The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 178: Who Receives Confirmation (2025)

Episode Date: June 27, 2025

We continue our examination of the sacrament of Confirmation, specifically both who should receive Confirmation and who can act as the minister of the sacrament. Fr. Mike reiterates that every baptized person, not yet confirmed, should receive the sacrament of Confirmation. Without Confirmation, Christian initiation remains incomplete. He also emphasizes the importance of choosing someone who can help you grow in the Faith as a sponsor. Fr. Mike concludes with an examination of who the minister of Confirmation is, and how its minister ties us to the apostolic succession. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1306-1314. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi everyone, before we get started, I wanted to let you know about an exciting announcement that could revolutionize the way you listen to the Bible in the air and the Catechism in the air. Ascension has released a new Bible and Catechism app called the Ascension app. No, here's what you get. In this app, you get the entire text of the Great Adventure Bible. This is incredible. You also get the entire text of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, as long with the Catechism

in the Air podcast and the Bible in Your Podcast, and transcripts for each episode. If you're like, I'm tired of listening to that guy, I just wanna read it, there's complete transcripts from each and every episode. One thing that makes this app incredibly unique is that it includes special features that make connections between the Bible and the Catechism

so crystal clear through color-coded references and all these links. The hyperlinks are amazing. I tried it out and I'm like, oh my gosh, it kind of has changed the way I read through the catechism, kind of changed the way I read through the Bible. These features will help you navigate the Bible and catechism even more seamlessly

so you can get more out of your experience. Also, the app provides almost 1,000 answers to Bible questions that people who listen to the Bible in a year, they wrote in with their questions, almost 1 a thousand answers and those answers come in the form of audio clips, video clips, as well as resources excerpted from some of Ascension's published works. If you want to download this app for free, super simple. Just go to the app store and search for Ascension app. I am telling you, if learning about the Bible and the Catechism is important to you, then this app will change your life. Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast,

where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in Scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward a heavenly home. This is Day 178, we are reading paragraphs 1306-1314. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith approach.

But you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own Catechism in your reading plan by visiting, guess what? Ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y. You can also click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates. Daily notifications today is day 178. You guys were coming in hot on halfway through this whole year. You've had nice work. As I said, we're almost at half a year in, which is pretty remarkable considering all

things and considering what? Uh, I don't know maybe the fact that it can be difficult at times to get to the catechism It's not as we've talked about so many times months ago It is not like the bible in the sense that there's that story we're following but there are so many incredible Gifts that the church has given to us in this sacrament or second confirmation Of course, we're talking about today but in the catechism. It's so today what we're talking about Yesterday we looked at the effects of confirmation. I gushed. I know I'm sorry I apologize, but I guess that's one of those sorry not sorry phrases because it's amazing and also, you know

We're convicted by the fact that we need to go out But the new question today is who can receive this sacrament and who is the minister of confirmation? So who can receive the sacrament? You know you can say it really really briefly. Paragraph 1306 says it really briefly. Every baptized person not yet confirmed can and should receive the sacrament of confirmation. So kind of straightforward but we're gonna also talk about what is it to have the age of discretion? What is it to delay? In the West we kind of delay the sacrament of confirmation. In the East it's combined with baptism and First

Holy Communion. We'll talk about that today as well as the fact that the Minister of Confirmation, the ordinary minister or the original minister of confirmation is the bishop. We're talking about that today. Not only who can receive the sacrament but who can administer the sacrament to those receiving it. So let's say a prayer as we kind of conclude, almost conclude, this section on the sacrament of confirmation. Father in heaven, we call upon your name and we give you praise and glory. In the name of your Son Jesus Christ, we ask you to please receive our thanks, receive our praise. Thank you so much for

this day. Thank you for bringing us to this day. Lord God, we've done nothing to deserve life. We've done nothing to deserve this day. And yet here you are once again, pouring out your goodness, pouring out your gifts upon each and every one of us. As we draw breath, Lord God, every breath, let every breath be a prayer of praise. Let every breath be a prayer of thanksgiving to you. Let every heartbeat in our chests, Lord God. Let it be for your glory and a constant reminder how many times a minute

how good you are. Let every heartbeat just declare and proclaim your goodness. May you be praised and glorified. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Today we are reading paragraphs 1306 to 1314 because it's day 178. Who can receive this sacrament? Every baptized person not yet confirmed can and should receive the sacrament of confirmation. Since baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist form a unity, it follows that the faithful are obliged to receive this sacrament at the appropriate time, for without confirmation and Eucharist, baptism is certainly valid and efficacious, but Christian initiation remains incomplete.

