I think it was eliminated. At my confirmation the bishop just shook my hand.
I don’t know why the slap was done away with. I rather like the symbolism of it.
Correct. Also, we were told by the Bishop; “You are are a Soldier of Christ, go forth & defend the faith”.Back in 2004, Michelle Arnold gave this reply in the Forums:
"Before the reform of the celebration of the sacraments, bishops would routinely give each confirmand a symbolic tap on the cheek. As confirmation strengthens the Christian to witness to Christ and to spread and defend the Christian faith (cf. canon 879, Code of Canon Law) the cheek tap was a symbol of the hardship that the Christian would face in his Christian life. Confirmation gave him the grace he would need to draw on to overcome the hardship.
The symbolic tap is no longer part of the confirmation ritual but the grace of confirmation still strengthens the confirmand and enables him to be faithful to Christ."
Some history from the ‘Pray Tell’ Blog, the go-to source for liturgy questions:I was watching the Easter Vigil Mass that Pope Francis celebrated. After Confirming each catechumen they gave him a kiss of peace. I’m haven’t attended any Confirmation for a number of years, but in the fifties when we were confirmed the Bishop gave us a light slap on the cheek to indicate we were soldiers of Christ. Is this still done, or was this eliminated after Vatican 11?
praytellblog.com/index.php/2012/05/11/the-confirmation-slap/The reformed rite of confirmation eliminated the sacrament’s most famous moment: the bishop’s slap. The slap first appeared in the 13th century. Incongruously, the bishop tapped the confirmand’s cheek while saying, “Peace be with you.” The slap inspired military imagery and fostered an interpretation of confirmation as a maturity rite. Durandus, who inserted the slap into the ritual, also thought it would serve as an exorcism and as a memory device to keep people from forgetting that they were confirmed. Its meaning was poorly understood. The removal of the slap supported the council’s desire that confirmation be connected more closely to initiation. The slap never had anything to do with initiation, and its removal helped purify the sacrament’s meaning.
We used to get a slap at Confirmation.I was watching the Easter Vigil Mass that Pope Francis celebrated. After Confirming each catechumen they gave him a kiss of peace. I’m haven’t attended any Confirmation for a number of years, but in the fifties when we were confirmed the Bishop gave us a light slap on the cheek to indicate we were soldiers of Christ.
In Confirmation a slight blow is given to us, that so the Christian soldier may learn to fight, not by striking, but by enduring…[Confirmation] bestows the gifts of spiritual wisdom and of charity, which is “patient and kind;" and as a sign of this most rare and yet most precious virtue of patience, the Bishop gives the person about to be confirmed a slight blow, that he may remember he now becomes a soldier of Christ, not to strike, but to endure; not to do injuries to others, but to bear them. In the Christian warfare, he fights not against visible but invisible enemies; for thus did Christ our great commander fight and conquer, who being nailed to the cross, conquered the infernal powers; thus did the Apostles fight, only just confirmed, for being severely scourged in the council of the Jews, they went forth " rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus." The grace of Confirmation then effects this, that when a man is unjustly injured, he should not think of revenge, but rejoice that he suffered reproach unjustly.