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Dear Father Angelo,

it is me again, …, I am 16 years old.

I also wanted to ask you: I got my confirmation at the age of 15, so a little later than usual, but I did only one year of catechism about confirmation, because the parish priest, after witnessing my participation in the weekday Mass, my service as an altar server and maybe other things concerning faith, decided to let me do only one year of catechism. (Moreover, I was doing it in another parish which gave me a nihil obstat).

I think this can be done, given the evaluations of the parish priest…what do you think about it?

There is one more thing I want to tell you: I am developing and want to develop a great love and respect for creation, for God’s work. This love and respect come out also from the care for plants, animals, from the love for them because they are “gift from Him and from His Immense Love”.

I try to see in nature the wonderful life that God has created and given to us, the caring presence of God who is always close to his creatures, especially to us….

I sincerely want to be a guardian of creation. Here, Father, what do you think about this? I would also like to witness it before others!

Thank you once again Father.

Dearest,

1. Do not worry about the circumstances of your confirmation. The parish priest has judged you ready.

Certainly, this Sacrament has bestowed on you a special grace, that of bearing witness to Christ through your behavior and your words.

Perhaps you would have preferred to arrive at Confirmation better prepared.

But there is something you can always do, even now: renew the grace of the Sacrament received.

Try to do this.

Ask the Holy Spirit daily to renew and increase in you the grace of Confirmation.

Concretely commit yourself to saying the Veni Creator Spiritus or even the Veni Sancte Spiritus, or to asking for this grace when you come to the recitation of the third glorious mystery.

I know that some people revive the grace of this sacrament in just this way.

2. You tell me that you want to develop in yourself a great love and respect for creation, God’s work.

It is an act of love and gratitude to the Lord and should be present in everyone.

Pope Francis has written an encyclical on the subject, “Laudato sì“, meaning Praise Be to You.

I advise you to read it. It is wonderful.

3. The title is taken from the Canticle of Creatures by Saint Francis in which the Saint of Assisi says: “Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth”.

The Pope comments, “This sister now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts, wounded by sin, is also reflected in the symptoms of sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life. This is why the earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor; she “groans in travail” (Rom 8:22).” (Ls 2).

4. Pope Francis also states that “Care for nature is part of a lifestyle which includes the capacity for living together and communion.” (Ls 228).

5. I urge you to care for the environment, by performing a continuous act of charity towards your neighbor and as praise for the Creator.

The Lord will repay you.

I am sure of this because the Lord does not leave the smallest act of charity unrewarded. He Himself said so in Matthew 10:42.

I will again bless you and remember you to the Lord.

Father Angelo