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Another Confirmation Thread


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PhuturePriest

I didn't get slapped or anything. I've never heard of this before. Sauce?

 

You're a pinko commie. Go back to China and listen to your John Lennon playlist.

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Is this slapping thing an adding to tradition?

 

I only ask because the common jargon of 'getting you ready for the battlefield' is not what I have read about Confirmation.  I have read Confirmation is a completion of Baptism. (not that baptism is deficient).  It is a sealing...colloquially isn't it more like you are infused with the Holy Spirit in Baptism, and then it is sealed in confirmation?  And how does this 'slapping and getting ready for the battlefield' stuff fit with the proper order of the Sacraments?  Look at the East, they initiate all at 'once'.  Do they 'smack/buffet' the infants?  I honestly don't know.  But this battefield thing just seems like a cute little thing that helps to makes confirmation into a rite of passage, which I don't think it is.  

 

I think it would be a good idea to restore, in practice, the proper order of the sacraments...this whole 'becoming an adult in the church' is too sappy for me, and would hate if sappy emotionalism took away from the congnitive as it refers to the reception of the grace the sacrament signifies.

 

or do I have a bunch of stuff wrong?

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"becoming an adult in the Church" is the first thing I debunk when I teach the subject of Confirmation.

 

I always understood the slight slap on the cheek was to remind us that we must be ready to suffer for Christ and the faith. I don't think this was from the beginning nor taught by Christ.  There has been some confusion in recent church history about the origins and meaning of confirmation. Some recall the theology that taught this sacrament makes us “strong Christians and soldiers of Jesus Christ.” These people think that this theology was revealed by Jesus and is unchangeable true. The Church has three sacraments of initiation, baptism, confirmation, and Eucharist, and centuries ago the Canon required to be in that order. The Church confirmed at about 7-8 years old and before Eucharist. Not sure if this is still in the Canon. In the United States, because of differing practices in various dioceses and different emphases on the meaning of confirmation by various groups, the bishops received from Rome permission to administer confirmation to the faithful any time between the ages of 7 and 18.

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I will pray that your priest or bishop slaps you particularly hard. :proud: Smack the sin out of you and whatnot.

 

I don't think the bishop is able to slap that hard.

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That's how my bishop explained the slapping tradition at the day of reflection for the confirmandi of our diocese. So.... I have no clue.

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PhuturePriest

I really feel as if I missed out by not getting slapped. I just got a lame handshake and a quiet "Congratulations, Miles."

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The original sequence for bestowing the mysteries of initiation should be restored (i.e., baptism, confirmation, eucharist).

 

Below is a link to a helpful article written by Fr. Paul Turner that gives important background information on the topic:

 

Benedict XVI and the Sequence of the Sacraments of Initiation

Edited by Apotheoun
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Nihil Obstat

I wasn't slapped and would've been pist if I was. Never heard of it either.

Well obviously they would not just have surprised you with it. :P You would have been warned in advance.

For the vast majority of those who still do it, it is just a light tap. Since my priest is a baller, it was slightly harder than a light tap, which I found amusing. :)

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Thanks for the explanation everyone. Sounded weird at first but then I used to belong to a religion that baptises dead people so I can't really talk about weird religious practices.  :P Makes sense now, thanks!

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Nihil Obstat

Just found this paragraph on Wikipedia:

 

 

The "soldier of Christ" imagery was used, as far back as 350, by St Cyril of Jerusalem.[26] In this connection, the touch on the cheek that the bishop gave while saying "Pax tecum" (Peace be with you) to the person he had just confirmed was interpreted in the Roman Pontifical as a slap, a reminder to be brave in spreading and defending the faith: "Deinde leviter eum in maxilla caedit, dicens: Pax tecum" (Then he strikes him lightly on the cheek, saying: Peace be with you). When, in application of the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy,[27] the confirmation rite was revised in 1971, mention of this gesture was omitted. However, the French and Italian translations, indicating that the bishop should accompany the words "Peace be with you" with "a friendly gesture" (French text) or "the sign of peace" (Italian text), explicitly allow a gesture such as the touch on the cheek, to which they restore its original meaning. This is in accord with the Introduction to the Rite of Confirmation, 17, which indicates that the episcopal conference may decide "to introduce a different manner for the minister to give the sign of peace after the anointing, either to each individual or to all the newly confirmed together."

 
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