were wondering, after the May 21 ‘end of the world prediction’ fail, Harold Camping was all like ‘nope just kidding…the actual Rapture is taking place on October 21, 2011.’

Once again…we are all still here.

The San Fransisco Chronicle quoted 90 year old Camping from a podcast recorded earlier this month saying “I do believe we’re getting very near the very end…”

And by we, sir, you mean your old dusty ass.

I’d still like to give this a 12 hour margin of error just in case.

I’ll check back tomorrow morning.

The End of the World as We Know it

I’ve been hearing a ton about the world apparently ending tomorrow and started to feel some type of way that no one in church last Sunday felt the need to warn me.

So in obvious Alicia fashion, I googled.

According to a gentleman by the name of Harold Camping, the world is going to end tomorrow. And people actually beleive him.

Here’s the back story…

Mr. Camping works for Family Radio out of California (please visit that link and see how delusional these people are). I don’t really understand which denomination this guys believes in either. He is the president of this radio station as well as has his own live call in show (that can be heard across the country).

His current end times prediction is that the Rapture will be on May 21, 2011 and that God will completely destroy the Earth and the universe five months later on October 21. Believers will be transported up to heaven as a worldwide earthquake strikes. Nonbelievers will endure five months of plagues, quakes, wars, famine and general torment before the planet’s total destruction in October.

And the date of May 21, 2011 came from a series of Bible-based calculations that assume the world will end exactly 7,000 years after Noah’s flood.

This dude previously predicted that the Rapture would occur in September 1994. And yet, here we are. Weird.

He now says newer evidence makes the prophesy for this year certain.

Suuuuuuuuuuure.

Source: nytimes.com, familyradio.com, wikipedia

What do you believe?

Holy Saturday & Easter Sunday

Today is Holy Saturday.

Holy Saturday is the day after Good Friday and the day before Easter and the last day of Holy Week in which Christians prepare for Easter. It commemorates the day that Jesus Christ’s body laid in the tomb.

The day is and should be the most calm and quiet day of the entire Church year, a day broken by no liturgical function. Christ lies in the grave, the Church sits near and mourns. 

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday.

Easter, which celebrates Jesus Christ’s resurrection from the dead, is Christianity’s most important holiday. It has been called a moveable feast because it doesn’t fall on a set date every year, as most holidays do. Instead, Christian churches in the West celebrate Easter on the first Sunday following the full moon after the vernal equinox (when the tilt of the Earth’s axis is inclined towards the Sun and the center of the Sun being in the same plane as the Earth’s equator) on March 21. Therefore, Easter is observed anywhere between March 22 and April 25 every year.

Source: wikipedia.com, catholicculture.org, history.com