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What Confirmation isn’t.

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3 comments on What Confirmation isn’t.

Great post on Confirmation at And Sometimes Tea.  Sometimes I wonder if I'm ever going to come to the end of these surprises:  "What do you mean the way we do it here in the U. S. isn't the way it's supposed to be done?"  Although I knew the Eastern rites did it differently, so this just makes it all make sense.

Confirmation is not a sacrament of maturity; it's meant for children.  Confirmation is not becoming an adult in the church, either.  It is not a sacrament where one claims or affirms the faith for himself, and it is not the sacrament that completes Christian initiation.

Read and find out what it is.

Comments

3 responses to “What Confirmation isn’t.”

  1. Arwen Avatar
    Arwen

    Great article! I’ve actually had quite a bit of exposure to this topic, since I had to take a class dedicated to the sacraments for my theology major in college. The professor was a priest who was obsessed with the sacraments of initiation (we joked that the class should have been called “Baptism” instead of “Sacraments”) so we got it drilled into us that the American treatment of the sacrament of confirmation is All Wrong.
    Interestingly, my own parish does confirmation in seventh grade, which I’m pretty sure is the very earliest our diocese allows. I’m glad about that.

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  2. Nomad Librarian Avatar
    Nomad Librarian

    Thanks for linking to this! It’s funny…I actually spent most of tonight addressing these misconceptions with my 3rd grade CCD class. While I hope I cleared them up, I’m mostly happy to end the year with the kids knowing what the Sacraments are, and what the Eucharist is (spotty at best earlier this year…scary, considering they received their first Holy Communion last year).

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  3. Barbara C. Avatar
    Barbara C.

    I’ve actually been thinking about this a lot lately, even though I am not sure I fully understand what Confirmation is after all the twaddle I was taught.
    My parish does Confirmation in eighth grade, but I’ve seriously thought about asking our DRE about allowing our oldest to receive it earlier, like maybe third or fourth grade. (She’s doing FHE this year–First Grade–and I would like a year off from the crazy RE hoops.)

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