By Emily Drooby
On her confirmation day, Sally Montalvo received a corsage from her father. It was a physical gift on a day where she will receive one of the greatest spiritual gifts.
Sally was confirmed at St. Dominic’s Church in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.
She described how she felt in the moments before it happened, “…a happy but nervous kind of feeling.”
She’s the third child in the Montalvo clan to be confirmed. The family has a strong faith now, but it wasn’t always that way.
“My children brought me deeper into my faith,” said Sally’s father, Anthony.
Faith, like genes, tends to run in families. A Pew Research Center survey found that Catholic parents usually create Catholic children. In fact, 81 percent of practicing Catholic parents will have kids that are, too.
However, that same study found children to be far less religious, in fact 19 percent less religious than their parents.
That’s not the case for the Montalvos. Anthony says his children are actually the reason the family deepened their faith.
“They were attending a program here at St. Dominic’s with the youth ministry and they had asked for volunteers during Mass one time and I thought, ‘Maybe I can help out one or two days a week,'” he explained.
One or two days quickly grew into more.
“Started out with that and that turned into going to a retreat, and that turned into wanting to do more, wanting to know more and wanting to live my faith deeper,” said Anthony.
Now together as a family, their faith has grown.
“A family that stays together, prays together,” said the eldest daughter, Maggie.
“I’ve had my communion, I’ve had my confession, I’ve had confirmation and now it’s the little one’s turn,” added their brother, Anthony Jr.
The Montalvos are showing that sometimes, faith comes from the youngest.