People receive the Sacrament of Confirmation at many different points in their lives. Some are confirmed as infants, some as grown adults, and some as teenagers. I was confirmed in the 8th grade, while now, in the archdiocese of New Orleans, confirmation normally happens in the 11th grade. Whenever we received the sacrament, it’s important to remember that the role we play is minuscule next to the role God plays. We somethings think of Confirmation as us confirming our faith in God, but really it’s God confirming us in the faith. That’s why both infants and adults can be confirmed. Back in the early days of Christianity, Churches were so small that the bishop was able to baptize and confirm each convert himself. Unfortunately, that’s just not possible anymore. Most people are baptized by a priest or deacon, but, for the most part, the bishops still do most of the confirmations, to show that we are united as one Church, one family in God, through the grace of the Holy Spirit. Every year, many teenagers choose not to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation, and we certainly don’t want to force them to receive it. We do, however, want to convince them to receive it. They are depriving themselves of the grace of this sacrament just when they need it the most. You may or may not know that the Church will only allow someone to be a Godparent if they are baptized, confirmed, and active Catholics. In the rite of baptism, the godparents promise to help the parents of the child to train him (her) “in the practice of the faith,” and to “keep God’s commandments as Christ taught us, by loving God and our neighbor.” Furthermore, they, along with the parents, promise to “see that the divine life which God gives him (her) is kept safe from the poison of sin, to grow always stronger in his (her) heart.” How can someone hope to keep those promises if they haven’t received the graces of all of the sacraments that God wants to give them? When we are confirmed, the graces that we received in baptism are stirred up within us, to help us to live as a follower of Christ in a world that often makes it difficult. We are strengthened by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord, to live a virtuous life. When we act on those gifts, making them part of our lives and following the guidance of the Holy Spirit, then, as grapes on a vine, we grow in the fruits of the Holy Spirit, which are charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity. In the rite of Confirmation, the bishop, after the laying on of hands and the prayer, will approach each confirmandi (candidate for confirmation) individually and, calling them by their new, saint name, say, “Be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.” We don’t mean seal as in the lid of a jar. It’s more like the way they used to seal a letter with wax. Melted wax would be applied to the fold of the letter and a seal, usually with a symbol of the person sending it, would be pressed into the wax, thus importing the image to the wax.We want the seal of the Holy Spirit to be imprinted on us, so that the love of God is evident in everything we say and do, just as Christ says, “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).