Authentic Christian Life Through Confirmation

• view of life from God’s standpoint

  Wisdom
• deeper penetration of the mysteries of the faith

  Knowledge
• ability to teach and share the mysteries of the faith


  Understanding
• courage


  Fortitude
• judgment that enables one to make the right moral decision in the moment; prudence


  Counsel
• rendering to God what is due to God, especially praise and thanksgiving


  Piety
• deepest awe and respect for God


  Fear of the Lord
• Renewal of baptismal promises compelling the confirmed to stand on own feet and publicly proclaim who they are and what they stand for (sacramentum)
• branded for Christ


  Anointing with chrism
• acknowledges a mature commitment to Christ and the Church that often happens as children become teenagers; but it is really about the receiving of spiritual gifts by a person of any age

  Confirmation
• Confirmation is empowering.
• Just as the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within a person at Baptism, the Spirit comes again with refreshing energy at Confirmation.
• Confirmation is not a graduation to Catholic adulthood; rather, it is coming into one’s full participation in the life and work of the Spirit.
• We remember that the Holy Spirit desires to conform us always to the life of Christ himself, and to prepare us for his eternal reign.
• is an evangelistic sacrament.


  Confirmation
• Christ, all the initiated demonstrate a kind of priesthood. “common priesthood”.
• Confirmation is an ordination to the laity
• it is connected to preaching and teaching. 


  Prophecy
• the gifts imparted in the sacrament of Confirmation include wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and counsel


  Prophet
• our lives are ordered towards our true King and his eternal kingdom
• we the spiritual allies of Christ the King, and Confirmation is “our enrollment in his service for ever”
• When we are marked with chrism and sealed with the Holy Spirit in Confirmation, we are transformed