The Cathedral of Saint Thomas More News:

Confirmation

Important Information for Students Receiving Confirmation October 2017

Boys Retreat – September 30, 2017

Girls Retreat – October 14, 2017

For both boys and girls retreat:

Meet at 8:00 am Cathedral parking lot.  Groups will be going to the Franciscan Monastery for the day and will return to the Cathedral in time to attend 5:30 pm Mass with families.

Sunday, October 22, 2:30 pm: Rehearsal Students and Sponsors

Monday, October 23, 6:00 pm: Confirmation Students and Sponsors meet in Burke Hall

7:00 pm: Confirmation Mass

Confirmation is conferred at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More by Bishop Michael Burbidge on three occasions during the Liturgical Year:

  • For youth who have completed their preparations through the STM Cathedral School or our Religious Education Classes.
  • For new or Catholics who have completed the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) at the Easter Vigil.
  • For Catholic Adults who have not yet been confirmed at the Diocesan Adult Confirmations on Pentecost.

About Confirmation

Confirmation, 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). — From the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults.