Also called the“Sacrament of the Seal,” Confirmation is regarded as the perfection of Baptism, because by the Sacrament of Confirmation, the baptized are indelibly sealed to the Holy Ghost. It leaves a permanent mark on the recipient’s soul and like Baptism or Holy Orders can only be received once. Confirmands are, as true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed.
Confirmation gives us the sanctifying grace to become perfect Christians and true soldiers of Christ, well-armed to defend Christ as King, His Mother as Queen, and the Church Militant as His Kingdom on earth. God confirms us (strengthens us) so we may do spiritual battle. The Sacrament also imparts to us the Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost: Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of the Lord.
The confirmand should be in a state of grace (i.e., not in a state of mortal sin) and must have reached the age of reason (generally at least seven years of age). He should also be well catechized and know at least the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostles’s Creed, and the Ten Commandments.
Many people think of the laying on of hands, which signifies the descent of the Holy Spirit, as the central act in the Sacrament of Confirmation. The essential element, however, is the anointing of the confirmand with chrism, an aromatic oil that has been consecrated by a bishop, accompanied by the words “I sign thee with the sign of the Cross, and I confirm thee with the chrism of salvation; in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.” This seal is a consecration, representing the safeguarding by the Holy Ghost of the graces conferred on the Christian at Baptism.
As the Catechism of the Catholic Church points out, “The original minister of Confirmation is the bishop.” Each bishop is a successor to the apostles, upon whom the Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost, the first Confirmation. The Church has always stressed this connection of confirmation, through the bishop, to the ministry of the apostles.
You can read the Traditional Rite of Confirmation here, if you’d like.
The sacrament of confirmation is found in Bible passages such as Acts 8:14-17, 9:17, 19:6, and Hebrews 6:2, which speak of a laying on of hands for the purpose of bestowing the Holy Spirit.
Hebrews 6:2 is especially important because it is not a narrative account of how confirmation was given and, thus, cannot be dismissed by those who reject the sacrament as something unique to the apostolic age. In fact, the passage refers to confirmation as one of Christianity’s basic teachings, which is to be expected since confirmation, like baptism, is a sacrament of initiation into the Christian life.
We read: “Wherefore leaving the word of the beginning of Christ, let us go on to things more perfect, not laying again the foundation of penance from dead works, and of faith towards God, Of the doctrine of baptisms, and imposition of hands, and of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.”
Notice how in this passage we are walked through the successive stages of the Christian journey—repentance, faith, baptism, confirmation, resurrection, and judgment. This passage encapsulates the Christian’s journey toward heaven and gives what theologians call the order of salvation, or the ordo salutis. It well qualifies as “the elementary teachings” of the Christian faith.
The laying on of hands mentioned in the passage must be confirmation: The other kinds of the imposition of hands (for ordination and for healing) are not done to each and every Christian and scarcely qualify as part of the order of salvation.
As the following passages show, the Church Fathers and early Christian writers also recognized confirmation as a sacrament distinct from baptism, even though it was usually given simultaneously with baptism. Their words speak powerfully about this anointing and imposition of hands for reception of the Holy Ghost and the role it has in Christian initiation.
“Are you unwilling to be anointed with the oil of
God? It is on this account that we are called Christians:
because we are anointed with the oil of God.”
—To
Autolycus 1:12, A.D. 181
“After coming from the place of washing we are
thoroughly anointed with a blessed unction, from the
ancient discipline by which [those] in the priesthood
… were accustomed to be anointed with a horn of
oil, ever since Aaron was anointed by Moses … So
also with us, the unction runs on the body and profits us
spiritually, in the same way that baptism itself is a
corporal act by which we are plunged in water, while its
effect is spiritual, in that we are freed from sins.
After this, the hand is imposed for a blessing, invoking
and inviting the Holy Ghost.”
