Day 178: Who Receives Confirmation (2025)

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The Catechism in Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 178. We are reading paragraphs 1306 to 1314. As always, I'm using the Ascension Edition of the Catholic Church.

of the Catechism which includes the Foundations of Faith Approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own catechism in a year reading plan by visiting Guess What? AscensionPress.com slash CIY. And you can also click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates. Daily notifications today is day 178. You guys we're coming in. We're coming in hot on halfway through this whole year. You got nice work.

As I said, we're almost at a half a year in, which is pretty remarkable considering all things, and considering what? Uh I don't know. Maybe the fact that It can be difficult at times to get to the catechism. It's not as we've talked about so many times months ago.

It is not like the Bible in the sense that there's that story we're following, but there are so many incredible gifts that the church has given to us in this sacrament or sacrament confirmation, of course, we're talking about today, but in the catechism. So today what we're talking about. Look, yesterday we looked at the effects of confirmation. I gushed, I know. I'm sorry, I apologize, but

Yeah, I guess that's one of those sorry, not sorry phrases because it's amazing. And also, you know, we're convicted by the fact that we need to go out.

But the new question today is who can receive this sacrament and who is the minister of confirmation? So who can receive the sacrament? You know, you can say it really, really briefly. Paragraph thirteen oh six says it really briefly. Every baptized person not yet confirmed can and should receive the sacrament of confirmation. So

Kind of straightforward, but we're gonna also talk about what is it to have the age of discretion? What is it to delay? In you know, in the West we kind of delay the sacrament of confirmation. In the East, it's combined with baptism and first holy communion. We'll talk about that today, as well as the fact that the minister of confirmation, the ordinary minister or the original minister of confirmation is the bishop. We're talking about that.

Today, not only who can receive the sacrament, but who can administer the sacrament to those receiving it. So let's say a prayer as we uh kind of conclude, almost conclude this section on the sacrament of confirmation.

Father in heaven, we call upon your name, and we give you praise and glory. In the name of your Son Jesus Christ, we ask you to please receive our thanks, receive our praise. Thank you so much for this day. Thank you for bringing us to this day. Lord God, we did we have done nothing to deserve. Life we've done nothing to deserve this day.

And yet here you are, once again, pouring out your goodness, pouring out your gifts upon each and every one of us. As we draw breath, Lord God, every breath, let every breath be a a a prayer of praise. Let every breath be a prayer of thanksgiving to you. Let every heartbeat in our chests, Lord God. Let it be for your glory and a constant reminder how many times a minute of how good you are. Let every heartbeat just declare and proclaim your goodness.

May you be praised and glorified. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Today we are reading paragraphs 1306 to 1314 because it's day one hundred seventy-eight. Who can receive this sacrament? Every baptized person not yet confirmed can and should receive the sacrament of confirmation.

Since baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist form a unity, it follows that the faithful are obliged to receive this sacrament at the appropriate time, For without confirmation and Eucharist, baptism is certainly valid and efficacious, but Christian initiation remains incomplete.

For centuries, Latin custom has indicated the age of discretion as the reference point for receiving confirmation, but in danger of death, children should be confirmed even if they have not yet attained the age of discretion.

Although confirmation is sometimes called the sacrament of Christian maturity, We must not confuse adult faith with the adult age of natural growth, nor forget that the baptismal grace is a grace of free, unmerited election, and does not need ratification to become effective. St. Thomas reminds us of this.

Age of body does not determine age of soul. Even in childhood, man can attain spiritual maturity, as the Book of Wisdom says, for old age is not honored for a length of time or measured by number of years. Many children, through the strength of the Holy Spirit they have received, have bravely fought for Christ even to the shedding of their blood.

Preparation for confirmation should aim at leading the Christian toward a more intimate union with Christ and a more lively familiarity with the Holy Spirit, his actions, his gifts, his biddings. In order to be more capable of assuming the apostolic responsibilities of Christian life.

To this end, catechesis for confirmation should strike to awaken a sense of belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ, the universal church, as well as the parish community. The latter bears special responsibility for the preparation of confirms. To receive confirmation, one must be in a state of grace. One should receive the sacrament of penance in order to be cleansed for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

More intense prayer should prepare one to receive the strength and graces of the Holy Spirit with docility and readiness to act. Candidates for confirmation, as for baptism, fittingly seek the spiritual help of a sponsor. To emphasize the unity of the two sacraments, it is appropriate that this be one of the baptismal godparents.

