(Samantha Heathcote -- The Beacon)
By Fr. Michael Belinsky C.S.C., Guest Commentary -- The Beacon
This Sunday, Archbishop John Vlazny is coming to The Bluff and will preside at the 10:30 a.m. Sunday Mass at the Buckley Center Auditorium. There, nine UP students will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation and so complete their sacramental initiation in the Roman Catholic Church.
Each of them has their own story and their own particular reasons for being Catholic; each one chooses to receive this sacrament to continue to live out the fullest expression of their faith in Jesus Christ as revealed through Divine Word and Sacred Tradition.
"I am getting confirmed because I feel comfortable with my knowledge of my faith to take the next step. It's taken me a while to get here but I'm ready," Kaity Stewart, a sophomore, said.
In the choice of her Confirmation name, she "chose the patron saint of Margaret of Scotland (1045-1092) because she is the type of woman that I would like to be like. This lady could do everything and anything she put her mind to."
As a princess born in Hungary but brought as a teenager to Scotland, St. Margaret married the king. They had six sons and two daughters and she shared her Christian faith with them; in fact, one of their sons, David, was also recognized as a saint.
St. Margaret's claims to fame were her extensive works of charity. Margaret frequently visited and cared for the sick, she founded hostels for the poor and fed them from her own table and she founded hospitals for the poor who were sick and provided for them from the royal treasury. As Kaity recommends, "If you don't know her story, you have to read about her!"
"Why am I being confirmed? The best way to answer is that it is what I feel I am meant to do. I have been a Catholic my whole life, but I want to become a fully recognized member of the Catholic Church and further my relationship with God," Samantha Warren, a sophomore, said.
She, too, discovered an amazing saint for her patron: St. Clare of the Cross (1268–1308) of Montefalco, also known as St. Clare of the Cross who lived in Umbria, Italy.
"I looked for a saint that had an interesting story or seemed similar to a person I want to be or someone that stood out to me. St. Clare's description stood out to me to be very devoted to Christ. She seemed to be someone that just wanted to serve God and did not care about other ambitious things. This is the way I want to live my life," Samantha said. "Her story only gets more interesting with her heart displaying visible symbols of Christ (after her death, medical doctors found a replica of a cross with a corpus in her heart composed of nerves and other human tissue). I found her completely fascinating. And it is a bonus that her name is my middle name!"
Let's keep in thought and prayer those who will extend their Baptism this Sunday to include the Confirmation of their spirits as followers of Jesus Christ.
Fr. Michael Belinsky is the Assistant Director to Campus Ministry. He can be contacted at belinsky@up.edu
(The Beacon)