—Baptism
7:1-2, 8:1; A.D. 203
“No soul whatever is able to obtain salvation
unless it has believed while it was in the flesh. Indeed,
the flesh is the hinge of salvation … The flesh,
then, is washed [baptism] so that the soul may be made
clean. The flesh is anointed so that the soul may be
dedicated to holiness. The flesh is signed so that the
soul may be fortified. The flesh is shaded by the
imposition of hands [confirmation] so that the soul may
be illuminated by the Spirit. The flesh feeds on the body
and blood of Christ [the Eucharist] so that the soul too
may feed on God. They cannot, then, be separated in their
reward, when they are united in their works.”
—The
Resurrection of the Dead 8:2-3, A.D. 210
“The bishop, imposing his hand on them, shall make
an invocation, saying, ‘O Lord God, who made them
worthy of the remission of sins through the Holy
Spirit’s washing unto rebirth, send into them your
grace so that they may serve you according to your will,
for there is glory to you, to the Father and the Son with
the Holy Spirit, in the holy Church, both now and through
the ages of ages. Amen.’ Then, pouring the
consecrated oil into his hand and imposing it on the head
of the baptized, he shall say, ‘I anoint you with
holy oil in the Lord, the Father Almighty, and Christ
Jesus and the Holy Spirit.’ Signing them on the
forehead, he shall kiss them and say, ‘The Lord be
with you.’ He that has been signed shall say,
‘And with your spirit.’ Thus shall he do to
each.”
—The
Apostolic Tradition 21-22, A.D. 215
“It is necessary for him that has been baptized
also to be anointed, so that by his having received
chrism, that is, the anointing, he can be the anointed of
God and have in him the grace of Christ.”
—Letters
7:2, A.D. 253
“Some say in regard to those who were baptized in
Samaria that when the apostles Peter and John came there
only hands were imposed on them so that they might
receive the Holy Spirit, and that they were not
re-baptized. But we see, dearest brother, that this
situation in no way pertains to the present case. Those
in Samaria who had believed had believed in the true
faith, and it was by the deacon Philip, whom those same
apostles had sent there, that they had been baptized
inside—in the Church … Since,
then, they had already received a legitimate and
ecclesiastical baptism, it was not necessary to baptize
them again. Rather, that only which was lacking was done
by Peter and John. The prayer having been made over them
and hands having been imposed upon them, the Holy Spirit
was invoked and was poured out upon them. This is even
now the practice among us, so that those who are baptized
in the Church then are brought to the prelates of the
Church; through our prayer and the imposition of hands,
they receive the Holy Spirit and are perfected with the
seal of the Lord.”
—ibid., 73[72]:9
“[A]re not hands, in the name of the same Christ,
laid upon the baptized persons among them, for the
reception of the Holy Spirit?”
—ibid., 74[73]:5
“[O]ne is not born by the imposition of hands when
he receives the Holy Ghost, but in baptism, that so,
being already born, he may receive the Holy Spirit, even
as it happened in the first man Adam. For first God
formed him, and then breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life. For the Spirit cannot be received, unless
he who receives first has an existence. But … the
birth of Christians is in baptism.”
—ibid., 74[73]:7
“[I]n the Gospel our Lord Jesus Christ spoke with
his divine voice, saying, ‘Except a man be born
again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the
kingdom of God’ [John 3:5]. This is the Spirit
which from the beginning was borne over the waters; for
neither can the Spirit operate without the water, nor the
water without the Spirit. Certain people therefore
interpret [this passage] for themselves wrongly, when
they say that by imposition of the hand they receive the
Holy Ghost, and are thus received, when it is manifest
that they ought to be born again [initiated] in the
Catholic Church by both sacraments.”
