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"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."
~ Catechism of the Catholic Church 1316 -
Information and Registration for High School Confirmation
Confirmation Preparation is a two year program at Our Lady of Lourdes. Students are able to begin Confirmation I in the fall of their 9th grade year. The following year they will enter into Confirmation II and be Confirmed in the spring. -
Information and Registration for Adult Confirmation (RCIA)
RCIA stands for Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, which is the Church's official process for becoming Catholic. Simply put, it's the way in which we prepare adults to receive the Sacraments of Initiation (Baptism, Communion, and Confirmation), but it's also so much more than just instruction: it's also a community of fellow disciples discerning and growing together.
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About the Sacrament of Confirmation
Now when the Apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who went down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord, Jesus. Then they laid hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.
Acts 8:14-17Confirmation, 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.
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