The Catholic Church has seven sacraments.
To a catholic child, only four of these sacraments are important.
The first of these is the sacrament of baptism. We were too young to remember our own initiation into the church, but it was important if you had little brothers or sisters. A baptism in your family meant cleaning the house like the pope himself was coming to visit. It also meant uncomfortable church clothes and a longer than usual mass. But it also meant a big party, brand name party snacks and a lot of witnesses if your mom hit you when you acted up.
The second important sacrament was confession, quickly followed by first communion. In order to partake in communion with the church, you needed to confess your sins. In 2nd grade, we didn't have much to worry about. The bible didn't have much to say about hair pulling or most of the other things that happened in the backseat before mom heard,"I'm telling!" But it did teach us to think about our actions, maybe saving a sibling from some revenge when mom wasn't looking.
First communion was a big deal. It was your first reception of Holy Communion, or the body of Christ. The girls had to wear white dresses, symbolizing the bride of Christ, while the boys wore suits, symbolizing that they could clean up nicely. More importantly, it was a party for us, and we got presents.
All of our family parties were the same. EVERYBODY came over. Friends, neighbors, old relatives that we didn't know bearing jello molds. The food was great! Besides the name brand snacks, communion parties were usually a CBS catered affair...big pans of Chicken, Beef and Sausage supplemented by cole slaw and potato salad. And beer. Lots of beer. You could tell how long a party would last based on how much beer was left in the cooler.
Like the end of the television broadcast day, everyone knew it was time to go home when the beer was gone and someone pulled out a guitar and played Danny Boy.
Hands down, the most important sacrament of all was confirmation, the sacrament of Christian maturity. Somehow, shrouded in mystery, you received the Holy Spirit. According to Wikipedia, the sacrament is customarily conferred only on people old enough to understand it, but it's still confusing to me. All I know is that it IS NOT like getting bit by a radioactive spider and gaining superpowers.
Confirmation wasn't the big party sacrament like the others, but you got to pick a saint to help you live a Christian life. And you got to take their name.
People had various reasons for choosing their saints. Girls tended to take a relatives name, while boys chose warrior type saints, like Patrick, Richard or Michael. Some people took names as an inspiration, like Christina, Veronica or Claire. Uncle Jim threatened to take Ezekiel or Beelzebub just because they were bible names and he wanted to scare Aunt Carrie. Others took names because they sounded good with the rest of their name.
I chose a practical saint, Elizabeth. Saint Elizabeth taught you to be happy with second place. Imagine, an angel visits you and gives you a miracle baby, who is going to be John the Baptist. How cool is that? But wait, who's that coming over the hill? Your cousin Mary, who is giving birth to The Lord! St. Elizabeth gives you patience when you just can't catch a break.
At this point, we were considered adults in the church. With the help of the the Holy Spirit and the backing of a saint, we were now ready to take on the world. Or, in my case, not sweat the small stuff. We had God on our side.