—Seventh
Carthage, A.D. 256
“[I]t has been asked among the brethren what course
ought specially to be adopted towards the persons of
those who … baptized in heresy … and
subsequently departing from their heresy, and fleeing as
supplicants to the Church of God, should repent with
their whole hearts, and only now perceiving the
condemnation of their error, implore from the Church the
help of salvation … [A]ccording to the most
ancient custom and ecclesiastical tradition, it would
suffice, after that baptism which they have received
outside the Church … that only hands should be
laid upon them by the bishop for their reception of the
Holy Spirit, and this imposition of hands would afford
them the renewed and perfected seal of
faith.”
—Treatise
on Re-Baptism 1, A.D. 256
“[B]y imposition of the bishop’s hands the
Holy Spirit is given to every one that believes, as in
the case of the Samaritans, after Philip’s baptism,
the apostles did to them by laying on of hands [Acts
8:14-17]; in this manner also they conferred on them the
Holy Spirit.”
—ibid., 3
“After you had come up from the pool of the sacred
streams, there was given chrism, the antitype of that
with which Christ was anointed, and this is the Holy
Spirit. But beware of supposing that this is ordinary
ointment. For just as the bread of the Eucharist after
the invocation of the Holy Spirit is simple bread no
longer, but the body of Christ, so also this ointment is
no longer plain ointment, nor, so to speak, common, after
the invocation. Further, it is the gracious gift of
Christ, and it is made fit for the imparting of his
Godhead by the coming of the Holy Spirit. This ointment
is symbolically applied to your forehead and to your
other senses; while your body is anointed with the
visible ointment, your soul is sanctified by the holy and
life-giving Spirit. Just as Christ, after his baptism,
and the coming upon him of the Holy Spirit, went forth
and defeated the adversary, so also with you after holy
baptism and the mystical chrism, having put on the
panoply of the Holy Spirit, you are to withstand the
power of the adversary and defeat him, saying, ‘I
am able to do all things in Christ, who strengthens
me’.”
—Catechetical
Lectures 21:1, 3-4; A.D. 350
“[David says,] ‘You have anointed my head
with oil.’ With oil he anointed your head, your
forehead, in the God-given sign of the cross, so that you
may become that which is engraved on the seal, ‘a
holy thing of the Lord’.”
—ibid., 22:7
“[Prayer for blessing the holy chrism:] ‘God
of powers, aid of every soul that turns to you and comes
under your powerful hand in your only-begotten. We
beseech you, that through your divine and invisible power
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, you may effect in
this chrism a divine and heavenly operation, so that
those baptized and anointed in the tracing with it of the
sign of the saving cross of the only-begotten … as
if reborn and renewed through the bath of regeneration,
may be made participants in the gift of the Holy Spirit
and, confirmed by this seal, may remain firm and
immovable, unharmed and inviolate
…’”
—The
Sacramentary of Serapion 25:1, A.D. 350
“[T]hose who have been illuminated are, after
baptism, to be anointed with celestial chrism and thus
become partakers in the kingdom of Christ.”
—Canon
48, A.D. 360
“If, then, the power of both baptism and
confirmation, greater by far than charisms, is passed on
to the bishops, so too is the right of binding and
loosing.”
—Three
Letters to the Novatianist Sympronian 1:6, A.D.
383
“[H]ow dare any man speak against his bishop, by
whom the Lord gave the Holy Spirit among you upon the
laying on of his hands, by whom you have learned the
sacred doctrines, and have known God, and have believed
in Christ, by whom you were known of God, by whom you
were sealed with the oil of gladness and the ointment of
understanding, by whom you were declared to be the
children of light, by whom the Lord in your illumination
testified by the imposition of the bishop’s
hands.”
—Apostolic
Constitutions 2:4:32, A.D. 400
“[T]he former council … decreed, as your
unanimity remembers as well as I do, that those who as
children were baptized by the Donatists, and not yet
being able to know the pernicious character of their
error, and afterward when they had come to the use of
reason, had received the knowledge of the truth, abhorred
their former error, and were received in accordance with
the ancient order by the imposition of the hand, into the
Catholic Church of God spread throughout the
world.”
—Canon
57[61], A.D. 419
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