Can you live a holy life without Confirmation?

I’ve read about how you receive the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit at Confirmation. These gifts seem pretty important in terms of being faithful, so I’m wondering how I should act seeing as I won’t be receiving Confirmation for a while. I read about the 4 temperaments of people and how are weaknesses can only be overcome by the help of the 7 gifts. Does that mean I can’t do anything right until I receive Confirmation?? ~Thanks~:D

Preparation for Confirmation can often seem like it’s taking “for ever” but in the end you will be glad you went through proper formation to receive the Sacrament in a worthy manner. :slight_smile:

Meanwhile, continue to pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit, make frequent use of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, study your lessons well, learn everything you can about your Patron Saint, and look forward to the day when the Bishop will anoint you with the Oil of Chrism and say, “Be sealed with the Holy Spirit.”

Remember to reply with a loud “Amen!” :smiley:

St. Vincent Ferrer (14th Century)

In the days of peace that are to come after the desolation of revolutions and wars, before the end of the world, the Christians will become so lax in their religion that they will refuse to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation, saying, “It is an unnecessary Sacrament.”

dreamscape.com/morgana/pandora.htm

The important thing is that you are going to receive it.

This seems like a theological question, guys. Let’s encourage the OP to ask himself/herself tough questions and learn, instead of believing things just because.

The question seems to be: if at confirmation I receive the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, does this mean that before confirmation I don’t have any wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord? This is clearly not true, since we see many young people with at least one of these attributes. What does it mean, then, to receive these attributes as gifts of the Holy Spirit?

I don’t know the answer. You might also try christianity.stackexchange.com/.

I would certainly say that it is harder to live a holy life without the Sacrament of Confirmation. The Church Fathers speak of how important this Sacrament is. :slight_smile:

Here is a list of quotes put together by Fr Michael Pomazansky:

St. Cyprian writes, “Those baptized in the Church are sealed by the seal of the Lord after the example of the baptized Samaritans who were received by the Apostles Peter and John through laying on of hands and prayer (Acts 8:14-17). That which was lacking in them, Peter and John accomplished . . . Thus is it also with us . . . They are made perfect by the seal of the Lord.” In other Fathers of the Church also, Chrismation is called a “seal” (Clement of Alexandria, Cyril of Jerusalem), “the spiritual seal” (Ambrose of Milan), “the seal of eternal life” (Leo the Great), “the confirmation” (The Apostolic Constitutions), “the perfection” or “culmination” (Clement of Alexandria, Ambrose). St. Ephraim the Syrian writes: “By the seal of the Holy Spirit are sealed all the entrances into your soul; by the seal of the anointing all your members are sealed.” St. Basil the Great asks: “How will your angel dispute over you, how will he seize you from the enemy, if he does not know the seal? . . . Or do you not know that the destroyer passed over the houses of those who were sealed, and killed the first-born in the houses of those who were unsealed? An unsealed treasure is easily stolen by thieves; an unmarked sheep may safely be taken away.”

This Mystery is likewise called the “gift of the Spirit” (St. Isidore of Pelusium), “the mystery of the Spirit” (Tertullian and Hilarion), “the symbol of the Spirit” (St. Cyril of Jerusalem). St. Cyprian testifies that the ancients, speaking of the words of the Lord concerning the birth by water and the Spirit, understood the birth by water to be Baptism in the strict sense, and the birth by the Spirit to be Chrismation.