How is it going?
Are you living out your Confirmation?
Photo by Sunguk Kim on Unsplash
We look at our Confirmation, if we recall it at all, as a maturing in the faith. Like we have become adults in the faith. After all, we no longer are required to go to catechism classes. We graduated from Catholic formation, or so we think. And while Confirmation does involve us maturing in our faith, there is so much more to Confirmation that we need to live out everyday afterwards.
At Confirmation, the bishop, or in special circumstances a priest, lays hands upon us. And while this is very biblical, there is a reality that this brings about. We do not just do it because it is in the Bible, we do it because of the power it confers as indicated in the Bible. We do not do it just because it was done in the Bible, but because the Bible shows the power it brings. Otherwise, it would simply be a kind gesture.
But what is the power that Confirmation confers to us? “Then they laid hands on them and they received the holy Spirit.” [Acts 8:17] While we become sons and daughters of God at baptism, we do not have the power of the Holy Spirit without Confirmation. The verse in Acts immediately before attests to it. “[F]or [the Holy Spirit] had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.”
And how do we know Confirmation actually does this through the laying on of hands? The verse in Acts after shows a man willing to pay for this same power. “When Simon saw that the Spirit was conferred by the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money.” Indeed, the power was very evident to those who saw it.
When we live in the power of the Holy Spirit from our Confirmation, we are participating in Pentacost. That is when the Holy Spirit first came down to give Jesus’ followers power. Pentacost never ended. It just merely changed forms, which we are able to live in. But do we see the power it brings or simply think it was a nice gesture for picture taking.
Jesus, send forth Your Holy Spirit upon us, and let the power of the Holy Spirit flow through us to set the world on fire for love of You. Amen.
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About the Author
I am an adopted son of God through baptism, though still a great sinner. God has blessed me with a wonderful wife and 11 lovely children, 3 of which have gone to Heaven before their birth.
I love the Rosary and started sharing little Catholic reflections with others. My little reflections have helped deepen my faith and I hope they can help others as well. Though not always fully inspired by the Holy Spirit, I enjoy when He takes over and seeing what direction He takes the reflection.
Please say a prayer for me and I will continue to pray for all who read my little reflections, especially for them to be read as the Holy Spirit intends. St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for the success of my little reflections and for all of Catholic365 and its readers.
