Jackson recently received the Sacrament of Confirmation! Confirmation is sacrament by which a person receives an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Father Earl performed the Confirmation, my dad was his sponsor and we picked St. Jude as Jackson’s patron Saint.

Shortly after Jackson was diagnosed, Father Earl was placed at Sacred Heart Church in Camp Washington and we began regularly attending Mass there. Father Earl gave the best homilies and we loved hearing his stories. For example, he made us all cry when he gave a beautiful homily about visiting disabled children at an orphanage in Eastern Europe and finding a home for one of the wheelchair-bound kids in Ohio. Father Earl baptized Luca and graciously ignored Luca’s baby cries and crazy toddler behavior in the back of church during Mass as Sacred Heart does not have a cry room (if you know Luca, you know he is anything but quiet). Father Earl also came to Cincinnati Children’s many times when Jackson was very sick and prayed over him, for which we are forever thankful.

In 2019 Father Earl was sent to St. Ignatius Parrish, which is the Parrish where my parents reside and where I went to grade school. My parents attended Mass every Monday evening during the pandemic as church isn’t crowded on Mondays. A few months ago, Father Earl approached my parents, asked if we would like to have Jackson confirmed, and we said yes.

Josh and I spent some time going through the saints and finally settled on St. Jude, the patron saint of hopeless causes/difficult cases. We liked St. Jude because someone with an incurable illness wrote to Jesus and asked for help. After Jesus ascended into Heaven, St. Jude went to this person and cured him.

Father Earl confirmed Jackson during a Monday evening Mass at St. Ignatius. The homily was beautiful, especially when Father Earl said that all children are God’s masterpieces. He also said that Jackson has already defied the odds and he gave mad props to Jackson’s family for taking such good care of him.

The Mass was inspiring and we are thankful to Father Earl for allowing Jackson to receive this sacrament. We would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate Father Earl on his appointment as Bishop of the Diocese of Columbus, Ohio. He will be sorely missed in Cincinnati but we are grateful that he came into our lives and for the many years we were able to celebrate Mass with him.