W e cannot see God, but we believe in him, and know he is there. 
We trust in his love for us and try to live like he calls us to. 
W e cannot see Jesus, but we trust that what the bible tells us is true, and we believe he comes to us at Holy Mass. 
W e believe we will see him again once we get to heaven, and we try really hard to live like we are supposed to, right? 

W e can do this because our faith tells us that these things are true. 
It is the same for the Holy Spirit! 

W e cannot see him, but our faith tells us that he is with us just like Jesus said he would be.   In the book of John, chapter 14, Jesus said to his disciples “ I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever”   Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit! 

There were still so many things that Jesus had to teach his followers, and he wasn’t able to do it all before he died.  But it was God’s plan that he would give us the Holy Spirit so that from that time on until the end of time, we would always have him with us, not matter what!  No matter where we were.
No matter what year we were born in.
We would never be alone! Isn’t that wonderful!
   
 In the sacrament of Confirmation, the grace that God gave us at Baptism is finally made complete! The Holy Spirit stirs up within us those gifts that we received so that as we continue to grow and learn, we become more and more like Jesus… more and more holy.  And this is something that we do for the rest of our lives!  It doesn’t just end when we receive confirmation!  Our life with Jesus continues to grow..

In the first chapter of your confirmation workbook, we learned about the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives  that help us to live our life and grow closer to God.  When we start living our life using those gifts, the Fruit will start to grow too and begin to show in our lives!  The Holy Spirit living in us makes all the difference.  He makes us strong and helps us make good decisions.    
Click here for a list of the fruit and what they mean.

STOP HERE AND READ CHAPTER 3, PAGES 19-26 IN YOUR CONFIRMATION BOOK. 
AFTER READING FROM THE BOOK, CONTINUE WITH THE NEXT SECTION.

The church celebrates the feast of St.  Faustina on October 5.

Maria Faustina Kowalska, better known as Saint Faustina, was born in 1905 in a small village of Glogowiec, Poland. She came from a big family, so as soon as she finished her schooling, she went to work to make money to help her family. But she knew that what she really wanted to be doing, what God was asking her to do in life, was to become a nun.  A nun is a woman who decides that she does not want to get married to a man and have children, but that she wants to spend all of her life serving God. 

Faustina left home and went to the city of Warsaw to see if she could enter a convent, which is a place that women who give their life to God live.  But no matter which convent she visited,  they would not let her enter.  She finally found a convent that would let her become a member!

Sister Faustina loved Jesus very much and wanted to do her best to serve him.  One day, Jesus started talking to her, and gave her some very special messages for everyone.  Those messages had to do with his love and mercy for us, and Jesus wanted to make sure that everyone knew about this!   Sr. Faustina had a painting made so that everyone could see what Jesus had showed her.   She even wrote a book that people are still reading today!

Sister  Faustina died in October of 1938  when she was 33 years old.  After that, those who knew her were very busy making sure that many people all over the world heard the messages she had received from Jesus. 
Faustina’s work was so important, and her life such a wonderful example of how all of us should live that in the year  2000,  Pope John Paul II proclaimed Sr. Faustina a Saint! 
Her work was so important for all of us that Pope JPII declared the Sunday after Easter “Divine Mercy Sunday”, like Jesus had asked. 
Every day, but also on this day in particular, people all over the world still pray the same prayers that Jesus taught St Faustina.  Also, on Good Friday, many will start praying the Novena prayer, which will end on Divine Mercy Sunday (April 19 this year).

St Faustina is the patron saint of Mercy.  
St Faustina pray for us, but especially for all those who are in need of God's mercy today!

Click here for a link for more information on Divine Mercy, and for the Novena prayers.      https://www.thedivinemercy.org/message/devotions/novena