BALAAM'S ASS: Why Confirmation Must End
BALAAM'S ASS: Why Confirmation Must End
If we're going to keep the Day, let's call it what it should be: First Communion. And let's actually stick with--again--a real Sacrament. Let's have catechesis first...and second, and third, and fourth, and forever. Let's form a real Catechumenate made up of whomever is ready at the time: adults and children together. Let's take as much time as we have to. Let's teach the whole of the Faith, and not expect that children--or adults, for that matter--know what a Bible is and how to use it. Let's teach the liturgy of the Church, both broadly as the form of the Church's life throughout the liturgical year and narrowly as the form of the Divine Service. Let's teach them how to pray. Let's teach them how to examine themselves prior to partaking of the Lord's Supper. Let's teach them to sorrowfully confess their sins when they weigh heavily upon them; let's teach them to gladly receive the absolution of the Lord through the mouths of His servants, pastors. Am I naïve? Probably. I'm not even a pastor yet. But I know this: half-hearted (I had a football coach who used another term), short-term teaching and quasi-sacramentalism have no place in the Church of Christ.See, I'm not the only obstinate Seminary student. Timotheos really does provide a well-articulated statement on his feelings of confirmation. I've said similar but am much more kind and accomodating to the practice of confirmation. Read the whole post.