The Minister of Confirmation. The original minister of confirmation is the bishop. In the East, ordinarily the priest who baptizes also immediately confers confirmation in one and the same celebration. But he does so with sacred chrism consecrated by the patriarch or the bishop, thus expressing the apostolic unity of the church whose bonds are strengthened by the sacrament of confirmation.

In the Latin Church, the same discipline applies to the baptism of adults, or to the reception into full communion with the church of a person baptized in another Christian community that does not have valid confirmation. In the Latin rite, the ordinary minister of confirmation is the bishop.

If the need arises, the bishop may grant the faculty of administering confirmation to priests, although it is fitting that he confer it himself, mindful that the celebration of confirmation has been temporally separated from baptism for this reason. Bishops are the successors of the apostles. They have received the fullness of the sacrament of holy orders.

The administration of this sacrament by them demonstrates clearly that its effect is to unite those who receive it more closely to the church, to her apostolic origins, and to her mission of bearing witness to Christ. If a Christian is in danger of death, any priest can give him confirmation. Indeed, the Church desires that none of her children, even the youngest, should depart this world without having been perfected by the Holy Spirit with the gift of Christ's fullness.

Okay, there we are, day one hundred seventy eight, paragraph thirteen oh six. to thirteen fourteen to who can receive this sacrament and who is the minister of this sacrament. as it said so clearly at the very beginning, who can receive the sacrament? Every baptized person, not yet confirmed. Not only can, but also should receive the sacrament of confirmation. So yes, it highlights this in paragraph thirteen oh six that baptism is certainly valid. It's certainly efficacious.

But without Holy Eucharist and without confirmation, the initiation remains incomplete. And so As you know, we've said this in the past, we were reminded of it today. The Latin custom has been to separate these three sacraments. So baptism right away, a lot of times with infants. Um, Holy Communion in the age of reason and same thing with confirmation, in that age of discretion is talked about, where basically you have a d a a person, an individual.

an individual who can tell the difference between here's ordinary bread and here's the Eucharist. Here is something new that's happening. This is sacrament of confirmation happening. So there's this age of discretion. And I think this is really remarkable. Well It's worth noting, paragraph thirteen oh eight says, although confirmation is sometimes called the sacrament of Christian maturity, we must not confuse adult faith with the adult age of natural growth.

Nor forget that the baptismal grace is a grace of free, unmerited election and does not need ratification to become effective. That that is really important for us because again, as we mentioned yesterday, about some of those those gifts, those those effects of confirmation, it renders a bond with the church more perfect. Yes. So sacrament of Christian maturity can be called that'cause you're fully initiated.

We can't just say that, oh, if a person's fifteen versus person is twenty-one versus a person is eight. That really makes a difference. Why? Because Grace is a grace of free unmerited election, right? Baptismal grace is a grace of free election. free, unmerited election, and does not need ratification to become effective. And yet there is a preparation that's necessary and and the preparation for confirmation

should aim, it says in thirty nine oh nine, should aim at leading the Christian toward a more intimate union with Christ and a more lively familiarity with the Holy Spirit. And the thing the reason why I'm going through these th these aspects on a day like today is because I think a lot of the people who are listening, you've been confirmed.

And so the question you we get to ask ourselves is, is that how I was prepared? Like is that what my experience is of this sacrament of confirmation? And not because, you know, we're all in charge and we can just kind of make all these like that we can you change things. But because if my experience wasn't

increasingly lively familiarity with the Holy Spirit, with the Holy Spirit's actions, with the Holy Spirit's gifts, with the Holy Spirit's promptings or biddings, right? If that wasn't that, well That's what was supposed to have happened. You can still do that now. Does that make sense? And so the reason why I really like to emphasize

This this unity of confirmation, baptism, holy Eucharist, and this preparation for confirmation is if you didn't get that then, you're getting it now, which is really, really good, really, really good news. And so goes on to say. Uh, in order to be more capable of assuming the apostolic responsibilities of Christian life, the apostolic responsibilities of Christian life.

That sense of, okay, I'm being sent. The church actually is sending me out. Remember we said yesterday? As a ex officio, quasi ex officio, as it were official representative of the church. Now, here's another thing that that needs to be in place. Paragraph 1310 said to receive confirmation, one must be in a state of grace.

