"get the holy spirt during confirmation"

[Adamski]

Today during mass our priest said

“we get the holy spirt during confirmation”

My wife (she’s baptist), but only really attends catholic mass with me and the kids. said one can only get the holy spirt one time at Baptism but someone else can pray for us to have the holy spirit in us.

So how does one get the holy spirit at confirmation? Is it when the bishop prays for us and the laying of hands?

How does what our priest said work?

 

[mcrts]

What your priest said is true.

Baptism is seen as our spiritual birth. Some people even go as far to call it the second birthday, or second birth. We are baptised in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It removes original sin and accepts us into the church. Also, the Catholic church teaches that all baptism in the name of the Trinity is valid, so Protestants, should they choose to join the Catholic church, do not need to be baptised again.

Confirmation is our personal “Yes” to God. We receive the Holy Spirit in a special way. Biblical evidence? Pentecost. Just imagine, the disciples were all feeling down and depressed. Jesus had just left them. The High priests and other persecutors were out for their blood. What were they going to do? Then, suddenly, the Holy Spirit descended like tongues of fire on the disciples and empowered them to proclaim the Gospel. So the same thing happens in Confirmation. The bishop’s hands, vested by the special power given to him, anoints confirmants with chrism oil. It is not a be all and end, but an increase in faith and an empowerment, just as it was two millennia ago.

Additional notes:

For cradle Catholics, Confirmation is like a coming of age ceremony, your bat mitzvahs and things like that. For ten years or more they’ve been cathecized in the faith. They’ve received Christ in the Eucharist. Now the responsibility shifts from the parents and cathecists to themselves.

Adult converts, as they are able to reason, receive all three ‘Sacraments of Initiation’ during their baptism (usually on Easter Vigil). Baptism, First Communion and Confirmation.

Hope this helps!

A.M.D.G
MC

 

[Phemie]

Confirmation is our personal “Yes” to God. We receive the Holy Spirit in a special way. Biblical evidence? Pentecost. Just imagine, the disciples were all feeling down and depressed. Jesus had just left them. The High priests and other persecutors were out for their blood. What were they going to do? Then, suddenly, the Holy Spirit descended like tongues of fire on the disciples and empowered them to proclaim the Gospel. So the same thing happens in Confirmation. The bishop’s hands, vested by the special power given to him, anoints confirmants with chrism oil. It is not a be all and end, but an increase in faith and an empowerment, just as it was two millennia ago.

Additional notes:

**For cradle Catholics, Confirmation is like a coming of age ceremony, your bat mitzvahs and things like that. For ten years or more they’ve been cathecized in the faith. They’ve received Christ in the Eucharist. Now the responsibility shifts from the parents and cathecists to themselves.
**
Adult converts, as they are able to reason, receive all three ‘Sacraments of Initiation’ during their baptism (usually on Easter Vigil). Baptism, First Communion and Confirmation.

Hope this helps!

A.M.D.G
MC

Confirmation is something that is done to us, not something we do. It’s not a sacrament of coming of age because it can be administered at any time after birth and is when a child is in danger of death (while Communion isn’t).

 

[1ke]

What your priest said is true.

Baptism is seen as our spiritual birth. Some people even go as far to call it the second birthday, or second birth. We are baptised in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It removes original sin and accepts us into the church. Also, the Catholic church teaches that all baptism in the name of the Trinity is valid, so Protestants, should they choose to join the Catholic church, do not need to be baptised again.

The priest was not correct, depending on what he meant. He may have worded it poorly.

We receive the Holy Spirit at baptism.

Confirmation is our personal “Yes” to God. We receive the Holy Spirit in a special way.

While it is true that we receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit and sacramental grace, it is not our “personal yes” to God. That was at baptism.

For cradle Catholics, Confirmation is like a coming of age ceremony, your bat mitzvahs and things like that. For ten years or more they’ve been cathecized in the faith. They’ve received Christ in the Eucharist. Now the responsibility shifts from the parents and cathecists to themselves.

It is not a “coming of age.” And definitely not like a bar mitzvah. Infants can be confirmed, and are confirmed in the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches or in danger of death in the Latin Rite.

 

[Brendan]

For cradle Catholics, Confirmation is like a coming of age ceremony, your bat mitzvahs and things like that. For ten years or more they’ve been cathecized in the faith. They’ve received Christ in the Eucharist. Now the responsibility shifts from the parents and cathecists to themselves.

A.M.D.G
MC

Mcrts, the above statement is incorrect. Confirmation is one of the Sacraments of Initiation. It should normally be provided to one who has achieved the age of Reason PRIOR to reception of Holy Communion. Many diocese have implemented that already.

And for the Eastern Catholics ( who are just as much ‘cradle’ Catholics as any Roman Catholic) are Confirmed at birth.

Is it your intent to state that for Eastern Catholics, and the Roman Catholics in many diocese have placed the responsibility of catechisis on infants and 7 year olds.

