What a great joy it was to have so many receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation yesterday!

While Baptism is our Christian birth, Confirmation leads us into Christian maturity.

Through the reception of the Holy Spirit, Lord and Giver of Life, Confirmation equips us to open a door of faith to the world. Confirmation imprints upon our soul an indelible mark, the glorious character that activates us to live confidently and compassionately as Jesus’ follower and member of His Church. It bestows strength and makes possible our reception, at the opportune moment, of actual graces necessary to remain faithful to God when difficulties present.

In this way, Confirmation is the Sacrament that infuses required strength – fortitude – to live in open profession of faith, despite the sacrifices and challenges of doing so faithfully.

Whenever our conduct falls short of Christ’s commandment to love, it never is due to a defect in the Sacrament of Confirmation, but always our lack of correspondence with the grace it conferred. If we are weak in the struggle against our impulses, the world or the devil, it is precisely because we have not made use of the grace which the Holy Spirit infused within us when we received the Sacrament of Confirmation.

Come, O Most Holy Spirit!