With You Always
- Fr Raphael Ma, CR
- John 14: 15 - 16, 23 - 26
A Resurrectionist Vocation Minute for June 8, Pentecost Sunday
With You Always
In my limited experience of preparing children and adults for the Sacrament of Confirmation, I have always found this sentence from the Catechism of the Catholic Church – on “the Effects of Confirmation” – to be a bold promise:
“It is evident from its celebration that the effect of the sacrament of Confirmation is the special outpouring of the Holy Spirit as once granted to the apostles on the day of Pentecost.”
(Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1302)
In other words, the Sacrament of Confirmation is a personal Pentecost for the person receiving it – no less than what we heard the apostles received in our first reading today. One way of looking at your vocation is to see it as an unfolding of the gift of the Holy Spirit received at baptism and strengthened in confirmation.
Our vocation or calling from God is not some mysterious thing “out there” that we need to try and “figure out” – so much as it is the most personal unfolding of something within that was placed there by God, a journey of personal discovery that leads to a life marked by the fruits of the Holy Spirit:
“…love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” [Galatians 5:22-23]
“We believe that in His love the Father calls us to conversion: to personal resurrection in union with Jesus, to a new life filled with the power of His Spirit.”