I understand that many Catholics do view Confirmation as a sort of Catholic bar mitzvah, but it is erroneous to do so.

And to the OP, yes your priest is correct. The Holy Spirit comes to us in Confirmation. The Holy Spirit also comes to us in every Sacrament, Confirmation is not unique in that regard. The Holy Spirit comes in a unique way in Confirmation, but then again, also comes in a unique way in each Sacrament ( that is what distinguishes one Sacrament from another). The way the Holy Spirit comes in Confirmation is different from the way the Holy Spirit comes in Baptism, in Marriage and in the Holy Eucharist.

But in each Sacrament, the Holy Spirit comes.

 

[Zekariya]

III. The Effects of Confirmation

1302 It is evident from its celebration that the effect of the sacrament of Confirmation is the full outpouring of the Holy Spirit as once granted to the apostles on the day of Pentecost.

1303 From this fact, Confirmation brings an increase and deepening of baptismal grace:

• it roots us more deeply in the divine filiation which makes us cry, “Abba! Father!”;115
• it unites us more firmly to Christ;
• it increases the gifts of the Holy Spirit in us;
• it renders our bond with the Church more perfect;116
• it gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ, to confess the name of Christ boldly, and never to be ashamed of the Cross:117

Recall then that you have received the spiritual seal, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of right judgment and courage, the spirit of knowledge and reverence, the spirit of holy fear in God’s presence. Guard what you have received. God the Father has marked you with his sign; Christ the Lord has confirmed you and has placed his pledge, the Spirit, in your hearts.118

1304 Like Baptism which it completes, Confirmation is given only once, for it too imprints on the soul an indelible spiritual mark, the “character,” which is the sign that Jesus Christ has marked a Christian with the seal of his Spirit by clothing him with power from on high so that he may be his witness.119

1305 This “character” perfects the common priesthood of the faithful, received in Baptism, and "the confirmed person receives the power to profess faith in Christ publicly and as it were officially (quasi ex officio)."120​

Source: vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P3S.HTM

“But beware of supposing this to be plain ointment. For as the Bread of the Eucharist, after the invocation of the Holy Ghost, is mere bread no longer , but the Body of Christ, so also this holy ointment is no more simple ointment, nor (so to say) common, after invocation, but it is Christ’s gift of grace, and, by the advent of the Holy Ghost, is made fit to impart His Divine Nature. Which ointment is symbolically applied to your forehead and your other senses ; and while your body is anointed with the visible ointment, your soul is sanctified by the Holy and life-giving Spirit.” - St Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 21 (On Confirmation)
Source: newadvent.org/fathers/310121.htm

 

[Bookcat]

There are more than one particular “coming’s” of the Holy Spirit. Yes Baptism and Confirmation are such times. And these two Sacraments may (as it was often in the beginning) received at the same time.

 

[Bookcat]

Today during mass our priest said

“we get the holy spirt during confirmation”

My wife (she’s baptist), but only really attends catholic mass with me and the kids. said one can only get the holy spirt one time at Baptism but someone else can pray for us to have the holy spirit in us.

So how does one get the holy spirit at confirmation? Is it when the bishop prays for us and the laying of hands?

How does what our priest said work?

Yes we there are more than one “comings” of the Holy Spirit.

See Acts 8:14-17. The Samaritans who had been yes baptized -but not yet “had hands laid on them” (what is called the Sacrament of Confirmation now) by an Apostle (or a Bishop) --for they had been baptized by a deacon with no Apostle present–hence two Apostles came and laid hands on them… and they received the Holy Spirit (it is not that they did not receive Him at their Baptism -but he came in way such as at Pentecost --via the laying on of hands. Baptism and Confirmation were done together in the early Church when there was an Apostle or Bishop present.

 

[Bookcat]

If your on your way out of this world (one is dying)-- then one may receive a third time as viaticum.

But otherwise one may not receive more than 2x (midnight to midnight). And the second one must be during a Mass you participate in (one can not say just walk through and receive).

 

[agapewolf]

We are a glass of milk. Baptism pours chocolate syrup (Holy Spirit) in us. Confirmation gives us the spoon to stir the glass.

(and we have to keep stirring or it will settle).

 

[Bookcat]

We are a glass of milk. Baptism pours chocolate syrup (Holy Spirit) in us. Confirmation gives us the spoon to stir the glass.

(and we have to keep stirring or it will settle).

I would not put it that way.

But I used to like chocolate milk

 

[Adamski]

Yes we there are more than one “comings” of the Holy Spirit.

See Acts 8:14-17. The Samaritans who had been yes baptized -but not yet “had hands laid on them” (what is called the Sacrament of Confirmation now) by an Apostle (or a Bishop) --for they had been baptized by a deacon with no Apostle present–hence two Apostles came and laid hands on them… and they received the Holy Spirit (it is not that they did not receive Him at their Baptism -but he came in way such as at Pentecost --via the laying on of hands. Baptism and Confirmation were done together in the early Church when there was an Apostle or Bishop present.

This seems like the clearest explanation to me