“By the Sacrament of Confirmation, [the baptized], are more perfectly bound to the Church, and are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit. Hence they are, as true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by work and deed.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1285)

Along with baptism and the Eucharist, Confirmation is a sacrament of initiation–initiation into the life of Christian witness. The Gifts of the Holy Spirit, which come to us at Confirmation, are meant to sustain us in discipleship and service to the Church. During Confirmation, the celebrant traces the Sign of the Cross on the forehead of the confirmand, saying “be sealed with the Holy Spirit”–these words, as well as the ritual of laying on of hands, have rich ties to the apostles and the early Christian church and are a reminder that we, like the original twelve apostles, are called to go out and live as witnesses in the world.