1. Confirmation is a very special once-in-a-lifetime Sacrament that perfects the grace we received when we were baptized, and seals us with the Holy Spirit.

2. The outward sign that will show you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit is the Bishop anointing your forehead with blessed scented oil called “chrism” and saying “Be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.”  

3. When we decide to be Confirmed we are promising God, the Church, our friends, and our family that we will always strive to live as a faithful Catholic followers of Jesus. Using the words of the Nicene Creed, the Bishop will also ask us to affirm out loud that we believe all that the Church teaches to be from God.

4. We choose a saint that we feel we can relate to and take that name to remind us to strive to live as that saint lived so that we too can become saints and to ask that saint to always pray for us so that we can live out our faith.  

5. We choose a sponsor who is a faithful practicing catholic to help us keep the commitment we made at our confirmation, to also be faithful practicing catholics.

6. When we are Confirmed, the Holy Spirit fills us with powerful gifts that help us grow in virtue and carry out the mission God has for us in the world. 

7. These powerful gifts of the Holy Spirit are: 

I) Wisdom--which helps us tell the difference between right and wrong

II) Understanding--which helps us see things the way that God sees them 

III) Counsel--which helps us show our friends and family how to be Saints

IV) Fortitude--which helps us stand up for the truth our faith teaches

V) Knowledge--which helps us learn more and more about God

VI) Piety--which helps us practice virtue and holiness

VII) Fear of the Lord--which helps us remember how awesome God is

8. We must prepare for Confirmation by considering all these things and opening our hearts and minds to God. This is not just “something we do.” We are asking the Church and the Holy Spirit to give us a great gift which we must not take lightly.

9. Receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation does not mean we are finally finished and don’t need to go to Mass or learn about the faith anymore.  Confirmation does not mean graduation; it actually means that we have an even greater duty to learn more about our faith so that we can live and share it with others by continually deepening our knowledge of and love for Jesus and His Church.

10. Whenever it seems hard to be Catholic, we pray and ask the Holy Spirit to help us use the gifts we were given at Confirmation  so that we will always be faithful followers of Jesus, who is the only one who can teach us how to be truly happy.