Adult Confirmation

St Thomas More Church periodically offers to all baptized Catholic adults who have never celebrated Confirmation the opportunity to do so. The next program will begin on March 10 2010, with the celebration of Confirmation on the Sunday April 25, at 3:00 PM at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Raleigh..

Candidates will be invited to participate in a program of preparation, which will focus on the meaning of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and how we can know and experience the Holy Spirit in our own lives, and through the sacraments of the Church.

Contact Jim Hynes for more information, at 942-6237.

Adult Confirmation - Program

The weekly meetings will take place in the Upper School Meeting Room #5 (located through the Narthex of the Church, in the Middle School Building, on the right), from 7:00 PM to 8:45 PM. The Retreat is on April 24 from 9:00 AM to 12:00 Noon. The celebration of Confirmation will be at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Raleigh on April 25 at 3:00 PM, with Bishop Burbidge.

The theme uniting the sessions is “the gifts of the Holy Spirit” as expressed in the Confirmation Prayer, that the candidates should see, know, understand, trust and experience the Holy Spirit in their own lives. The program will draw from the spirituality of St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit religious order, who taught that we can "find God in all things." We will first investigate how we come to know God, and then look at various ways of doing so within the Catholic tradition:  through Scripture, the Sacraments, morality and conscience, prayer and spirituality. Finally we will consider how we discern and use the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, both for our own joy and to further the mission given to all Christians by our savior Jesus Christ, to proclaim the coming of God's Kingdom.

Confirmation Prayer

In baptism you were born again in Christ, and you became members of Christ and of his priestly people. Now you are to share in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit among us, the Spirit sent by the Lord upon his apostles at Pentecost and given by them and their successors to the baptized.

The promised strength of the Holy Spirit, which you are to receive, will make you more like Christ and help you to be witnesses to his suffering, death and resurrection. It will strengthen you to be active members of the Church and to build up the Body of Christ in faith and love.

My dear friends, let us pray to God our Father, that he will pour out the Holy Spirit on these people to strengthen them with his gifts and anoint them to be more like Christ, the Son of God.

All powerful God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by water and the Holy Spirit
you freed your children from sin
and gave them new life.
Send your Holy Spirit upon them
to be their helper and guide.

Give them the spirit of wisdom and understanding
the spirit of right judgment and courage,
the spirit of knowledge and reverence.
Fill them with the spirit of wonder and awe in your presence.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Gifts of the Holy Spirit

see Isaiah 11:1-2

• Wisdom
• understanding
• right judgment
• courage
• knowledge
• awe & wonder
• reverence

The Fruits of the Holy Spirit

see Galatians 5:22-23

• Love
• Joy
• Peace
• Patience
• Kindness
• Generosity
• Faithfulness
• Gentleness
• Self-Control