Baptism, the Eucharist, and the sacrament of Confirmation together constitute the “sacraments of Christian initiation,” whose unity must be safeguarded. It must be explained to the faithful that the reception of the sacrament of Confirmation is necessary for the completion of baptismal grace. For “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 word and deed.”  [CCC1285]

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SOME PEOPLE ARE CONFIRMED before their First Communion and others afterwards because in the early centuries of the Church, people were fully initiated all at one time by being baptized, then confirmed, then given Holy Communion. Those three sacraments of initiation were always celebrated together and in that order. But over many centuries the three sacraments got separated in time, with baptism being given to infants and only later were Confirmation and Eucharist celebrated. It also happened that the order in which Confirmation and Eucharist were celebrated sometimes got mixed up. (Baptism, of course, has always remained the first sacrament to be celebrated.) In recent years, there have been various efforts to restore the ancient order for the initiation sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist. This is now the required sequence when any adult or child over the age of seven is baptized. In addition, more and more local bishops are now restoring Confirmation before First Eucharist for the young people who were baptized as infants. 

PLEASE visit the web pages under Faith Formation for individual parish Confirmation program information or contact the parish office.