Confirmation Class Visit

I spent an hour of my day today with 2/3 of the Confirmandi in the parish talking about Confirmation, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and how to deepen their relationship with God at this crucial time of discernment in their lives. I pulled out every teaching trick in my hat -- making the class very interactive, funny, using blind class polls, and even pulling out my little clay man theology lesson. The lesson, usually a real crowd pleaser, talks about how I, as the creator, put special little touches onto my little clay man that others might not necessarily see or know about, including the person himself. Also I pointed out that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't erase the fact that my fingerprints were all over that little man -- God's fingerprints are all over us just like that too. He knows every inch of us, every hair on our heads, every single thing about us. Now it's our turn to get to know God.

I left in a good mood. The teacher had even left me on my own and I can always teach better when I am alone and "in the zone", so to speak. The majority of the kids kept interacting with me even when their teacher wasn't there, and I felt like I had got through to a few of them with their gasps of "Ohhh!" when they realized that God's fingerprints are all over them.

When I got back to the office I found myself tagged in a Facebook note by one of the students I had just been teaching. It was a little girl's diary about the events in her day and she wrote, "She is the greatest person ever to introduce Confirmation.And.... she has FACEBOOK!!! Now she is the only teacher I know that has facebook and is willing to do anything to get in touch with everyone...COOLIYOS! lol that's not a word...."

That little girl can't imagine what an impact those words had on me today. That's the greatest compliment I could ever receive -- after all, all the ministry I am doing is for these little ones. If I don't reach any of them -- I am realistic to know that I could never expect to work miracles on an entire group of 13 and 14 year olds! -- I'm not doing what I'm here to do. But alas, today I got my own confirmation that I am reaching some of them, or more accurately, that God is using me to reach some of them, and that is the greatest feeling I could ever hope to have in this workistry of mine.

Thank you God!