Sacrament of Confirmation

The confirmation course

The journey to Confirmation is one of “growing up” in faith. As children, we are given a child’s faith and a necessarily simplified view of who God is, what the Church is and what we should know and believe about them.

As we grow up, we develop critical thinking skills and experience profound changes both in mind and body. We often discover that the simplicity and certainty of our child-level faith is desperately inadequate in the face of these challenges.

Our Confirmation course aims to explore the Catholic faith much more deeply than is possible at the First Holy Communion level. As such, there will be many more questions than answers and we must learn to be content with uncertainty, with having to wait patiently for God’s answers, to be willing to be surprised by God and be open to following when he leads us in new and unfamiliar directions. We remember that “what would Jesus do” includes flipping tables and upsetting people just as much as showing compassion to all, touching the untouchable and eating with sinners.

We will also take a look at the lives of the saints, the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

We will be joining other Confirmation groups within the St Andrew’s Deanery for monthly Masses at St. Laurence’s in Cambridge and other events with a focus on our young people. In addition, we will be getting out and about for fellowship around a camp fire and enjoying each other’s company as we make this journey towards Confirmation.

Registration for the 2023/4 course is now closed. To book a place on next year’s course, please contact Paul at paul@cambournerc.com after 1st July 2024.

Programme

DateProgramme
11/11Session 1 – introduction
18/11Session 2 – The Holy Spirit
Sun 26/11Churches joint service in Comberton
Sun 3/12Ablaze Mass, St Laurence’s Cambridge
9/12Session 3 – Why the world is broken
16/12Session 4 – Jesus: more than a mere man
7/1Ablaze Mass, St Laurence, Cambridge
13/1Session 5 – Why did Jesus have to die
20/1Session 6 – Resurrection
10/2Session 7 – Prayer 1: an introduction
17/2Session 8 – The frames of the Gospels
3/3Ablaze Mass, St Laurence, Cambridge
9/3Session 9
16/3Session 10
7/4Ablaze Mass, St Laurence Cambridge
13/4Session 11
20/4Session 12
4/5Ignite Festival
11/5Session 13
18/5Session 14
8/6Session 15
15/6Session 16
22/6Session 17
29/6Session 18
Sunday 7/7Confirmation Day
 

Following is an extract from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

The Effects of Confirmation

1302 It is evident from its celebration that the effect of the sacrament of Confirmation is the full outpouring of the Holy Spirit as once granted to the apostles on the day of Pentecost.

1303 From this fact, Confirmation brings an increase and deepening of baptismal grace:
– it roots us more deeply in the divine filiation which makes us cry, “Abba! Father!”;
– 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:

Recall then that you have received the spiritual seal, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of right judgement and courage, the spirit of knowledge and reverence, the spirit of holy fear in God’s presence. Guard what you have received. God the Father has marked you with his sign; Christ the Lord has confirmed you and has placed his pledge, the Spirit, in your hearts.

1304 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 his Spirit by clothing him with power from on high so that he may be his witness.

1305 This “character” perfects the common priesthood of the faithful, received in Baptism, and “the confirmed person receives the power to profess faith in Christ publicly and as it were officially (quasi ex officio).”

  • Please also click and read the GUIDELINES from the Diocese of East Anglia.
  • Please download the form for the candidate and the sponsor. Fill them in and give them back to Lorretta together with a copy of Baptism certificate.
  • Deadline for submission of Confirmation Form: 15th October 2023.

  • Document