While not a Little Flower saint due to his, well, being a man, St. Francis of Assisi will forever be one of my top 5 saints. The reasons are numerous from my love for the film Brother Sun, Sister Moon, (1972), my love for animals and the thought that I might someday be a veterinarian from my love of Dr. James Herriott’s All Creatures Great and Small series of book of the mid 1970’s. This led me to having him as my Confirmation saint.
I bring him up today as it his feast day! I remember during my Confirmation instruction having to explain why I was choosing a male saint and gave the same reasons as above. I was given the okay, so, here I am Rachel Mary Francis (VanDurme) Watkins.
(Philip Fruytiers, St. Francis of Assisi, oil on canvas, 259.5 x 169.3 cm, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp)
THOUGHTS ON CONFIRMATION
Coming back to Confirmation; I gave it some thought today as well. I regularly forget I have a Confirmation saint. I forget I have another saint dedicated to helping me get back to heaven. Along with my name saints and guardian angel, confirmation saints are there to help us. In other words, a team of holy people and angelic beings have only our best interests at heart. How wonderful is that?!
It was also a good day to reflect and remember the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit – wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. Do I ever think of asking St. Francis for help when I need an increase in these gifts? No! I fumble along and do my best. These gifts are given to us to help us become soldiers for Christ; warriors ready to battle temptation and sin. They are gifts given to help form ourselves into greater reflections of Christ to those around us. As we use these gifts for ourselves and others we are calling them to be reflections as well.
Today was then a doubly great day to thank St. Francis of Assisi for being a great confirmation saint AND to ask him to increase in me all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. While Confirmation is a one-time-only sacrament, we can always ask for those gifts to be dusted off from lack of use and increased in times of heavy use. And parenting is a time of heavy use in all of these gifts from God.
WHO IS YOUR CONFIRMATION SAINT?
Perhaps you might give your own Confirmation saint a little extra attention today or at least circle their feast day on your calendar. If you have children already confirmed, maybe take a moment to remind them of their saints and the gifts they were given to better live the Catholic life.
We have not been left alone to figure life out. God is generous in giving and giving and giving. He cannot be outdone in generosity. We are the ones who forget to ask!
(If you are looking for support for one of your children a study for the sacrament of Confirmation, we have one!
