The Sacrament of Confirmation

Preparation for the Sacrament of Confirmation at Sacred Heart Church is accomplished through a two-year program. Students are required to attend classes, in past years complete 20 hours of community and church service, to write a report on their chosen saint, to write a letter to Fr. Lundberg explaining why they want to be confirmed in the Catholic faith, to attend a Confirmation retreat, to be interviewed by a priest, and to pass two Confirmation exams.  For the 2020-2021 school year, the service hours opportunity is optional due to COVID-19 limitations, and we are instead asking each student to go to the Adoration Chapel and complete 5 hours of Adoration which can be done in five 1 hour increments.

For a list of Frequently Asked Questions about the Sacred Heart of Jesus Confirmation program, click FAQ Confirmation

Here is a link to the necessary forms and updates that will help families and students navigate this process. Click here.

Confirmation, together with Baptism and Eucharist, form the Sacraments of Initiation that are all intimately connected. In the Sacrament of Confirmation, the baptized person is “sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit” and is strengthened for service to the Body of Christ.  Here is short video providing students and families and explanation on the Sacrament of Confirmation, video

The prophets of the Old Testament foretold that God’s Spirit would rest upon the Messiah to sustain his mission. Their prophecy was fulfilled when Jesus the Messiah was conceived by the Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. The Holy Spirit descended on Jesus on the occasion of his baptism by John.

Jesus’ entire mission occurred in communion with the Spirit. Before he died, Jesus promised that the Spirit would be given to the Apostles and to the entire Church. After his death, he was raised by the Father in the power of the Spirit.

Those who believed in the Apostles’ preaching were baptized and received the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands. The Apostles baptized believers in water and the Spirit. Then they imparted the special gift of the Spirit through the laying on of hands. “‘The imposition of hands is rightly recognized by the Catholic tradition as the origin of the sacrament of Confirmation, which in a certain way perpetuates the grace of Pentecost in the Church'” (CCC, no. 1288, citing Pope Paul VI, Divinae Consortium Naturae, no. 659).

By the second century, Confirmation was also conferred by anointing with holy oil, which came to be called sacred Chrism. “This anointing highlights the name ‘Christian,’ which means ‘anointed’ and derives from that of Christ himself whom God ‘anointed with the Holy Spirit'” (CCC, no. 1289, citing Acts 10:38).

-From the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults

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