Confirmation, a sacrament of Courage
On Thursday the 24th of March 2022, the sacrament of confirmation was celebrated at St Clare Parish Kasarani. The main celebrant was His Grace Philip Anyolo, the archbishop of Nairobi.
Before celebrating the Holy Mass, His Grace was welcomed to the parish by the Catholic Women Association(CWA) members right from St. Francis Church’s main gate to the Fathers’ residence. The procession was filled with songs, pomp and dance by the CWA members. His Grace planted a tree to mark his first visit to St. Clare Parish as the archbishop of of Nairobi.
The Mass was solemn but full of pomp and color. From the choir, to the liturgical dancers and the rest of the faithfuls. His Grace’s Homily was inspiring and very interactive. He started by pointing out that chrism oil is used during baptism, confirmation, priestly ordination and episcopal ordination.
He explained how the Holy Spirit given during confirmation is important. He alluded to how Jesus’ apostles understood his power after they had received the holy spirit on Pentecost. Just like their master, the apostles got courage to evangelize in the name of the risen Lord and performed miracles too. Similarly, the candidates were called to be courageous in their journey of Faith.
To test whether the candidates had prepared well for the day, the archbishop engaged them in a question and answer session.
The first question was, who was the best mathematician among the apostles? A Christian from the pews answered, Judas. The archbishop said it was true but Judas was not honest.
The second question was, between Peter and John who was the fastest? One of the candidates answered, John and the archbishop confirmed it as correct.
The third question was, what are the colors of confirmation? White and red. One of the candidates answered and his Grace confirmed the answer and added that, “in our Faith, red is the color of courage.”
The last question was, what are the gifts of the holy spirit? In unison, the candidates correctly outlined all the seven gifts.
Concluding his Homily, his Grace addressed all the faithfuls with the following words,” be good parents, good teachers, good leaders and good christians.”
He also asked the candidates, “how many of you wants to become priests? ” Most of boys raised their hands. That was a sign of hope for the continuation of the priestly vocation.
Before the final blessings, the parish priest Rev. Dr. Francis Murira, implored the archbishop to launch the PMC handbook and finally his Grace conferred his apostolic blessings upon the faithfuls and wished them a Blessed Easter in advance.
By Lucy Kamau
PCA St Clare Parish Kasarani
