Do you ever wish you could re-do a sacrament?

[Joe_5859]

This is my take for what its worth as a non-practicing, fallen away, Catholic. From what I seem to remember reading on caf confirmation is when we become adults in the faith, when we are called to a deeper practice.
Now for me I don’t remember my confirmation at all other than that I was confirmed(age 12) many, many years ago and had no idea what it meant.
I would think it really doesn’t matter that that is how it is,(not remembering) but that I am deepening my understanding of the faith or having an ongoing conversion. Isn’t this really the reason of confirmation? Granted I’m several decades late to start learning, but I am learning though not sure where it will lead me. The process of continuing to learn is what is important now that the confirmation, the formal ceremony has past, whether for someone like me who has fallen away or someone who has been tried and true to the faith to the best of their abilities.
Clear as mud?

The purpose of Confirmation is not for us to confirm or affirm our faith. It is for God through the bishop to confirm us in our faith. God is the one doing the confirming, not us. A lot of places unfortunately turn Confirmation into a Catholic graduation or “coming of age” type of sacrament. That’s not the point of it, though. The point is to strengthen those baptismal graces and equip us to go out to all the nations and spread the Gospel.

When I look at the bar that the Church sets in terms of understanding before receiving the sacraments, it’s actually pretty low. I’m somewhat thankful for that, else my special needs son would probably never “qualify.” Not that we shouldn’t care if people understand. We definitely want to form our children such that they believe and understand and fruitfully receive the sacrament. But we can’t and needn’t wait until we understand and appreciate a sacrament perfectly before we receive it. Because that day will never come.

But even if we received Confirmation (or another sacrament) with very little understanding, we can always pray for an increase in those graces now. We don’t have to be re-confirmed or build a time machine to go back and smack our 8th grade (or 6th grade or 10th grade or whatever grade) self upside the head and tell him or her to pay closer attention. We received the sacrament and those graces are available to us still today, even years later. There is no expiration date.

 

[jamzimm]

I still have yet to receive mine!! To happen soon (but never soon enough)!!!

What is the biggest thing you wish you knew going into your sacraments for the first time?

 

[MissRose73]

I wish I could re-do my confirmation day from 25 years ago when I was a teenager. We did not choose confirmation names for 1 thing. The bishop allowed our priest to confirm us instead of coming to the parish to do so himself which I don’t completely understand. My sister’s class was lucky a few years later, and the bishop did confirm her class with the same priest present for the Mass.

 

[Padres1969]

I think this a lot about my confirmation. Of course, I realize the sacrament is valid, but as I grew older I learned so much more from EWTN and my own reading about the meaning of the sacrament and understanding my faith then I did when I was in religious education. My religious education teachers around the high school age sort of ran out of things to talk about and the Bishop even wore a hockey jersey over his vestments to try and be “hip” during the confirmation mass. I just wish I had the understanding then that I do now.

For a couple of Sacraments… definitely.

I mean baptism, was done when I was a baby and incorporated me into the body of Christ. That one I was fine with. That’s a sacrament I believe is the parents prerogative to have bestowed on their children. So no issue there.

But looking back, I never appreciated First Communion at the time it was first administered to me. No one really did a terribly good job of conveying just what was occurring. It wasn’t really treated with the reverence or respect it deserved. Nor many subsequent receptions of the Eucharist.

Reconciliation, was never accorded any real understanding or respect. I mean when I first confessed, my idea of confessing was to make things up that I might have done wrong. It wasn’t until adulthood that I truly looked inside and confessed things that were truly sins.

But of all the sacraments… Confirmation is the one I would ask for a do-over if I could. First, because I undertook the sacrament for the wrong reasons. I wasn’t really seeking to be confirmed because I wanted to be or felt I was called to do so. I was seeking to be confirmed because I felt it was expected of me. I hadn’t been confirmed in middle school due to some standard age changes for the sacrament in my diocese that literally skipped the sacrament over my class year when they rolled it back an age year. So by the time I reached Senior year of high school and was about to move out on my own, there was pressure from both my parents, parish, and school that I should be signing up for their “remedial” (for lack of a better term) Confirmation class. But this was occurring at a time when I was already beginning to drift away from the faith. The renewal of baptismal vows I made during confirmation were bunk… And I definitely didn’t receive the gifts or fruits of the spirit at the time. In fact within 2 years of confirmation I’d have effectively renounced Christianity for the better part of a decade. In effect my completion of the right of Christian initiation, initiated my departure from Christianity… and I to this day blame it on having partaken of the sacrament for the wrong reasons.

Not that it’s strictly relevant to Catholic liturgy or sacraments, but that was one thing I appreciated about undergoing formal Reception into my current Church after more than a year of formal contemplation and discernment and making an adult commitment for the right reasons. It wasn’t a re-do strictly speaking as even my church recognizes Catholic confirmation as valid, but it was as close as I’ll ever get to a re-do… and I greatly appreciated it being an option. It was the first sacramental (or semi-sacramental) “first” I’ve done as a Christian that I felt was truly my choice and done for the right reasons and with the proper respect and awe.