Confirmation
The sacrament that seals the baptized with the Gift of the Holy Spirit — strengthening the soul, perfecting baptismal grace, and configuring the Christian to bear witness to Christ in the world.
Sacred Chrism — olive oil mixed with balsam, consecrated by the bishop on Holy Thursday — anointed on the forehead in the form of a cross.
Ordinarily the bishop, successor of the Apostles, who lays his hand on the candidate. A priest may confirm with special faculty (as for adult converts, the sick in danger of death, and in mission territories).
N., be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit.
N., accipe signaculum Doni Spiritus Sancti.
Any baptized Catholic who has reached the age of discretion (in the Latin Church, typically around the age of reason or older). In the Eastern Catholic Churches, Confirmation (called Chrismation) is given to infants immediately after Baptism.
- ✦An increase and deepening of baptismal grace
- ✦A more perfect bond with the Church
- ✦A special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith by word and deed
- ✦An indelible spiritual character — Confirmation cannot be repeated
Now when the apostles, who were in Jerusalem, had heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John. Who, when they were come, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost. For he was not as yet come upon any of them; but they were only baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost.
Confirmation completes Baptism. In the Acts of the Apostles, those who had been baptized received the Holy Spirit when Peter and John (or, later, Paul) laid hands on them. The early Church understood this laying-on of hands by the Apostles as a distinct sacramental rite — the seal of the Holy Spirit prophesied in Joel 2:28 and poured out at Pentecost.
From the 4th century, the Latin Church reserved the anointing with chrism for the bishop, who alone could administer it ordinarily; the Eastern Churches preserved the earlier practice of giving Confirmation immediately with Baptism through the priest, using chrism consecrated by the bishop. Both practices are valid.
The seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit traditionally associated with Confirmation (from Isaiah 11:2–3) are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. The twelve Fruits of the Spirit (cf. Gal 5:22) are their visible flowering in the Christian life.
The 9th-century hymn to the Holy Spirit sung at every ordination, every conclave, every papal coronation, and every solemn invocation of the Paraclete.
Called the 'Golden Sequence' for its perfection — the medieval sequence sung at the Mass of Pentecost. Distinct from the Veni Creator.