Basic Catechesis for Confirmation

Divine Revelation

God's communication to man through the history of the ancient Israel and finally and perfectly in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Content of Divine Revelation

It contains all the truths we need to believe about who God is, what He has done to us, and what we must do to be saved.

Mysteries of Faith

Such truths are called mysteries of faith because most of these truths are beyond our human intelligence and cannot be fully understood even when revealed.

Preservation of Divine Revelation

It is preserved in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.

Teaching Authority of the Catholic Church

Only the Teaching Authority of the Catholic Church is entrusted by God with the authority to safeguard and interpret His revelation without error.

Composition of the Teaching Authority

The Teaching Authority of the Catholic Church is made up of the Pope and the bishops in union with him.

God

God is the pure, eternal, all-perfect and self-subsisting spirit who is the Most Holy Trinity and the Creator of all things outside Him.

Most Holy Trinity

The Most Holy Trinity is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in only one God.

Distinctness of Divine Persons

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are really distinct one from another only by their corresponding relations.

God as Creator

God is called Creator because out of nothing He made heaven and earth, and everything therein.

Man

Man is a living being composed of material body and rational, immortal soul.

Consequences of Original Sin

The consequences of original sin are the loss of sanctifying grace in man's soul, moral disorder within his nature, different kinds of suffering, and death.

Mortal Sin

Mortal sin is an act of disobedience to the law of God in a serious matter, done with full knowledge and deliberate consent.

Why Mortal Sin is Mortal

This kind of sin is mortal because it causes a spiritual death to man by depriving him of sanctifying grace.

Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ is the Son or Second Divine Person in the Most Holy Trinity, whom the Father sent to the world to become man for our salvation.

Natures and Persons in Jesus Christ

There are two natures and one person in Jesus Christ. The two natures are divinity and humanity.

Eternal Existence of Jesus

Jesus is eternal and always exists because He is true God, but He began to exist as man only from the moment of conception.

Gifts to the Blessed Virgin Mary

God gave the Blessed Virgin Mary these four unique and preeminent gifts: Gift of the Divine Motherhood, Gift of the Immaculate Conception, Gift of the Perpetual Virginity.

Gift of the Divine Motherhood

God chose her to be the Mother of Jesus Christ, who is true God. Therefore, she is the Mother of God.

Gift of the Immaculate Conception

By the foreseen merits of Jesus Christ's salvation God preserved her from original sin and any other sin from the moment of her conception.

Gift of the Perpetual Virginity

God made her ever virgin.

Virgin Mary

She was virgin before the birth of Jesus Christ, in His birth, and after His birth.

Gift of the Assumption

God took her up into heaven body and soul at the end of her earthly life.

Paschal Mystery

The Paschal Mystery is the salvation or redemption that Jesus Christ obtained for all human beings through His sacrificial Death on the cross, His Resurrection, and His Ascension.

Effect of Salvation

It repairs or forgives man's sin and gives him the life of grace that reaches its fulfillment in the eternal life with God in heaven as man's final happiness.

Catholic Church

The Catholic Church is the Body of Jesus Christ, i.e., the whole union of men with God in Him, which has existed visibly since Pentecost as the community of all the baptized Christians under the care of St. Peter and his successors.

Purpose of the Catholic Church

Jesus Christ has founded the Catholic Church so that He can save men by uniting them with Him as members of His Body.

Uniqueness of the Catholic Church

The Catholic Church alone is the Church founded by Jesus Christ because He wants to form everyone that unites with Him into only one Body, not many bodies.

Other Christian Churches

None of them was founded by Jesus Christ, but they came into being by separating from the Catholic Church.

The Pope

The Pope is the successor of Saint Peter to be both the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the Catholic Church on earth.

Death

At death our body is deprived of our soul, its principle of life, and each of us in our soul faces a particular judgment by God that justly sends each to heaven, purgatory, or hell.

