Confirmation

Nadia de Luca was a popular girl at school – among the teaching staff. She was popular among a certain circle of students as well, of course, but Nadia seemed to take school, and everything associated with it very seriously and her teachers appreciated that. She performed probably at the top of her year group academically, she was reliable when she said she would do things – and she got things done ahead of time if at all possible.

For Nadia, everything about school was exciting. There were plenty of opportunities for her to make people notice her, not least for her natural leadership ability. She was elected School Councillor at her first opportunity in Year 4 and had remained in that role ever since. She had no fear of public speaking which was required of the role, and even went so far as to check out the debating club – but most of the others were Year 11 and 12 students and they didn’t like the upstart Year 8 student wanting to join.

Her classes were a joy too, it seemed. There was so much to learn about and she wanted to learn it. Unlike many of her peers, Nadia wanted to be the best. She was indeed very competitive, and did her very best to keep all the demands that were placed on her at school.

Her great passion was the natural and physical sciences. As a little girl she loved to be out in the garden or walking along the beach. No detail was too small to escape her attention, it seemed. She was fascinated by the living world of plants and animals, but she was equally fascinated by the landscape and all the forces that were at work in shaping it.

When she was nine, she decided to create a miniature farm at home. All the farm creatures were alive, but they were not your regular beasts. She had a fenced off area filled with snails – cozens of them. She created a fly wire cage in which she kept all the white cabbage moths she could catch, feeding them with flowers and sweetened water and providing lots of green leaves for them to lay their eggs on. She wanted to see how long it would be for the caterpillars to come out. She had a collection of tiny minnows from the river in a large bowl that she sank into the ground, making a pond, and she tilled a small patch of ground and sewed it with tiny millet seeds. Everything was an experiment to see how things would work out.

Nadia also loved Religion. Being in a Catholic school, of course, they had religion classes every day. Most of the kids thought it was all boring, but Nadia loved the stories that the nuns would tell them. Her favourite was the story of Mary MacKillop – she started the Sisters of St Joseph. She was a strong lady even though she got sick, and she cared about people, not just what you believe. Stories of saints, especially the women ones, like Joan of Arc and Clare of Assisi, filled Nadia with dreams of adventure and changing the world.

So it wasn’t surprising that when her classes gave their attention to the sacraments of Reconciliation and First Holy Communion, Nadia’s hand was the one most often in the air answering questions that had been asked or asking Mother Superior or Fr Tam all the questions that flooded into her mind when they were taking these classes.

And Nadia loved it when the classes went into church for chapel services. The smell of the incense seemed to lift her above everything around her. The sun would sparkle through the coloured glass of the stained glass at the front and in all the side windows. For as long as she could remember, she wanted to be an acolyte. The idea of being dressed up and going into the holy space where others could not go was especially exciting. Straight after her First Holy Communion she asked Fr Tam when she could become an Acolyte – she joined the team that year.

“Mama, how old were you when you did your Confirmation?”

“I was the same age as you, darling. I only went to a small parish school so Fr Paulo would come and take our classes. Then we had a wonderful party – that is all I remember. My Mama dressed me up in a long white dress – I thought it was like being a bride. And afterwards, we had a feast at home. All my aunties and uncles, and my cousins, they all came. St Joseph’s College is much bigger. What are they doing for you?”

“Well Mama, Mother Superior comes and takes some of our classes which is really good, because she usually only teaches in upper school. But just lately Fr Tam has been coming and he wants to make sure we know the Creed. Fr Tam thinks that if more people believed the Creed then the world would be much better. What do you think, Mama?”

“Maybe Fr Tam is right. What do you think?”

“Well, I think that the 10 Commandments which we learned in Catechism, and the Creed help people know how to be good, and if more people knew it and were good, then the world would be a better place, but I’m not sure if it is knowing the Creed or being good that makes the difference.”

“Doesn’t being good follow on from knowing the Creed? That’s what you said.”

“I know I said that, but some people can be good without knowing the 10 Commandments and the Creed. Alex Brankovic says she doesn’t believe any of that stuff – but she is good.”

“I guess that there are a lot of people who are good but who do not believe in anything.”

“But Mama, that’s not fair, really. If you go to heaven because you’re good, and you don’t have to keep the rules to be good, then why should they get the same as me when I am not just good, but I keep all the rules.”

Eula was always amazed at teenage philosophy and the convoluted pathways young people could create to make sense of their world. But she also loved the innocent passion of her daughter. While she knew many of her own friends from school had given up on the church when they became adults, Nadia had retained a deep and gentle faith that ensured her family was well acquainted with the local church – St Michael of All Angel’s – which had a convent of Josephite Sisters attached to it as well as a small household of Franciscan Friars Minor.

Fr Tam was young compared to the other friars and so he did most of the work in St Joseph’s College. The kids loved him, because even though he was a priest he was cool. He would wear jeans and tee shirts and join in the school plays and he knew everybody. Eula liked him, too, but for her, church was never better than when Fr Bob, the oldest friar in the household, took the service. He was gentle and lilting with the words. They felt like they came from his heart. And when it was time for the homily, he always seemed to find a very down to earth that would make sense to her.

For her, the mass was a mystery. She didn’t believe the so called ‘truth’ that the Host and wine were the actual body and blood of Jesus. But that did not diminish the power for her in that moment when she received those holy things. She had no words to describe it but she knew instinctively almost that it was more than bread and wine.

Eula was more religious than Alfeo, but he understood it. He didn’t get it just like she did, but he never refused to go with her and never said anything negative about Eula’s pleasure in it. They usually took the children and so they all would go together. Alfeo had even been known go by himself to mass if Eula was ill.

From such a nursery it was not surprising that Nadia grew up with such an ease, even passion for her religion. Eula’s response to her daughter’s philosophical conundrum was to encourage her to stick with it.

“Maybe it is possible to be a good Catholic and a good person and they look just the same to God. Fr Tam is right to say you have to believe the Creed to be a good Catholic. In your class that is the important thing. How long is it now till the Confirmation Mass?”

“It’s only three weeks, Mama. Fr Tam said it was on the most special day before Advent – Christ the King, he called it – and he said this was a very good day to get confirmed on. I hope you have sent the invitations to our friends.”

“I certainly did. Soon you won’t be my bambino any more, you are growing up so fast. I was just forgetting when it really was. Is the Bishop coming or will it just be Fr Tam?”

“Fr Tam said the Bishop will come for this. He gets to wear much fancier clothes than Fr Tam. He has a bit pointy hat like the Pope and he wears a funny pink little thing on his head – like Jewish boys do. And his black dress has pink buttons and edges. And he even wears a funny pink sash around his waist.”

“It should be a wonderful occasion. It is a pity your Nona can’t be here.”

When Alfeo and Eula migrated to Australia they were travelling a well-worn pathway beaten by generations of their countrymen so they did not feel entirely bereft of the feel of Italy when they got here. They met fellow migrants all over the place. Others, like them, had set up typically Italian businesses – not just Trattoria. But they had no close family members who had come here before them. So they were without any relatives, not a single zio or zia, no cugini. All they had were new friends. Some of these new friends became close friends and they were like relatives because they shared birthdays and Christmas. These were the people who had to be invited to the confirmation.