Journal in France in 1845 and 1848 with Letters from Italy in 1847: Of Things and Persons Concerning the Church and EducationAllies, T. W. (Thomas William)
Religion
Journal in France in 1845 and 1848 with Letters from Italy in 1847: Of Things and Persons Concerning the Church and Education
Allies, T. W. (Thomas William)
France -- Church history -- 19th century; Italy -- Church history -- 19th century
_Tuesday, July 11._--The confirmation was at nine. The pupils formed
in procession along the corridor into the chapel, some sixty or eighty
of the rear in albes, followed by the masters and some other clergy,
the cross and crosier immediately preceding the Archbishop; we
followed behind, and then mounted to the latticed tribune at the end
of the chapel, whence the whole disposition of the congregation, the
multitude of albes, the altar dressed for the Holy Sacrifice, and the
splendid habit of the Archbishop, formed a most pleasing scene. He
said Mass, and communicated, I should think, a hundred pupils; as they
knelt two and two all up the chapel and received successively from his
hands, nothing could be more solemn. There was a moment in this
service particularly touching--the Archbishop took his crosier in his
hand and standing before the altar said, "Benedicat vos omnipotens
Deus, Pater, et Filius +, et Spiritus Sanctus." It seemed like the
great High Priest Himself blessing His people. After Mass he stood
before the middle of the altar, and, requesting them to be
seated, addressed them for about twenty minutes. His manner was a
mixture of grace and simplicity most pleasing to behold; indeed, his
whole demeanour represented exactly the priest, the father, and the
bishop, and left behind it a perfume as it were of the heavenly
hierarchy, among whose earthly counterpart he ranked. He enlarged upon
the triple blessing bestowed upon us by the Holy Trinity, in creation,
in redemption, and in sanctification. Presently he spoke of the Holy
Eucharist as an extension of the Incarnation, (rapétissant) gathering
it up into little; and of Christ therein really, substantially, and
personally present in us. His vicaire général said, that in daily
confirmations during two months he never repeated himself, but varied
each address. He had no note, and spoke without effort. Then followed
an examination of the confirmans by himself during about thirty-five
minutes. He took boys here and there and asked them questions on the
elements of the faith, the sacraments, &c., in so low a voice that I
could only catch the general import. Then came the confirmation
itself, which, like our own, is very short. He stood at the middle of
the altar, and stretching out his hands towards the people, called
down on the confirmans kneeling before him the sevenfold gifts of the
Holy Ghost:
"The spirit of wisdom and understanding.--Amen.
"The spirit of counsel and ghostly strength.--Amen.
"The spirit of knowledge and true godliness.--Amen.
"Fill them, O Lord, with the spirit of thy fear, and sign them with
the sign of the cross of Christ unto eternal life."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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