CONFIRMATION

Confirmation

For on him the Father, God, has set his seal. (John 6:27)

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Confirmation Preparation

Please be aware our Confirmation requirements have changed for 2022-2023.


St. Mark Catholic Church is pleased to use a two-year preparation process for Confirmation which engages young men and women through youth ministry and engagement in parish life. A two-year process has the advantage of allowing catechists, sponsors, and parents to draw our youth closer to Christ as they prepare for full initiation into the Church through Confirmation. The process begins after a child's completion of their sixth-grade year of Faith Formation, and consists in a period of remote preparation (catechetical instruction) and proximate preparation (spiritual and liturgical preparation for the celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation). This process takes place within our Middle School Youth Ministry or within our Fidelis and Fraternus programs (for those enrolled in approved homeschool programs). For those attending St Mark Catholic School be aware that the requirements have changes from previous years. Please follow click here to view the current requirements.


While the catechesis and intellectual formation of Catholic school students and those enrolled in Homeschool faith formation is essential, it is not a substitute for involvement in parish life and engagement in a community of peers through youth ministry. The parish life is the central place for proximate preparation before the conferral of the sacrament.


If you have further questions, please contact Mariana Vazquez at mariana.vazquez@stmarknc.org.


Depending on one's background in the Confirmation process, Confirmandi will be placed in either Confirmation I or Confirmation II. Placement in the Confirmation process is not based on academic progress but rather on readiness to receive the sacrament.


Confirmation I

Confirmation I fulfills the aforementioned period of remote preparation. Candidates are provided opportunities to review Church doctrine and teaching, turn to God in prayer and bear witness to the faith, and worship.


Confirmation II

Confirmation II fulfills the proximate or immediate period of preparation. Candidates are provided the same opportunities as above, yet their focus will be centered on spiritual and liturgical preparation of the sacrament.

About Confirmation

At confirmation we receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit and confirm our baptismal promises. Greater awareness of the grace of the Holy Spirit is conferred through the anointing of chrism oil and the laying on of hands by the Bishop.
Confirmation perfects Baptismal grace; it is the sacrament which gives the Holy Spirit in order to root us more deeply in the divine filiation, incorporate us more firmly into Christ, strengthen our bond with the Church, associate us more closely with her mission, and help us bear witness to the Christian faith in words accompanied by deeds. (CCC 1316)
Through the Sacrament of Confirmation we renew our baptismal promises and commit to living a life of maturity in the Christian faith. As we read in the Lumen Gentium (the Dogmatic Constitution of the Church) from the Second Vatican Council:
Bound more intimately to the Church by the sacrament of confirmation, [the baptized] are endowed by the Holy Spirit with special strength; hence they are more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith both by word and by deed as true witnesses of Christ. (no. 11)

Scriptural Foundation for Confirmation

In the Acts of the Apostles we read of the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. While baptism is the sacrament of new life, confirmation gives birth to that life. Baptism initiates us into the Church and names us as children of God, whereas confirmation calls us forth as God’s children and unites us more fully to the active messianic mission of Christ in the world.

After receiving the power of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the Apostles went out and confirmed others, showing confirmation to be an individual and separate sacrament: Peter and John at Samaria (Acts 8:5-6, (704) 948-0231 and Paul at Ephesus (Acts 19:5-6). Also the Holy Spirit came down on Jews and Gentiles alike in Caesarea, prior to their baptisms. Recognizing this as a confirmation by the Holy Spirit, Peter commanded that they be baptized (cf. Acts 10:47).
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