Confirmation – Liturgy of the Word

The Confirmation season has begun! Every weekend until the early summer, hundreds of youngsters from across the Diocese will come to the Cathedral, the Mother Church, to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation and to be sent out on mission. Meanwhile this week, Fr. Anthony Fyk, our new Director of Liturgical Formation, begins a series of articles about the Sacrament of Confirmation, beginning with a look at the Liturgy of the Word. He writes:

We find ourselves amid the Confirmation season in the Diocese of Portsmouth. Youth from all parts of the Diocese will converge to our mother church, the Cathedral of St John the Evangelist, where our Bishop will celebrate this Sacrament. It is worth taking some time to reflect on the liturgical rite of this Sacrament, as from it, we can gain a deeper insight of this Sacrament, but to also live it out in our daily lives. Usually, Confirmation is celebrated within the context of the Mass, so we will reflect upon this Sacrament within the context of Mass. The celebration begins with the Liturgy of the Word, where we attentively listen to the Word of God proclaimed to us. It is not merely hearing the Word of God that was written some two thousand years ago but listening to it proclaimed in the ‘here-and-now’ context of the celebration of Confirmation which applies to us today. The selection of scripture readings for the celebration of Confirmation provided by the Church are rich indeed and gives us insight of how to understand this Sacrament in connection with the Word of God. The Gospels emphasise the importance of following the Beatitudes, renouncing ourselves, being faithful in small tasks of life by perseverance, being filled with the Holy Spirit, and being attentive and docile to the workings of the Holy Spirit in our life. The two key themes are being a disciple of Jesus and the workings of the Holy Spirit. Through Confirmation, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit and receive his gifts, which allows us to bear witness or testimony of our Faith in our thoughts, words, and actions in the world around us. In the Collects, or Opening Prayers, for a Confirmation Mass, we prayer that the Holy Spirit with come and dwell within us in a deeper manner, to strengthen us, and therefore, to make us witnesses before the world of the Gospel. Through the working of the Holy Spirit may we be true witnesses of Jesus Christ through our words and actions, for as Pope St. Paul VI beautifully wrote in Evangelii Nuntiandi, “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and is he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.”