For centuries, Latin custom has indicated the age of discretion as the reference point for receiving confirmation, but in danger of death, children should be confirmed even if they have not yet attained the age of discretion. Although confirmation is sometimes called the sacrament of Christian maturity, we must not confuse adult faith with the adult age of natural growth, nor forget that the baptismal grace is a grace of free, unmerited election and does not need ratification to become effective. St. Thomas reminds us of this. Age of body does not determine age of soul.

Even in childhood, man can attain spiritual maturity, as the Book of Wisdom says, for old age is not honored for a length of time or measured by number of years. Many children, through the strength of the Holy Spirit they have received, have bravely fought for Christ even to the shedding of their blood. Preparation for Confirmation should aim at leading the Christian toward a more intimate union with Christ and a more lively familiarity with the Holy Spirit – his actions, his gifts, his biddings – in order to be more capable of assuming the apostolic responsibilities of Christian life.

To this end, Catechesis for Confirm confirmation should strike to awaken a sense of belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ, the universal Church, as well as the parish community. The latter bears special responsibility for the preparation of conformance. To receive confirmation, one must be in a state of grace. One should receive the sacrament of penance in order to be cleansed for the gift of the Holy Spirit. More intense prayer should prepare one to receive the strength and graces of the Holy Spirit with docility and readiness to act.

Candidates for confirmation as for baptism fittingly seek the spiritual help of a sponsor. To emphasize the unity of the two sacraments, it is appropriate that this be one of the baptismal godparents. The Minister of Confirmation. The Minister of Confirmation The original Minister of Confirmation is the bishop. In the East, ordinarily the priest who baptizes also immediately confers confirmation in one and the same celebration, but he does so with sacred chrism consecrated by the patriarch or the bishop, thus expressing the apostolic unity of the Church whose bonds are strengthened

by the sacrament of confirmation. In the Latin Church, the same discipline applies to the baptism of adults or to the reception into full communion with the church of a person baptized in another Christian community that does not have valid confirmation. In the Latin Rite, the ordinary minister of confirmation is the bishop. If the need arises, the bishop may grant the faculty of administering confirmation to priests, although it is fitting that he confer it himself, mindful that the celebration of confirmation has been temporally separated from baptism for this reason.

Bishops are the successors of the apostles. They have received the fullness of the sacrament of holy orders. The administration of this sacrament by them demonstrates clearly that its effect is to unite those who receive it more closely to the Church, to her apostolic origins, and to her mission of bearing witness to Christ. If a Christian is in danger of death, any priest can give him confirmation. Indeed, the Church desires that none of her children, even the youngest, should depart this world without having been perfected by the Holy Spirit with the gift of Christ's fullness. Ok, there we are, day 178, paragraph 1306 to 1314, to who can receive this sacrament

and who is the minister of this sacrament. As it said so clearly at the very beginning, who can receive this sacrament? Every baptized person, not yet confirmed, not only can but also should receive the sacrament of confirmation. So yes, it highlights us in paragraph 1306 that baptism is certainly valid, is certainly efficacious, but without Holy Eucharist and without confirmation, the initiation remains incomplete. And so, as you know, we've said this in the past, we were reminded of it today, the Latin custom has been to separate these three sacraments. So baptism right away, a lot of times with infants. Holy Communion in the age of reason and same thing with confirmation, that age of discretion is talked about. Where basically you have a person, an individual, an individual who can tell the difference between

here's ordinary bread and here's the Eucharist. Here's something new that's happening. This is sacrament of confirmation happening. So there's this age of discretion and I think this is really remarkable. Well, it's worth noting paragraph 1308 says although confirmation is sometimes called the sacrament of Christian maturity, we must not confuse adult faith with the adult age of natural growth, nor forget that the baptismal grace is a grace of free unmerited election and does not need ratification to become effective." And that's that that is really important for us because again as we mentioned yesterday about some of those those gifts those effects of confirmation it renders a bond with the church more perfect. Yes so

sacrament of christian maturity can be called that because you're fully initiated We can't just say that oh if a person's 15 versus person is 21 versus a person is 8 that really makes a difference why because Grace is a grace of free unmerited Election right baptismal grace is a grace of free unmerited election and does not need ratification to become effective free unmerited election and does not need ratification to become effective. And yet there is a preparation that's necessary and the preparation for confirmation should aim, it says in 1309, should aim at leading the Christian toward a more intimate union with Christ and more lively familiarity with the Holy Spirit. And the reason why I'm going through these these aspects on

a day like today is because I think a lot of the people who are listening, you've been confirmed. And so the question we get to ask ourselves is, is that how I was prepared? Like, is that what my experience is of this sacrament of confirmation? And not because we're all in charge and we can just kind of make all these,

that we can change things, but because if my experience wasn't Increasingly lively familiarity with the Holy Spirit with the Holy Spirit's actions with the Holy Spirit's gifts with the Holy Spirit's promptings or biddings Right if that wasn't that well That's what was supposed to have happened. You can still do that now Is that makes sense? and so the reason why I really like to emphasize this this unity of And so the reason why I really like to emphasize this this unity of confirmation

