Confirmation

+JMJ+

Tonight, my parish is going to be celebrating the Sacrament of Confirmation for its high school students. Therefore, I have decided to post my thoughts on this sacrament. First, I hear a lot of people say that this sacrament is usually given around eighth grade, instead of our high school policy. I tend to think that giving younger kids an opportunity to receive this sacrament is better. Why? Well, first off, eighth graders are in a stage in life when peer pressure begins. Why not give them extra graces early so that they might better fight temptations to use drugs, have pre-marital sex, etc? In addition, it seems that many juniors in high school have a notion that once they are confirmed, there is no need for further religious instruction. To them, confirmation=graduation from religion classes, which may why many youth leave the Church soon after. Obviously, these problems are not much of a concern for homeschooled kids. I am just talking about your typical kid, here.

Baptism, the Eucharist, and the sacrament of Confirmation together constitute the "sacraments of Christian initiation," whose unity must be safeguarded. It must be explained to the faithful that the reception of the sacrament of Confirmation is necessary for the completion of baptismal grace...For "by the sacrament of Confirmation, [the baptized] are more perfectly bound to the Church and are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit. Hence they are, as true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed."
CCC Paragraph 1285

The Baltimore Catechims also has a good definiotion for this sacrament:

Q. 670. What is Confirmation?

A. Confirmation is a Sacrament through which we receive the Holy Ghost to make us strong and perfect Christians and soldiers of Jesus Christ.

When I was prepariong for this sacrament, my parish wanted to de-emphsize the concept of being "Soldiers of Christ." However, I find this problematic, especially since the Church on earth is called "The Church Militant." In fact, I have a link to a very orthodox Catholic school who aims at teaching students that they are the Church Militant. The school is Montfort Academy. They use Seton's high school curriculum for all subjects...check it out!