Confirmation 2016

Last night, my daughter got confirmed. Somewhere in that mass, in between the homily and the laying on of hands, I knew as one can only know through the Holy Spirit, how much He wants to flood our lives with grace.

My daughter chose Monica as her patron saint, and a family friend she's known since she was born, as her sponsor.   We talked about the seven gifts.  If I were to describe my daughter, I would say she has fortitude, kindness, a thirst for knowledge, and the right judgment to know, talent will only take you so far, you have to will everything else.  

She didn't feel well this morning, but went to school anyway.  She pushes through suffering, as something to simply bear, rather than complain about.   She practices.  She does first and second and even third drafts.  This is a child who despite my parenting, gets how you tackle the academic world.  It's work.

I sat marveling at this person we once worried we'd break because she was so tiny.   I can think of all the forging in her life, the loss of her hair (at 4), the seemingly at the time permanent crossing of her eyes (at 8), not being up to speed in reading when she compared herself to her peers or her siblings. (9).

I know she stressed about her weight, she stressed when her siblings teased her, I know she stressed when friends left the school.  I know when she cried and cried hard, but didn't curse her fate.  She pushed all the harder.   Her sufferings, though seemingly small, could have made her smaller still.  They didn't. They made her kind.  

If there's a motto to my daughter's life, it is "There's a way.  There's always a way.  I just have to keep looking."   She never lost faith, She is Faith.  

Sacraments are an outward sign of an eternal reality.   Confirmation just confirmed what we've watched growing for 14 years, a beautiful soul.  

Faith's Confirmation 2016