After months of prayerful preparation, a group of twenty-six Abbey students received the sacrament of Confirmation this past Sunday, May 9, in the Abbey church. Bishop Thomas Tobin of the Diocese of Providence conferred the sacrament, having accepted Prior Michael Brunner’s invitation to come to celebrate with us this year. The Confirmation group was directed and presented by Prior Michael, completing a year-long program of meetings, prayers, and a retreat, learning more about the faith and committed Catholic life. The group also was assisted by our Manquehue visitors from Chile, who helped Prior Michael provide the Confirmation retreat this winter. This retreat successfully took place here on campus, despite a winter storm that held off just long enough. The Chilean group has also joined many of the Confirmandi in lectio divina, a principal element of traditional Benedictine life so central to Manquehue spirituality. 

While the Confirmation service was limited to Confirmandi, their sponsors, and visiting family, it was livestreamed over the monastery’s YouTube channel and is still available for viewing. The candidates received the sacramental anointing from Bishop Tobin, who then joined the monastic community as principal celebrant of the Eucharist. His message to the Confirmandi focused on two aspects of the Pentecost experience of the early church, its unification in the Spirit as well as its apostolic mission to the world. Bishop Tobin suggested, “in an analogous way that is exactly what the Holy Spirit does for you today in the sacrament of Confirmation.” While noting that the modern-day world is indeed a difficult context in which to serve as a witness to Christ’s resurrection, the bishop exhorted the group to the “awesome responsibility, to be a disciple and representative of Christ in the world by the way you live…” But he also assured the candidates that they should realize they are strengthened by the love and support of their families, their friends, the church – and all, most importantly, are strengthened through the gift of the Holy Spirit. Reminding them of this support, Bishop Tobin exhorted the group: “We might say that your Confirmation is your Pentecost. The spirit continues that process of bringing you into the church. This is not the first time that you belong to the church, of course, you became a member of the church when you were baptized. And your membership in the church has been strengthened and confirmed every time you have come here to receive Holy Communion, the body and blood of our Lord. Now, today, your membership in the church is strengthened, it’s completed, it’s sealed, we say, in the power of the Holy Spirit. And that is so very, very good, so very important: you cannot be a Christian Catholic all by yourself, but you need the church. Just as surely as the church needs you and your gift of faith, your joy, your enthusiasm and conviction. So, the spirit continues that process and incorporating you into the church, the body of Christ.”  

This corporate aspect of the life of faith, so physically restricted over the past year, indeed seemed renewed in the sacrament, despite the lingering masks and distancing. As the School has throughout the year negotiated the restrictions and protocols required during this time, so too was the Confirmation service adjusted, and successfully brought to fruition for this year’s group. The Confirmandi together with family were even invited to the dining hall afterwards, with the dining staff able to provide a carefully planned and orchestrated Confirmation and Mother’s Day brunch. After last year’s postponement of Confirmation until the sacrament could be celebrated for them this past fall, celebrating this day as scheduled marked a welcome step forward, an opportunity and a blessing received by the Confirmandi and the entire extended community with gratitude.