End of the World

At the end of the world, the bodies of the dead will come back to life by being reunited with their souls, called the 'resurrection of the body'.

General Judgment

Jesus Christ will come in glory to judge the living and the dead, which is called the General Judgment.

Eternal Happiness

After the General Judgment those who have been freed completely from sin and its consequences will be happy with God and His angels and saints forever in heaven.

Hell

Those who have committed a mortal sin but never repented of such a sin will suffer with the devils or demons forever in hell.

Grace

Grace is the supernatural powers and life that Jesus Christ has obtained for us from God thanks to His Paschal Mystery.

Effect of Grace

By grace God removes the sickness and mortality of sin from us, bestows on us the supernatural qualities and life, and moves us to supernaturally good actions that are proper for these qualities and this life.

Sanctifying Grace

Sanctifying grace is the greatest of all graces, by which we receive from God the remission of sins and the supernatural life.

Sacraments

Sacraments are the visible signs instituted by Jesus Christ to give the graces they signify.

Confirmation

Confirmation is the sacrament of a special spiritual growth that brings Christian life to its maturity by outpouring the Holy Spirit and perfecting His seven gifts.

Maturity of Christian Life

It means the spiritual stage in which our relationship with Jesus Christ in faith and love is properly deepened and we are capable of courageously bearing witness to His Gospel and resisting the enemies of faith.

Spiritual Stage

The spiritual stage in which our relationship with Jesus Christ in faith and love is properly deepened and we are capable of courageously bearing witness to His Gospel and resisting the enemies of faith.

Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit

The supernatural habits which make our intellect and desires disposed to perfect obedience and docility to His prompt or motion.

Understanding

One of the gifts for our intellect provided by the Holy Spirit.

Wisdom

One of the gifts for our intellect provided by the Holy Spirit.

Counsel

One of the gifts for our intellect provided by the Holy Spirit.

Knowledge

One of the gifts for our intellect provided by the Holy Spirit.

Piety

One of the gifts for our desires provided by the Holy Spirit.

Fortitude

One of the gifts for our desires provided by the Holy Spirit.

Fear of the Lord

One of the gifts for our desires provided by the Holy Spirit.

Essential Rite of Confirmation

The anointing with Sacred Chrism which is done by the laying on of the hand of the minister who pronounces the words proper to the rite.

Eucharist

The sacrament that truly contains the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ under the appearances of bread and wine for the worship of God and for the nourishment of our supernatural life.

Transubstantiation

The change of the whole substance of bread into the substance of Jesus Christ's Body and of the whole substance of wine into the substance of His Blood, brought about in the Eucharistic prayer by the efficacy of the word of Jesus through the action of the Holy Spirit.

Moral Good Act

An act is morally good when its three sources are simultaneously good: 1. its chosen object is a true good; 2. its end or the intention/purpose for which the subject performs the act is good; 3. its circumstances, which include its consequences, are good.

Virtue

A habitual and firm disposition to do right things.

Theological Virtues

The virtues that have God himself as their origin, motive and direct object, infused with sanctifying grace, bestowing on man the capacity to live in relationship with the Trinity.

Ten Commandments of God

The basic moral laws given to Moses on Mount Sinai in the Old Testament, which Jesus Christ perfected in the New Testament.

First Commandment

Commands us to believe in God, to hope in Him, and to love Him above all else; forbids heresy, apostasy, voluntary doubt, deliberate ignorance of God's truth, despair, presumption, idolatry, indifference to God, hatred of God, superstition, and irreligious behavior.

Sixth and Ninth Commandments

Require us to be chaste in our actions, words, thoughts, and desires; forbid unchaste or impure actions, words, thoughts, and desires.

Prayer

The lifting of the mind and heart to God in order to know Him better, to adore Him, to thank Him, and to ask Him for what we need.

Forms of Prayer

There are two forms of prayer: mental (only the mind and heart used) and vocal (expressed by spoken words with the participation of the mind and heart).