Editor's Note
After Confirmation, What Next?
This time of year I have occasion to attend more than one Confirmation liturgy, and to speak with some of the young people who have received the sacrament. They often say how happy they are to be “spiritual adults” or “full members of the Church.” The question then becomes the same one we face when we become physical or legal adults: “What next? How do I use my gifts, my talents and my education to affect the world?”
I hope that every month young readers find at least a partial answer to this question in the pages of NC Catholics. The two young men in this month’s cover story are prime examples of using gifts for service to others. When I spoke with Sister Elizabeth Bullen, I.H.M., for this month’s Parish Profile (page 30), she mentioned a 24-year-old member of the parish who came to Our Lady of the Rosary in Louisburg as a 4th grader. He spoke no English. Today he’s an honor student at Louisburg College, teaches faith formation classes for the parish youth and serves on the parish council.
In the last year we’ve told stories of Catholic parents doing their best to teach the faith to their children; of police, firefighters and emergency medical responders depending on God for the strength to do their important work; and volunteers who offer themselves 24/7 in service of the sanctity of human life. Just last month you read about doctors taking time out of their practices to help alleviate the suffering following the Haiti earthquake.
There are so many large and small ways to serve the needy in our communities, often through our parishes. There are so many ways to live our faith within the parish, from making music to helping with liturgies to volunteering technical skills where they’re needed.
But there is a more basic answer to the question, “After Confirmation, what next?”, an answer that applies to everything we do. Bishop Burbidge mentioned it in his homily at the Confirmation of college students in April. Noting that the young men and women present had been the spiritual beneficiaries of the “witnesses” in their lives, the people whose example inspired their faith, he said: “Now it is time for you respond to God’s plea to go forth and be those witnesses to others. People need to see in you the joy that is the fruit of walking in God’s light and love and truth.”
- Rich Reece