My Book of Faith: 17 The Holy Church and the Holy Sacraments

God's Introduction
Forword
SECTION I: Background
1. Meet The Author
2. How God Communicated with Me
SECTION II: The Story of Creation
1. The Origin and Nature of God
2. In The Beginning
  - The Creation of the World
  - The Life God Created
3. Life in Heaven
SECTION III: Our Separation from God
SECTION IV: Understanding Salvation
1. The Purpose, Life and Death of Jesus Christ
2. The Mystery that is Mary, Mother of God
  - Queen of Heaven and the Universe
3. The Path of Salvation
4. The Road Less Travelled
5. The Promises of Salvation
SECTION V: Building Your Relationship With God

Section 5 Building Your Relationship With God - 17 The Holy Church And The Holy Sacraments

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The Sacrament of 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).

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).”³²

³² 'Confirmation' (Usccb.org, 2016) <http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/sacraments-and- sacramentals/confirmation/> accessed 25 March 2016.

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Question: Did you institutionalize the Sacrament of confirmation?

God’s answer:

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 it 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 8:14-17)

Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven

I respect his decision

Meaning: “Truly I tell you....” Is what Jesus told Saint Peter, the Apostle.

Question: Meaning did Saint Peter institutionalized the Sacrament of Confirmation?

God’s answer:

He did it first.

Question: If you did not institutionalize confirmation, why did the St ,Peter and the other apostles feel they have to send people to the newly baptized so they can receive the Holy Spirit?

God’s answer:

New church
They wanted to have a solid following.

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Table of Contents

The Sacrament of Confirmation