Confirmation: The Ignored Sacrament

[thistle]

rwoehmke:

This is correct. In Baptism we are freed from original sin, become temples of the Holy Spirit and members of the Body of Christ. We also receive the Isaiah gifts of the Holy Spirit (See Isaiah 11). These gifts or virtues help us to hold and grow in our Faith and to live the life of priest, prophet, and king into which we have been initiated. In confirmation these gifts are strengthened and we receive individual gifts that fit us out to spread and stregthen the Faith in others. Paul’s epistles mention many of these gifts among which are divine assistance to be teachers, healers, prophets etc. in our Church Community. In both cases a special “seal” or mark is placed on the soul that marks us out as to who we are as followers of Christ and members of His body. In my opinion we have shifted the meaning of this sacrament since Vatican II to make it a “confirmation” of our acceptance of the Faith. Since in the early church and still in some of the other rites Baptism and Confirmation are done at the same time to infants, I think we have protestantized the meaning of this gift from God. I was confirmed in 4th grade which would be kind of early for the meaning that some try to attach to this sacrament today.

In baptism we are delivered from original sin and any personal sins we have committed.

 

[Madia]

Here’s some links from the Catechisms on Confirmation:
cin.org/users/james/ebooks/master/trent/tsacr-c.htm
scborromeo.org/ccc/p2s2c1a2.htm

Also this:
cdom.org/wtc/wtc_archives/wtc093004/wtc_pages/reflect_read.htm

St. Vincent Ferrer prophicised that near the end of the world Christians would become so lax in their faith that they would refuse to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation calling it an “unecessary Sacrament”. When the anti-Christ comes those who were not Confirmed will apostatize while very few of those who were Confirmed will renounce Christ. You can listen about this around 22 minutes into the EWTN Bookmark program with Desmond A. Birch:
ewtn.com/vondemand/audio/resolve.asp?rafile=bookmark2127.ra