Baptism Holy Eucharist and this preparation for confirmation is if you didn't get that then you're getting it now Which is really really good really really good news And so goes on to say in order to be more capable of assuming the apostolic responsibilities of Christian life the apostolic responsibilities of Christian life, the apostolic responsibilities of Christian life. That sense of, okay, I'm being sent. The church actually is sending me out. Remember we said yesterday as a ex officio, quasi ex officio, as it were, official representative of the church. Now here's another thing that needs to be in place.

Paragraph 1310 said, to receive confirmation, one must be in a state of grace. And so we always, I put on confirmation retreats for the youth in our diocese for the last 18 years, I've been hosting confirmation retreats for them. And so we always have the sacrament of reconciliation, sacrament of penance that is very present and we invite our students, we try to prepare them as best we can.

If I'm aware of mortal sin, right? A sin that takes me out of that right relationship with the Lord. If I am conscious of mortal sin, or mortal sin exists, then I'm not receiving the full graces of the sacrament of confirmation. And so again, this could be any one of us. If it's been like, wow, it's been since second grade since I went to confession, but I was confirmed. Okay. But I want to receive those graces of confirmation, go to confession, because that would, in many ways, unleash, if you say it like, for lack of a better phrase,

unleash the graces of that sacrament. In fact, it says this, one should receive the sacrament of penance in order to be cleansed for the gift of the Holy Spirit. It goes on, more intense prayer should prepare one to receive the strength and graces of the Holy Spirit with docility and readiness to act because again the core of this is This is a sacrament of Commission right the sacrament of like go out into the world and bring the good news bring the Holy Spirit

That you received at baptism this your Holy Spirit you receive at confirmation so that the world can know who Jesus Christ is To that end, we should have a fitting spiritual sponsor. We should have a spiritual sponsor and that could be your godparent. That would be great, but it ought to be someone who can actually help you, can actually help you grow. I do not, I am not an advocate of the idea of choosing a godparent because, well, we're related or choosing a Confirmation sponsor because well, you know, we chose everyone else. We need to choose this person That is not the case that that is the case if confirmation or baptism don't do anything then yeah, totally just choose whoever

You know, it's an honorary title, but if confirmation and baptism are are these very efficacious and incredible calls on a person's life that transform their life and set them on the track of discipleship and in some ways apostleship, right, being sent out into the world, then their sponsor should be someone who actually helps them do that. And so just keep that in mind that the person you choose for a godparent, person you choose for a sponsor, it should be actually someone who can help you grow someone who can actually help you move forward lastly the original minister of confirmation is the bishop the one who has you know the successor of the Apostles apostolic unity that they've received the sac the fullness of the sacrament of holy

orders and so when they administer the sacrament it demonstrates clearly that one of the effects of confirmation is To unite those who receive it more closely to the church to her apostolic origins and to her mission of bearing witness to Christ at The same time the bishop can he can delegate right? He can grant the faculty of administering confirmation to his priests and as it says in 1314 If a Christian is in danger of death any priest can give him confirmation why because the church desires that none of her children even the youngest should depart this world without having been perfected by the holy spirit with the gift of christ's fullness and that's that's one of the one of the cases when you go back to the gift of the

sacraments almost across the board in danger of death. The church basically says all the grace whatever you want I tell me almost like every sacrament virtue I'm you know there's limits here but almost every sacrament that it can help someone heal someone that can help them take the next step into eternity is Accessible to all in danger of death because why because the church desires that no one no one is ever desires that no one, no one is ever deprived of the graces of God's sacraments in the hour of need. And so that's kind of a, that's just a really powerful, powerful thing. You guys today was what a crazy, it seems crazy day. Yesterday was this day of like the effects of confirmation. So clear, so powerful, so incredible. And who can receive the sacrament of confirmation? Basically

anybody. Anybody who has been baptized but has not received the sacrament of confirmation can and should receive the sacrament of confirmation and so again if you've already received confirmation and you didn't get prepared well post prepare yourself and post pair yourself and if you are still seeking the sacrament of confirmation just know that the goal of that preparation is to awaken yourself to those gifts of the Holy Spirit, the biddings, the promptings of the Holy Spirit, to open yourself to that, what it is to be even more perfectly united to the Church in our apostolic unity. And today we recognize this unity. We recognize this unity, of course, in the body of

the Church, in the visible Church. We also recognize this unity in the fact that we pray for each other and we need each other. And so please know that I'm inviting you to pray for each other. I am praying for you and please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.