And so we always, you know, we I put on confirmation retreats for the youth in our diocese for the last 18 years. I've been hosting confirmation retreats for them. And so we always have the sacrament of reconciliation, sacrament of penance.

that is is is very present and we invite our students, we try to repair them as best we can. If I if I'm aware of mortal sin, right? A sin sin that takes me out of that right relationship with the Lord. If I am conscious of mortal sin, there or mortal sin exists. then I'm not receiving the full graces of the sacrament of confirmation. And so again, this could be any one of us. If it's if it's been like, wow, it's been since second grade since I went to con confession.

But I was confirmed. Okay. But I want to receive those graces of confirmation. Go to confession, because that would, in many ways, unleash those if you say like in For lack of a better phrase, unleash the graces of that sacrament. In fact, it says this one should receive the sacrament of penance in order to be cleansed for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Goes on, more intense prayer should prepare one to receive the strength and graces of the Holy Spirit with docile and readiness to

to act because again, the core of this is this is a sacrament of commission, right? The sacrament of like go out into the world and bring the good news, bring the Holy Spirit that you received at baptism. This your Holy Spirit you received at confirmation. so that the world can know who Jesus Christ is.

To that end, where we should have a fitting spiritual sponsor. We should have a spiritual sponsor. And that could be your godparent. That would be great. But it ought to be someone who who can actually help you, can actually actually help you grow. I do not I am not an advocate of the idea of choosing a god parent because, well, we're related. Or choosing a a confirmation sponsor because, well, you know, we chose everyone else. We need to choose this person.

That is not the case. That that yeah, that is the case if confirmation and baptism don't do anything, then yeah, totally. Just choose whoever, you know, it's an honorary title. But if confirmation and baptism are are these very efficacious and incredible calls on a person's life that transformed their life and set them on the the track of discipleship and and in some ways apostleship, right? Being sent out into the world. then their sponsor should be someone who actually helps them do that.

And so just keep that in mind, uh, that the person you choose for a god parent, person you choose for a sponsor, it should be actually someone who can help you grow, someone who can actually help you move forward.

Lastly, the original minister of confirmation is the bishop, the one who has, you know, the successor of the apostles, apostolic unity, that they've received the sacra, the fullness of the sacrament of holy orders. And so when they administer this sacrament, It demonstrates clearly that one of the effects of confirmation is to unite those who receive it more closely to the church.

to her apostolic origins and to her mission of bearing witness to Christ. At the same time, the bishop can he can delegate, right? He he can grant the faculty of administering confirmation to his priests. And as it says in thirteen fourteen, if a Christian is in danger of death, any priest can give him confirmation. Why? Because the church desires.

that none of her children, even the youngest, should depart this world without having been perfected by the Holy Spirit with the gift of Christ's fullness. And that's that's a one of the one of the cases when you go back to the gift of the sacraments, almost across the board. in danger of death, the church basically says, All the grace, whatever you want. It's I mean almost like every sacrament, virtu I you know, there there's limits here, but almost every sacrament that it can help someone

heal someone that can help them take the next step into eternity is accessible to all in danger of death because why? Because the church desires that no one, no one is is ever deprived of the graces of God's sacraments. in the hour of need. And so that's kind of a that's just a really powerful, powerful thing. You guys, today was what a crazy da it seems crazy today. Yesterday was this day of like the effects of confirmation

So clear, so powerful, so incredible. And who can receive the sacrament of confirmation? Basically anybody. Anybody who has has been baptized but has not received the sacrament of confirmation can and should receive the sacrament of confirmation. And so again, if you've already received confirmation, And you didn't get prepared? Well, post prepare yourself and uh postpair uh yourself. And if you are still seeking the sacrament of confirmation. Just now.

that the goal of that preparation is to awaken yourself to those gifts of the Holy Spirit, the the biddings, the promptings of the Holy Spirit, to open yourself to that what it is to e be even more perfectly united to the church in her apostolic unity. And it today. We recognize this unity. We recognize this unity, of course, in the body of the church, in the visible church. We also recognize this unity in the fact that we pray for each other and we need each other. And so please know.

That I'm inviting you to pray for each other. I am praying for you, and please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.