Religious Education & Faith Life

Confirmation

Over the weekend, 22 of our Year 6 students joined with other children in our parish to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.

The Sacrament of Confirmation is the third Sacrament of Initiation that students receive. Baptism, Eucharist, and Confirmation make up the Sacraments that are needed for a person to be fully initiated into the Catholic Church.

Confirmation as an ongoing celebration of Pentecost in the Church. The Rite of Confirmation recalls Pentecost and the Spirit-filled experience of the early Church and affirms the Spirit-filled experience of the Christian community today.

Through Confirmation, recipients are renewed with the Holy Spirit, strengthening in them the gifts that the Spirit brings. In Catholic tradition, there are 7 gifts that the Holy Spirit bestows through the Sacraments. These gifts are:

Wisdom is the ability to exercise good judgment. It is grounded in common sense and comes from life experience, thoughtful reflection, and learning life’s lessons. Wisdom distinguishes between right and wrong, seeks and upholds truth and justice, and balances personal good with the common good.

Understanding is the gift of intelligence and enlightenment. It is the ability to perceive, comprehend, and interpret information; to have insight and discern meaning.

Counsel is good advice. It is the ability to teach and inform, guide and direct, warn and admonish, recommend, and encourage. Counsel is not only the ability to give good advice, but to receive it as well.

Fortitude is an unwavering commitment to God or a proper course of action, and it shows itself is moral strength, courage, determination, stamina, and resiliency.

Knowledge is the ability to study and learn; to acquire, retain, and master a wide spectrum of information; and to put it to good use for constructive purposes.

Fear of the Lord is awe, reverence, and respect for God. Those who “Fear the Lord” gladly offer their praise, worship, and adoration to God alone.

Piety is personal holiness, the ability to live a decent life, free of sin, devoted to God, and obedient to God’s will.

Like Baptism, Confirmation can only be given once. In the Rite of Confirmation, candidates renew their Baptismal promises and through the Laying of Hands and Anointing with the Oil of Chrism, the gifts of the Holy Spirit received at Baptism are strengthened and sealed. The first Confirmation was when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles at Pentecost.