We had no update for last week’s class, because I was not there. Lisa Fogarty took over the class for one evening. (I had an early morning meeting in Atlanta on Thursday morning and had to drive up on Wednesday and spend the night.) I was very happy to hear that Mrs. Fogarty had a great time with the class and was extremely complimentary of the students.
Mrs. F finished off Pentecost last week and made the connection between Pentecost and the Sacrament of Confirmation.
Last night, we picked up on that theme and covered some of the specifics of receiving Confirmation. The key points of discussion included:
- During Confirmation we restate our core beliefs (Baptismal promises.) We broke the class into smaller groups and asked them to brainstorm some of their core beliefs as Catholics.
- The role of Confirmation sponsors
- The meaning of the bishop’s words “…be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit”
- The meaning of the Sign of Peace
In one of our discussions a couple of weeks ago, it was apparent there was some confusion over concept of the “Holy Spirit.” We talked about the Holy Trinity and emphasized that when we refer to the Holy Spirit, we are simply referring to God in his/her role of being with us every day.
We finished up by introducing the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. (wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, fear of the Lord.) Again we broke the class into groups and assigned each group two or three of the gifts to discuss and come up with an explanation or example. We ran out of time on this exercise. We’ll devote a few minutes to this next week.
Our main focus next week will be on the concept of prayer. Believe it or not, in past years, this subject has generated a fairly interesting class session. As always, parents are invited and welcome to sit in on any classes and participate (or not) at your comfort level.
St Peter the Apostle CCD- 5th Grade 