Around freshman and sophomore year, most Catholic teens make a commitment to their faith through the Sacrament of Confirmation. The following year, the newly confirmed can choose to help lead the confirmation classes for the next two years. A few of our Rosary seniors continued their confirmation journey by becoming confirmation leaders at their parishes.

I asked senior Angelina Sances why she chose to be a confirmation leader, and she shared, “I chose to be a leader because our head of confirmation suggested I help. Also, I thought it would be a great experience for my faith.”

For many Catholic youth, confirmation can be worthwhile, but difficult. Caela Cabal ’23 said her time as a leader has been a little harder than she expected: “The hardest part is always trying to engage a bunch of teens in conversations regarding Faith. They usually sit in silence, and I have to call on them, encouraging them to speak. But usually someone speaks up or I reword the question to get some answers out of the teens. Once we get a conversation going, everyone can have some deep answers.”

Caela also spoke about how confirmation influenced her faith life: “It’s helped me grow in my faith because by teaching others, I get to learn more about myself and my faith. I think answering their questions reminds me of certain things about God that I might’ve forgotten if I wasn’t a leader.”

Similarly, another leader Isabel Solorio ’23 described how she’s developed unexpected connections: “I actually have become close with some of the confirmation students. They come up to me and ask me for advice, and one even told me that they see me as an older sister.”

Later, Esther Solorio ’23 said, “I teach at Saint Columban, and we have confirmation from 3 to 5 and go to mass from 5 to 6. I like going to mass with my small groups because we get to pray together.”

I also talked to Esther about her favorite experience, and she said her favorite part of the job was retreats: “I liked going to all the retreats because I love singing and discussing our faith. I feel like we’ve bonded a lot in the last year, and I am so excited to get closer with them this year. Last year, my students and I laughed so much during the games, and we had some really good discussions about our faith.”

The Rosary confirmation leaders all agree that being a confirmation leader helps contribute to their faith life as well as to the lives of their students. If you are able to, and want to grow deeper in your faith, you should see if you could also look into becoming a confirmation leader.