THE GIFT OF CONFIRMATION

Growth is vital to human life; the body and mind must grow to stay alive. Catholics believe that the soul also needs to grow to maturity in the life of grace, just as the human body must grow through childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Catholics believe that the Sacrament of Confirmation is the supernatural equivalent of the growth process on the natural level. It builds on what was begun in Baptism and what was nourished in the Holy Eucharist. It completes the process of initiation into the Christian community, and it matures the soul for the work ahead.

The Sacrament of Confirmation is a sacrament of anointing by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is one of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity; it is the final Sacrament of Initiation into the Catholic Church. The Bishop or Priest prays for those being confirmed to receive the Holy Spirit and his Seven Gifts, he is the comforter and helper that Jesus promised to send his Apostles, who came to them on the day of Pentecost.

During Confirmation, the focus is on the Holy Spirit, who confirmed the apostles on Pentecost and gave them courage to practice their faith. Catholics believe that the same Holy Spirit confirms Catholics during the Sacrament of Confirmation and gives them the same gifts.

Traditionally, the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude (courage), knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. These gifts are supernatural graces given to the soul. The twelve fruits of the Holy Spirit are charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, long-suffering, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, and chastity — human qualities that can be activated by the Holy Spirit.

It was another special occasion at Don Bosco Technical Secondary School in Chingola, where five young brothers who are aspiring to follow Jesus in Saint Don Bosco’s way of life, took a step ahead after their baptism, by receiving the Sacramentof Confirmation in the Catholic Church. Their parents, the Salesian family, students and pupils together with their teachers, witnessed this solemn celebration of Confirmation which was presided over by His Rt Reverend Bishop Clement Mulenga SDB of Kabwe Diocese in Zambia. This rite of Confirmation was conducted on Wednesday 2^nd June 2021, during the School Mass.