A Pagan Eye For Confirmation Part Two
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The Archbishop had other things to do that day, so we got a Monsignor instead. This was a very good thing, because I would have refused to let Raymond Burke "bless" my son. Dammit, if L is going to be confirmed, I want him to get the whole holy deal. I do not want it tainted by the Archbishop of Evil: Raymond Burke; closer of churches and warrior against St. Stanislaus. That man will die a martyr if he stays here much longer. St. Louisans don't have a lot of tolerance for intolerant, money-grubbing Archbishops. How that man made it that close to the Papacy is beyond me. But I digress... My anti-Burke rant can be saved for another day. Because this post is about my son and his evening of fun.

Mass began with a procession. The school choir sang something we couldn't quite make out, while a variety of people paraded down the aisle. There were two altar boys (altar persons, it just so happened that they were both male), one deacon, three priests, the monsignor, all the confirmees, and all their sponsors.

I won't rehash every point of the mass. If you're Catholic, you already know it; and if you're not, you probably don't care. But this mass showed me how thoroughly paganised I am. I viewed it the way I would view an open full moon ritual. I watched their ceremonies and energy workings, and thought it was really neat.

The Candles
Candles provide energy, among other things; and Catholic candles (once consecrated) absorb negativity, burn it up as flame, and give back a gentle neutrality. It's a subtle use of the fire element.

The Incense
Incense is a purifier, a carrier of prayers. It represents the air element. With Catholics, incense use is a high art. They have fun with it. They use it during the procession to pave the way up to the altar. They wave it at everyone gathered at the altar. They wave it over the bible before the priest reads the gospel. And for L's confirmation, they threw in an extra bit. I don't recall this from my childhood, maybe because I wasn't paying attention... The incense bearing altar boy carried the censor to the priests. Oh! The priests! I haven't mentioned them yet! Each one was a unique individual. The monsignor was like a business man. He took his exalted status seriously, without being smug or prideful. He knew he had a solemn duty to carry out, and he did his job well. (I guess it beats paperwork!) He had an attendant, whom I thought of as "the bodyguard". Because he was a big, burly guy who never left the monsignor's side. There were also the parish priests; Father Rice -the pastor, and Father Speizia -the happy priest. Ok, so...

The altar boy brought the censor to the happy priest, who held it while the monsignor blessed and lit it. The happy priest waved it at the other priests. They bowed to him, he bowed back, and everybody made the sign of the cross. Then he came out to the audience and waved the censor at us. He gave us a bow, and came up grinning. It was pretty cool.

The Blessing
This is a rite of water, that most pagans sadly skip. The water is consecrated beforehand and placed in a bowl. A doo-dad that looks like a rattle also rests in the bowl. For the blessing rite, the priest with the most clout (the monsignor, in this case) sprinkles the whole crowd with consecrated water. He does this by using the rattle doo-dad. He dips it in the bowl (which is carried by an altar boy), spins it three times, then pulls it out of the water and flicks it at the crowd, causing drops of water to rain down on us all. Is that not cool? Think what you could do with a rite like that!
Walk and flick, walk and flick, until most everybody has gotten a drop. When I was a kid, the priest would chant in Latin while he was flicking. This was a silent ceremony.

The TransSubstantiation
I would place this in the Earth category, just to round things out. Although it's that and more. When done properly, the TransSubstantiation is the coolest part of the mass. The priest literally draws down God and puts Him in unleavened bread and watered down wine. Which you get to eat and drink later on.
I had trouble keeping a straight face during this one, because there were 4 priests at the altar, trying hard to mesh their energies to perform this most sacred of rites.
The monsignor did the actual transsubstantiation, while bodyguard priest stood behind and to the right, happy priest stood behind and to the left, and beyond him was Father Rice. Bodyguard and happy priest both lifted a hand and pretended to do nothing, while pouring energy into the monsignor. They looked so casual. Their energies weren't meshing well, until bodyguard priest tweaked the end result before it went into the unleavened bread. None of that was funny, of course. It was poor Father Rice, who had me mentally laughing. He was one priest too many. So he wasn't participating. Except that he kept rocking up onto his toes and peeking over the shoulder of happy priest, to make sure they were doing it right.
It was cute.

Confirmation
This is a rite of passage, wherein you are given the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is important, because the Apostles couldn't perform miracles until after they had received the gift of the Holy Spirit. So once you've gotten it, you can do everything the Apostles did... if God so wills it.
The gift is given through a dab of grease to the forehead.
I hope I'm not being sacrilegious in talking about this stuff. I found the whole process interesting. When I received my confirmation, I was too emotional to pay much attention to the ceremony.