Question:
Answer:
Check with your boyhood home diocese. It should have records of the sacraments you received as a youth. If it can’t confirm your confirmation, no pun intended, by all means receive this sacrament, which is one of the three sacraments of initiation, the other two being baptism and First Communion.
While you undoubtedly know the Holy Spirit via baptism, God and his Church call you to an even deeper experience of which confirmation plays a crucial part:
Confirmation brings an increase and deepening of baptismal grace:
- It roots us more deeply in the divine filiation which makes us cry, “Abba! Father!” (Rom. 8:15)
- It unites us more firmly to Christ
- It increases the gifts of the Holy Spirit in us
- It renders our bond with the Church more perfect
- It gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the Faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ, to confess the name of Christ boldly, and never to be ashamed of the cross (the Catechism 1303, some footnotes omitted)
In confirmation, St. Ambrose affirms that we receive “the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of right judgment and courage, the spirit of knowledge and reverence, the spirit of holy fear in God’s presence. Guard what you have received” (CCC 1303).