1. Robert Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land, page 222:
“…A desire not to butt into other people’s business is at least eighty percent of all human wisdom…and the other twenty percent isn’t very important.”
2. At Latin mass this morning, philosopher priest talked about the sacrament of confirmation. Essentially, it’s imparting the gifts of the Holy Spirit on the adolescent Catholic. According to the priest, it’s an important sacrament because it prepares the Catholic to defend the faith and to be able to die for it, if necessary. I wonder if that’s because the person is receiving the power of the Holy Spirit at that point.
The priest said that a person can be saved apart from confirmation, since she’s already been baptized. But then he expressed doubt about that position. I was also unclear about whether or not an unconfirmed person can participate in sacraments. I thought I heard the priest say that an unconfirmed person can’t fully participate in the life of the church. Yet, he also acknowledged the existence of Catholics who fell through the cracks and did not receive confirmation. Obviously, Catholics aren’t policed on whether or not they’ve been confirmed whenever they want to partake of certain sacraments!
The priest said that Martin Luther had a dim view of confirmation, viewing it merely as an initiatory rite into adulthood (or something like that). This is ironic because I first heard of confirmation from a Lutheran friend of my sister’s.