​Resurrection  of  the  Lord  Parish

​​​ Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Diocesan Publication 

In the tradition of the Church, not necessarily in your own life’s timeline, confirmation is the midpoint of Christian initiation, standing between font and table.  Full initiation is completed when a confirmed person shares in the Eucharist.  Centuries ago, this first sharing in the eucharistic assembly was marked by a first sharing in the Prayer of the Faithful.  This prayer raises up the needs of the church and human community, the concerns of the faithful assembled, as they prepare to lift up the world to the Father’s love.  So a person could not participate in the prayer until they were anointed with the “Oil of Thanksgiving.”  Next, the newly baptized presented their gifts at the altar, a sure sign of their investment a new way of life. Until the sixth century, these people normally drank a mixture of milk and honey as a kind of pre-Communion.  They were hungry, of course, since they were baptized hungry after long fasting, but this beautiful symbol of the promised land revealed them as God’s chosen, heirs to the promise.  Although the “milk shake” disappeared centuries ago, we still see the vigor of this new life whenever adults are initiated at Easter, and increasingly in confirmation ceremonies that are attentive to this meaning.

— Rev. James Field

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