Confirmation

• Baptized and confirmed Catholics are called to witness before the world their faith in God. This call to witness can be heeded through the Sacrament of Confirmation, another Sacrament of Initiation in which one becomes a fuller member of the Church and is made stronger by the Holy Spirit, who enables each one to live and share with others one's faith in Jesus.
• Moreover, Confirmation strengthens one's relationship with the Church and gives each one what one needs to participate in the mission of Christ continuing in the Church.
• In this Sacrament, everyone is consecrated to God, and the Holy Spirit dwelling within each one calls each person to a life of prayer and service.
• In Baptism, one becomes an adopted child of God; in Confirmation, one becomes God's home, for the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in each one and makes each His temple.
• Like Baptism, Confirmation changes one's identity and relationship with God and with the world. It draws everyone more deeply into the life of the Triune God, for Confirmation completes the baptismal grace, uniting everyone more closely to Christ and increasing the gifts of the Holy Spirit within each one.
•  As the Church received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, in the sacrament of Confirmation, the confirmand personally receives the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit that help us grow as Catholic Christians in the sacrament of Confirmation.
•   The reason why God is giving us grace. Is that God wants us to share in His divine life, to enable us to live as His adopted children - created in His image and likeness --and to help us lead/live a holy life by choosing the way God wants us to live.
• Wisdom helps us evaluate our life in relation to God and all others and strengthens us against folly, deepens our faith, fortifies our hope, perfects our charity, and promotes our practice of virtue in our daily life. 
• Understanding-helps us see the connection between knowing our faith and living it.  
• Counsel-helps us see what is right and to make good moral decisions from among the many choices we make each day. 
• Fortitude- gives us the courage to face trials and to make decisions to live as God wants us to live.  
• • Knowledge helps us to see the truth of all that God has made known to us and enables us to appreciate all the things God created. 
• Piety - helps us to honor God as our most loving creator and to treat all people as our brothers and sisters.
• Fear of the Lord - helps us revere, praise, thank, and bless God because He alone is God.
• What the Holy Spirit does as the "Soul" of the Church.

  The Holy Spirit as the "Soul" of the Church lives in every person who remains in the state of grace; He inspires men to know, love, and serve God. Catholics who are faithful to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit always (a) obey the Pope, the bishops, and all lawful authority; (b) love and appreciate the Holy Eucharist and the other Sacraments of the

  Church; and (c) grow more and more into the likeness of Jesus Christ.
• Anointing with Chrism is a special sacramental sign that implies a person is being set apart from others and given a special mission. Through our anointing with holy chrism in Baptism and Confirmation, we share in the mission of Jesus and we are called to become "Jesus for others.“
• The use of oil or chrism signifies healing, purification, and strengthening.
• The Laying on of Hands signifies that the confirmand is dedicated or consecrated to God for a certain mission and that the power of the Holy Spirit is given to him/her.
• It also signifies that (1) Christians are claimed by Christ as His own; (2) the confirmand is empowered by the Spirit to spread the Gospel by words and deeds; and (3) thus build up Christ's Body, the Church. Hence, (4) Christians share more fully in Christ's three-fold mission (prophetic, priestly, and kingly).
• Through the seven empowering Gifts of the Holy Spirit, we are able to witness Christ by making better choices and living our life the way Christ teaches us to live.