As the Easter season progresses, many highschool students are preparing to be confirmed. For Catholics, confirmation is the third sacrament of initiation and it is a two-year process.
Nora Keating ‘26 received her confirmation on Thursday, April 25th at St. Viator Parish.
Keating expressed that she was “ready to get confirmed,” and she understood the importance of this sacrament was “excited because it is the first sacrament that I am making that is my decision, and I feel responsible and proud to receive it.”
Keating attended St. Viator Catholic School for eight years and is very familiar with the community and people she is entering into this new stage of her life with.
“I feel like these confirmation classes at St. Viator have made me become more involved in the community and they have really helped me understand the full meaning of the sacrament. There wasn’t one confirmation class that I didn’t enjoy,” Keating stated.
St. Viator Parish’s confirmation program is run by Rosy Hartz. She and many other group leaders help make confirmation the best that it can be. There are many students who sometimes don’t want to be in class, or say they’re parents are making them, but because of Hartz and the other leaders, they make the most out of it.
“You get out of this what you take out of this,” Hartz always says.
Keating has had many memorable moments during confirmation class throughout the two years. “Rosy Hartz has the ability to let us have a fun time, but also teach us a lesson about God. There is always a moral to the story.”
Some of Keating’s favorite confirmation class memories were when they had a gingerbread house decorating competition or when they played board games in teams of two. The board games rules were rigged and one team won unfairly, which taught them that “life is unfair and it helped us realize that it is up to us on how we react and view the unjustness in our lives,” Keating stated.
“The leaders of the confirmation classes always find fun activities for us to do while tying it into our faith and helping us learn new lessons,” Keating said.
Each person who gets confirmed has to choose a sponsor that has already been confirmed before. Keating chose her older brother, Tommy Keating.
“I am very close with my brother and I knew that he would love to be my sponsor. I think when choosing a sponsor it should mean a lot and be someone that you truly love and look up to,” Keating said.
