The principal effect of the Sacrament of Confirmation is the full outpouring of the Holy Spirit as it once was granted to the Apostles on the day of Pentecost.
Confirmation brings an increase and deepening of Baptismal grace:
-it roots us more deeply in the divine adoption which enables us to cry out, “Abba! Father!”;
-it unites us more fully to Christ;
-it increases the gifts of the Holy Spirit in us;
-it renders our bond with the Church more perfect;
-it gives 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.
Like Baptism, which it completes, Confirmation is given only once, for it too imprints on the soul an indelible spiritual mark, the character which is the sign that Jesus Christ has marked a Christian with the seal of the Holy Spirit. As a result, Christians who have been confirmed share more completely in the priestly mission of Jesus Christ.
The Gifts of the Holy Spirit
The gifts of the Holy Spirit are imparted in their fullness in Confirmation. We find a list of these gifts in the book of the prophet Isaiah (Is. 11:2) They are Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety and the Fear of the Lord. The gifts are necessary for salvation. The virtues of themselves are not sufficient to raise man to the perfection to which he is called. Their incapacity is remedied by these Gifts of the Holy Spirit. They enable us to act correctly in a superhuman way, in order to bring our actions into line with God's own standards of conduct. They enable us to live our human lives as God would live a human life.
Prayer: Eternal God, who willed to regenerate your children in water and the Holy Spirit, let your Holy Spirit, our Divine Consoler, decend from Heaven upon us with His seven precious gifts.
Send us the Spirit of wisdom, that He may discover to us the enemies we ought to fear, and the dangers we ought to avoid amid the deceptive appearances of this world; that He may enable us to choose in every circumstance what is most useful for the preservation and increase of divine life in us.
Send us the Spirit of understanding, that He may enable us understand the beauty, the sweetness and the fruitfulness of the holy truths whose light illumines our path in the world.
Send us Your Spirit of Counsel, that in the moment of action He may always incline us to the most opportune and prudent of reflections; that He may enable us to be perfectly docile to Your secret inspirations; and that He may also make us in time of need the courageous counselors of our brothers and sisters.
Send us Your Spirit of Fortitude, that He may change our weakness into strength and that of the faint-hearted He may make apostles full of burning zeal.
Send us Your Spirit of knowledge, that He may inspire us with a horror of lying and of error; that He may inflame us with a noble and holy love of all the truths that You have taught us; and that, to guard these truths, He may place in our hearts a constant memory of them.
Give us Your Spirit of piety, that He may enkindle in us the fire of your love that love which makes us love Your divine will ardently even in things most minute.
Fill us, Lord, with the Spirit of fear, that He may never allow us to forget Your infinite majesty, and your boundless power. Keep us ever under your gaze and your loving direction.
