CONFIRMATION
Confirmation was instituted by Christ Our redeemer . This Sacrament was then practiced by His Apostles who were the first Bishops of the Church.
"But you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto Me...and even to the uttermost part of the earth." The Acts 1:8
Confirmation is the full outpouring of the Holy Spirit and is usually administered by a Bishop, in accordance with the traditions of the Church. For it is the Bishops who have the fullness of Gifts from the Holy Spirit, the same and equal Gifts as the twelve Apostles received from the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.
Once baptized, one must then be confirmed. This Sacrament makes us strong and perfect Christians. Its proper virtue is that it bestows on us a special power from the Holy Spirit. If we exercise it, we are able to discern and separate the truths of the Catholic Church from lies and heresies, to be watchful in temptations and be aware, so that one might avoid committing a mortal sin; to recognize and love all things that come from GOD, the grace to follow GOD's Ten Commandments and the Six Precepts of the Catholic Church:
"Now when the Apostles, who were in Jerusalem, had heard that Samaria had received the Word of GOD, they sent unto them Peter and John, who, when they prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost. For He was not as yet come upon any of them; but they were only Baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus. Then they LAID THEIR HANDS upon them and they RECEIVED THE HOLY GHOST." The Acts 8:14-17
"And when Simon saw, that by the IMPOSITION OF THE HANDS of the Apostles, THE HOLY GHOST WAS GIVEN..." The Acts 8:18
"But Peter said to them: 'Do penance, and be BAPTIZED everyone of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins: and you shall receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost'..." The Acts 2:38
Baptism washes away sins, whereas Confirmation infuses the Holy Spirit is added strength into the temple of your body. The Apostles administered the Sacrament of Confirmation by the imposition of hands, and prayer. In doing so, those Baptized received the Holy Spirit. Although they received the Holy Spirit in their Baptism, they did not receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
The Gifts of the Holy Spirit are Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety and the Fear of the Lord. The Gifts mature at the age of reasoning or awareness. Once the soul has been endowed with these gifts, which it receives from the Bishop by this Sacrament, it then become strengthened to profess its Faith publicly, as did the Apostles of Christ at Pentecost.
Confirmation gives us an increase of Sanctifying Grace, so that way may be true to GOD by our Faith, by professing publicly our belief and living in accordance with the teachings of Christ and His Church; becoming true children of GOD.
1. I most stedfastly admit and embrace Apostolical and ecclesiastical traditions, and all other observances and constitutions of the Church.
2. I also admit the Holy Scripture according to that sense which our holy mother the Church has held, and does hold, to which it belongs to judge of the true sense and interpretations of the Scriptures. Neither will I ever take and interpret them otherwise than according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers.
3. I also profess that there are truly and properly seven sacraments of the New Law, instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord, and necessary for the salvation of mankind, though not all for every one; to wit, Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Order, and Matrimony; and that they confer grace; and that of these, Baptism, Confirmation, and Order cannot be reiterated without sacrilege.
I also receive and admit the received and approved ceremonies of the Catholic Church in the solemn administration of the aforesaid sacraments.
4. I embrace and receive all and every one of the things which have been defined and declared in the holy Council of Trent concerning original sin and justification.
5. I profess, likewise, that in the Mass there is offered to God a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead; and that in the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist there is truly, really, and substantially, the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that there is made a conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the body, and of the whole substance of the wine into the blood, which conversion the Catholic Church calls Transubstantiation.
I also confess that under either kind alone Christ is received whole and entire, and a true sacrament.
6. I constantly hold that there is a Purgatory, and that the souls therein detained are helped by the suffrages of the faithful.
7. Likewise, that the saints, reigning together with Christ, are to be honoured and invocated, and that they offer prayers to God for us, and that their relics are to be respected.
8. I most firmly assert that the images of Christ, of the mother of God, ever virgin, and also of the saints, ought to be had and retained, and that due honour and veneration is to be given them.
9. I also affirm that the power of indulgences was left by Christ in the Church, and that the use of them is most wholesome to Christian people.
10. I acknowledge the Holy Catholic Apostolic Roman Church for the mother and mistress of all churches; and I promise true obedience to the Bishop of Rome, successor to St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and Vicar of Jesus Christ.
11. I likewise undoubtedly receive and profess all other things delivered, defined, and declared by the sacred Canons, and general Councils, and particularly by the holy Council of Trent.
12. And I condemn, reject, and anathematize all things contrary thereto, and all heresies whatsoever, condemned, rejected, and anathematized by the Church.
This true Catholic faith, without which no one can be saved, I (name) do at this present freely confess and sincerely hold; and I promise most constantly to retain, and confess the same entire and unviolated, with God's assistance, to the end of my life.