Baptizing a 10 year old

[jmcrae]

Well what I was told is that baptism in and of itself is valid, but that the confirmation is basically… well confirming it… I was baptized as a baby and slept through it… The confirmation was supposed to be the gift of the Holy Spirit and me confirming my baptism (repeating all the things that my parents had promised for me)

Whoever told you that is mistaken. There are three Sacraments of Initiation. Baptism is the first one; Confirmation is the second one, and First Holy Communion is the third one. We reaffirm our Baptismal promises at all of our Sacraments of Initiation. (At Holy Communion, we simply do this by reciting the Creed at Mass.)

 

[Janet1983]

Whoever told you that is mistaken. There are three Sacraments of Initiation. Baptism is the first one; Confirmation is the second one, and First Holy Communion is the third one. We reaffirm our Baptismal promises at all of our Sacraments of Initiation. (At Holy Communion, we simply do this by reciting the Creed at Mass.)

Well I didn’t know that… I just went through all of them in their time and having received confirmation 2 years later didn’t kill me either…
It was kind of special to me… it was on the 31st of May… and I am named after Joan of Arc… and I was an altar server and nervous like no tomorrow…
We were standing in the (what is the English word for the room where the priest puts on the outfit?)… well you know what room… and there was the bishop, our pastor, some other highly influential priest and the bishops driver… The other altar servers and me were so nervous that we were whispering continually until the bishops driver told us off… then our pastor remembered that it was the day of Joan of Arc and told the others and little me was shyly standing in a corner receiving their best wished…

 

[jmcrae]

Well I didn’t know that… I just went through all of them in their time and having received confirmation 2 years later didn’t kill me either…
It was kind of special to me… it was on the 31st of May… and I am named after Joan of Arc… and I was an altar server and nervous like no tomorrow…
We were standing in the (what is the English word for the room where the priest puts on the outfit?)… well you know what room…

The Sacristy.

and there was the bishop, our pastor, some other highly influential priest and the bishops driver… The other altar servers and me were so nervous that we were whispering continually until the bishops driver told us off… then our pastor remembered that it was the day of Joan of Arc and told the others and little me was shyly standing in a corner receiving their best wished…

Nice!

 

[chaunceygardner]

Yeah, I totally feel your confusion. Kage_ar and others already posted the CCC, but just to answer your question directly since it was partially my quote you were responding to…Baptism is complete at Baptism. That is, being born again of water and Spirit into membership in the Body of Christ, washed of Original Sin, etc. But like the Catechism says, Christian initiation is incomplete without Confirmation and Holy Communion as well.

Clear as mud?

Yup. I will likely always be confused about how something can be “complete” yet “incomplete”.

Janet1983:

When I was 14 all the kids in my class went to Confirmation. I actually went ahead and wrote a 2-page handwritten letter to the pastor telling him that I did not consider myself ready yet. He let the matter rest because of that. When I was 16 I went ahead and asked him for the next possibility to receive confirmation… I received it at the age of 16…

PS: I thought I wasn’t ready yet, because I was about to do it (and say whatever I had to say etc.) just because everybody else was doing it. I figured that this was not the right motivation.

You hit my point and confusion perfectly. For many decades I understood that anyone receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation should be “ready”. My experience is that many receiving the Sacrament either didn’t truly understand what it was about, went through it because their parents wanted them to, or in some cases didn’t really believe what they were professing. To me that is a shame. Some should have waited, and others should not have received the Sacrament at all.

I do not think that the first Apostles went around baptizing people whether they wanted to be or not. But that is what seems to happen with Baptism and Confirmation today.

I guess I will never understand why.

But thanks again for your (name removed by moderator)ut.

 

[ac_claire]

Yup. I will likely always be confused about how something can be “complete” yet “incomplete”.

Yeah, lol. Easy little equation to remember: Baptism + Confirmation + Eucharist = completed Christian initiation.

You hit my point and confusion perfectly. For many decades I understood that anyone receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation should be “ready”. My experience is that many receiving the Sacrament either didn’t truly understand what it was about, went through it because their parents wanted them to, or in some cases didn’t really believe what they were professing. To me that is a shame. Some should have waited, and others should not have received the Sacrament at all.

I do not think that the first Apostles went around baptizing people whether they wanted to be or not. But that is what seems to happen with Baptism and Confirmation today.

I guess I will never understand why.

I have learned to trust that the Church knows what she’s doing with the Sacraments. However, what you’re expressing is a very, very common observation. A few years ago when I came back to the faith and I learned about Confirmation, I inquired as to whether or not the Sacrament could be repeated now, now that I’d understand what it was all about. Because I so totally did not at age 16. I was told that this question is asked pretty frequently but the answer is no, there are no do-overs.

The same person who told me that also explained how just because we maybe weren’t aware of or understanding of the grace we were getting at Confirmation doesn’t mean it was wasted. He likened it to receiving, having and owning a gift- which is one thing, and actually opening the gift, which is another thing. But either way, the gift is still yours.