By Andrew Junker | May 21, 2009 | The Catholic Sun

CAREFREE — They were lined up down the main aisle of Our Lady of Joy’s church in starched shirts, white dresses and uncomfortable dress shoes.

And they were nervous.

Well, “nervous and excited,” explained Jenna Mateo, one of the 40 or so third-graders who made their first Communion and were confirmed by Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted May 10 at the north Valley parish.

Maci McMeel — who chose Christina as her confirmation name — agreed with Mateo.

“I was kind of nervous because there were a lot of people watching us,” she said. McMeel said she had thought a lot about what it would be like to receive the Eucharist, and that making her first Communion was very “exciting.”

Across the Diocese of Phoenix, confirmation and first Communion season is in full bloom. Hundreds of children are receiving the sacraments either from the hands of the bishop or one of his appointed vicars or deans.

Jill Pavolovsky prepared the young confirmandi at Our Lady of Joy. The sacrament preparation is worked into the regular religious education classes at the parish, which have been focused on preparing for confirmation and first Communion for about a year now.

“The restored order of the sacraments helps the children receive the Blessed Sacrament more worthily and gives them the graces to make better choices in their lives,” said Pavlovsky, who is known to her students simply as “Miss Jill.”

Linking confirmation to baptism as one of the sacraments of initiation, as well as teaching the children about Pentecost and the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit “helps them understand how confirmation will help them live out, spread and defend the faith,” she said, “as a third-grader and hopefully beyond.”

In his homily, Bishop Olmsted told the children about their new responsibilities as fully initiated members of the Church and gave them advice on how to remain close to Christ.

The Gospel reading included Jesus telling His disciples, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in Me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without Me you can do nothing.”

“These words of Jesus help us see why holy Communion and confirmation are such great blessings from God,” Bishop Olmsted said. “The sacraments help us stay in communion with Christ, and that’s the only way to have real joy.”

The bishop said that, as branches on the true vine, God prunes us, feeds us and seals us, to protect us and help us bear good fruit.

He prunes us through the sacrament of penance and through our sorrows, which, “If we accept them in union with Christ on the cross, we actually grow in our ability to love,” the bishop said.

He feeds us through the Eucharist. And He seals us with the Holy Spirit at confirmation.

“With the Holy Spirit come wondrous gifts that strengthen our oneness with Jesus and strengthen our mission in the Church,” the bishop said.

Holy Spirit power

Children at St. Steven Parish in Sun Lakes heard a very similar message May 3 at a confirmation Mass celebrated by Fr. Dan McBride.

“The Holy Spirit is what gives us strength to stand up and say, ‘I am a Catholic Christian,’” Fr. McBride said to the 52 children and teens getting confirmed.

“It is the power of the Holy Spirit that helps us live out the faith,” he said, and added that it’s not enough simply to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit. “You have to use those gifts. You have to share them with others.”

Spreading the Gospel and living its message every day is something the parish emphasized in its sacrament preparation, said Rita Correa, who taught the confirmandi.

“We hope they will take what we’re doing and what they’re doing and keep it, so that they will continue to be members of the faith who will always be there and help others,” Correa said. “We definitely stress the need to help others.”

Sun Lakes is a retirement community, but recently a number of young families living in the surrounding area have joined the parish. This is only the third year that the parish has confirmed its younger members.

“It’s been interesting because we’ve had a nice mix of teachers,” Correa said. “We have parents and members of our retired community teaching, so it makes for a nice blend.”

She said the sacrament preparation has been one way for this newly mixed community to get to know and learn from each other, even if the instruction sometimes came from the students.

“Each and every one of us has found that we get back as much as we put in, if not more,” Correa said. “Sometimes it comes from the children in such a simple way that we wonder why we make it so hard.”