You need to pray!

Holy Confirmation in the Church of Our Lady, Amsterdam

23 Confirmands received holy Confirmation during the celebration of the holy Eucha­rist at 6 p.m. in the church of Our Lady, Keizers­gracht in Am­ster­dam. Mass was in English but the faithful came frome many places in the world, inclu­ding the Netherlands.

By name

Every Sunday this Holy Mass is very much attended: the church is comple­tely full with many young people. This is God's grace and of course a result of the pas­to­ral work of Fr. Rafael de Ojeda, who is the rector of this church, that is entrusted to Opus Dei, but property of the Syrian Ortho­dox Church community. I noticed that Fr. De Ojeda knew all the confirmands by name, which means that he is really in touch with them.

Celebration

Fr. rector concelebrated this holy Mass, another priest was hea­ring the many confessions. One of the seminarians is assigned to this church during this academic year and he was there to give a hand, together with altar servers from the community.

The rea­dings of Mass were those of the 7th sunday of Easter. We met Jesus praying at the Last Supper and the disciples praying after the ascension of Our Lord, while they were wai­ting for the coming of the holy Spirit.

Having delivered a part of the homily in Dutch, I continued in English:

You need to pray!

CONFIRMATION ON THE SEVENTH SUNDAY OF EASTER A

Dear confirmands and all of you, brothers and sisters,

Confirmation

I am very happy to be able to administer the sacra­ment of Confirmation to you today, for this is the sacra­ment through which you receive strength and help from God the Holy Spirit to make good choices, to be able to do good things and to remain strong when it seems very fun and temp­ting to do something wrong, even though at the same time you feel that it is not right.

Back to Jerusalem

You are being confirmed on a particularly beautiful day. The apostles, the disciples, have said goodbye to Jesus, who has returned to heaven. We celebrated that last Thursday. Those apostles then went back to Jerusalem, probably to the room where they had also shared the Last Supper with Jesus. There they remained, praying together with Mary, the mother of Jesus, and a few others.

Pentecost

For over eight full days they remained there praying, and then it happened: the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost. We will celebrate that next week. The apostles saw fire and were set ablaze, filled with enthusiasm for Jesus. They were filled with power; their fear vanished; they went out and began to speak so enthusiastically about their faith that thousands of people were then baptised.

So much prayer?

Perhaps you think that’s a very long time, praying for over eight, nine days. Yet there are many people who still do that. They call it a ‘retreat’ or ‘Spiritual Exercises’. And in a more limited way we do so in preparation for Pentecost, with the prayer of the novena.

The importance of prayer 

But even though eight, nine days just for prayer, might seem a bit long to you, it is very important that you pray! Today you, dear candidates for confirmation, will receive the Holy Spirit. He will, so to speak, come to dwell in your heart. But for the Holy Spirit to work effectively and to let Him help you make good choices, do good things, and become a good person, you must pray. It won’t work without prayer! Only if you pray and ask for it will the Holy Spirit help you properly.

Let Him in!

That’s not because the Holy Spirit doesn’t want to help you if you don’t pray, no! It’s because God can only help you if you let Him in. You must open your heart to the Holy Spirit; you must long for Him; the door of your heart must be wide open, so that He can come in. That is the mea­ning of prayer.

What to say in prayer?

So what should you say or do when you pray? To be honest, that isn’t really important, as long as you’re thin­king of God, as long as you try to dwell in His presence. It’s also very good to remember that God is with you, that He sees you, that He knows you and He loves you.
Once you realise that, you can cope with a great deal! A whole new world will open up to you. You may pray simply in your thoughts, or in your own words, almost just as you would have a chat with another person; you can pray using the words of a prayer you know, or in whatever way you like.

What is a good prayer?

Your prayer doesn’t have to be particularly beautiful or well thought out, nor does it have to be new or freshly composed every time. The Lord has no need to see how bright you are and how original. Your prayer can be simple and it has to be humble. Far more important is that you love God.

Love

When two people are deeply in love, their conversations might not be very original; perhaps they say the same thing a hundred times: “Darling, I love you, I love you, I love you...”. And they never tire of it! It is the same with God. It is allright to do the same if you pray: “Lord, I love you”. Even if you say a hundred times that you love Him, that is already very beautiful and God never gets tired of it, because He loves you too!
So your prayer doesn’t have to be with beautiful words, or cleverly thought out or anything like that; just try to love Him, to open your heart to Him, and then His Spirit will enlighten you and show you the way through life, time and again.

Jesus' prayer

Jesus prayed many times. We heard His prayer in the Gospel. On that last eve­ning of His earthly life, Jesus prayed a great deal. He prayed for us: “I pray for them... because they belong to You”. And do you want to know what Jesus prayed for? That was made clear in today’s Gospel. Jesus asked that you might come to know Him.

What does it mean to know God?

Coming to know Jesus. He didn’t mean that you should memorise the catechism and all sorts of facts about Jesus and about God the Father, though it is certainly a good idea to have a good knowledge of the catholic faith, But, no, this is not that; this prayer of Jesus is about kno­wing God in the sense of: understan­ding Him, sen­sing Him, for­ming an inner bond with Him, heart to heart.

The power of the Spirit

So once you have been confirmed: keep praying, ask for the light of the Holy Spirit, that you may sense in your heart which path God wishes to show you. And if things ever get dark in your life - because of the unpleasant things that simply do happen - a light will still shine in your life, because He will stand by you, will help you, and will give you spiritual strength. That is the power of the holy Spirit.

Holy Confirmation

In a moment I shall confirm you: I shall then lay my hand on your head, as a sign that God will always protect you and that He is with you, even in dark days. Then I shall anoint your forehead with oil, holy chrism. You will not see much of it; just as God is invisible, so too is this oil, this holy chrism, which penetrates you, even if it is barely visible. Such is the power of God’s grace. You cannot see God, though you may sense that He is at work in you, that He enlightens you and shows you the way...
Therefore, let us pray, that we may know the Lord, heart to heart.
I wish you all a beautiful and blessed journey through life, with the help of God’s Holy Spirit!