Last week we saw how the gifts of God’s grace come to us through the outward signs of the Sacraments of the Church.  Now we are going to look at this in more detail, and the example we shall take is the Sacrament of Confirmation.  As you know, in the Sacrament of Confirmation Jesus gives to us the Holy Spirit of God.

Let’s compare the way this gift comes to you from Christ our King with the way a present would come to you from the Queen.  If the Queen was going to give you a present, she would not come along to your house and knock on your front door.  It would, of course, come to you through the Post Office.  As you know, the whole organisation of the Post Office belongs to the Queen’s government.  That is why on the red mail vans you see the words Royal Mail, and on our red pillar boxes is the monogram EII – Elizabeth II.  So in Confirmation Our Lord’s gift of grace comes to you through the Church.