Guided and Strengthened by the Holy Spirit

1. Guided and Strengthened by the Holy Spirit St. Mary’s Confirmation Reflection 1

2. 5 minutes

3. As you continue with the process of preparation for Confirmation, you will enter into the period of Reflection.

4. Where we’ve been… During Reflection sessions, you will explore what it meant to make a commitment to Jesus Christ and his Gospel as a fully initiated member of the Catholic Church. Then in the period of Formation, you carefully considered Jesus Christ –who he was and is, his proclamation of the Kingdom of God, his central teachings, and of course, his death on the cross and the event that followed it, his Resurrection. You began the process with the Invitation period, during which you considered your identity as a unique person created in the image of God and reflected on his call to respond to his love with faith. Period of Mission Rite of Confirmation • Transition between intense program and a challenging and exciting life as a committed disciple of Jesus Period of Reflection Rite of Covenant or Enrollment • Review central • beliefs Period of Formation. You concluded this period by reflecting on Jesus’s gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and the mission of the Church in the World. • Experience the • three rites Rite of Entrance Period of Invitation • We reflect on basic • ideas Where we’re going…

5. This period begins by focusing on the Holy Spirit, who gives us inspiration, guidance, and strength so that we may live a disciples of Jesus Christ. This period begins by focusing on the Holy Spirit, who gives us inspiration, guidance, and strength so that we may live a disciples of Jesus Christ. Then we move on to explore the central aspects of Christian life: prayer, moral living, justice and service, and the celebration of the sacraments.

6. The period of Reflection is designed to help you prepare for Confirmation by providing both information and opportunities for prayer and reflection that will shed light on how the Holy Spirit moves in you life in the Church.

7. Every facet of Jesus’s life ministry, and mission was guided, indeed driven by the Holy Spirit. But who is this Spirit? And what does it mean to be guided by the Holy Spirit? These questions are the focus of this session

8. We are going to recite a prayer together. This is a traditional prayer that older Catholics commonly memorize, and a form of the prayer used in many liturgies and prayer services in which the Holy Spirit is called upon for assistance.

9. Leader: Come Holy Spirit Response: Fill the hearts of your faithful and make the fire of your love burn within them. Leader: Send forth your Spirit and there shall be a new creation. Response: And you shall renew the face of the earth. Leader: Let us pray: Oh God, you have instructed the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit. Grant that through the same Holy Spirit we may be always wise and rejoice in His consolation. Through Christ our Lord.

10. AMEN

11. Life in the Spirit

12. Each divine person of the Trinity –the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit –is one God. The Holy Spirit is truly God. Through the grace of the Holy Spirit, faith is kindled in us and the new life that comes from God is communicated to us.

13. Throughthe Scriptures and Tradition, we know that the Holy Spirit is one of the three persons of the Trinity. Though he was the last of the three persons to be revealed, he has been active in the world since creation.

14. Baptism Anointing of the Sick Eucharist The Holy Spirit we experience in the sacraments… Reconciliation Holy Orders Matrimony Baptism Confirmation

15. …is the same Spirit who was present at the creation of the world. Gen. 1: 1-2

16. …the same Spirit who spoke through the prophets in the Old Testament

17. The Spirit who came upon Jesus at his Baptism

18. …and the same Spirit who enabled Jesus to confront and defeat the power of evil during his temptations in the desert.

19. The same Spirit of healing love who nourished the sick and hurting at the touch of Jesus.

20. The same Spirit who inspired Jesus to trust the promises of the Father even as he faced death on the cross.

21. The same Spirit who descended upon the Apostles at Pentecost Acts 2: 2-8

22. The same Spirit who has guided the Church toward truth and love over the last two thousand years and enables us to share in the communion of the Trinity. Vatican II St. Peter’s

23. The Holy Spirit will continue to be at work with the Father and the Son until the plan for salvation is complete.

24. The Spirit is united to the Father and the Son in an unbreakable bond. When the Father sends his Son, he always sends the Spirit. The mission of Jesus Christ and the mission of the Holy Spirit are inseparable, yet their work is distinct.

25. It is Jesus we see, a visible image of an invisible God, But it is the Holy Spirit who, while never drawing attention to himself, reveals the Son and the Father

26. When we pray the Nicene Creed at Mass, we confess belief in the Holy Spirit in this way: “We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets.”

27. Luke 4: 14-21 Luke 1:29-35 Luke 4: 1-2 Luke 10:21 Luke 24:46-49

28. What actions were signs of the Spirit’s presence in Jesus [healing, freeing, showing compassion, creating, comforting] What actions or attitudes show that the Holy Spirit was with him [you may offer examples of Jesus’s words and actions of compassion. Just before Jesus left his Apostles, what did he ask them to do? [ The promised power from on high is the Holy Spirit –the same Spirit who was with Jesus throughout his life.

29. Belief in the Holy Spirit also means believing that the Son of God is present and active in our lives today. When we feel the power of God’s forgiveness, sense that he is asking us to do something, speak of his action in our lives today, or see him at work in the lives of others …it is by the power of the Holy Spirit.