Easter service and confirmation of my daughter and her cousin as Catholic

Yesterday was a unique evening. My daughter ,who is 34 years old, was getting confirmed as a Catholic at St Anne's Church. She had to attend classes for eight months, once a week and attend all the masses which average about 2 a week. I was very impressed by the thoroughness of the church in its desire to teach its theology and ritual to all followers.

This service was a culmination of that effort. It included a beautiful Catholic Easter Mass. This is celebrated as festival of resurrection of Jesus from the dead and as the beginning of the season of spring, which is the season of rebirth for all nature after long winter. Included in this the plants get new leaves, male birds start making noise to attract mates. All couples, especially females, try to spruce up nests for the family. It surely is a colorful time in North East of the United States.

The Story of Genesis, which is the origin of world according to Catholicism, was narrated in dark by three women stationed separately in succession. It was very impressive. I had forgotten to mention that as we entered the church, we were given candles with paper protector discs to stop the hot wax from falling on our hands. All lights were turned off and then the priest, I think his name is Father Mack, did a prayer and a very large candle was lit, symbolising the light of Jesus Christ. All the candles of the participants were lit from this one candle- creating a beautiful effect.

My daughter, her cousin and her fiancee all got confirmed this day. The reason for all of this was the desire of my niece to have her wedding performed by a priest in a Catholic Church in honor of her maternal grand mother from Portugal. She(grandma) thought that it was very important and blessed for one to get married in church as most of the people in her generation in villages of Portugal did not have enough resources to do so. Church weddings were mostly for the rich and priviledged, This fact I learned in my conversations with my wife and other people.