The Holy Spirit

  

Today we celebrated the gift of the Holy Spirit at Alison’s confirmation.  Alison is now officially a Catholic.  Boy, was it a long ceremony/mass!  I remember Sarah’s confirmation being long, but not three hours long.  We had the Arch Bishop actually do the mass/ceremony, and not just a regular bishop, so it was a pretty big deal.  We were warned ahead of time that the Arch Bishop usually speaks to each candidate for a minute or two before he does the anointing.  And there were about 90 candidates, so the anointing portion took roughly two hours to complete.  I managed to get a few good photos, and was able to take a couple of pictures of Ali being anointed.  That was discouraged when Sarah was confirmed.

 

We found out after mass from Ali’s sponsor that the Bishop was impressed with the Saint name that Ali chose, St. Gianna Beretta Molla.  He told us that there is a shrine to her in LaCrosse, which surprised me.  I knew there is a shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe, but I didn’t know there was a shrine to St. Gianna there.  I think that is pretty cool that she can connect with her Saint that way.  The next time we go to LaCrosse we’ll have to stop by and have a look at it.