Confirmation - Adults

The Sacrament of Confirmation is the special outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Its effects are to:

• Root us more deeply in divine filiation (being children of God)

• Unites us more firmly to Christ

• Increases the gifts of the Holy Spirit in us

• Strengthens our bond with the Church

• Associates us more closely to her mission of bearing witness to Christ

• Helps us and more strictly obliges us to spread and defend the faith by word and deed

Confirmation configures Catholics for a full and active mission of service to Christ. In this sense Confirmation is a spiritual “growing up.”

Confirmation imprints in the soul a character, a certain spiritual and indelible Sign, and so can only be received validly once. Confirmed persons are called to profess faith in Christ publicly, and to spread the Gospel message, in accord with the ability and circumstances of their life. The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit received in Confirmation are: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. Receiving this Sacrament, with Baptism and Communion, completes a Catholic's initiation into the one holy catholic and apostolic Church.