The Acts of the Apostles describes this spiritual gift when Peter and John went to Samaria : “On their arrival, they prayed for the people that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for as yet He had not come upon any of them, as they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. They then laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit” (Act 8, 14-17).

Confirmation means strengthening. And that is what the Holy Spirit does. He makes spiritual adults of us. As a spiritual child a person thinks mostly about himself or herself, about his own prayers and union with God. The Spirit makes us adults by turning our care and concern towards others whom we can help. We receive special help and strength to live and die in God’s friendship and in the love and service of our fellowmen.

SACRAMENT OF PENANCE

When a person is baptized into the People of God, he or she is reborn into a truly new life. But great though this gift is, God never takes away our free will. The person who is reborn in Christ can lose this new life by sin. He can still turn away from God and so bring death to this new life. He can put back his old selfish self in place of the divine life given him by Christ’s love.

As long as we live in this world, we shall meet temptation. This is because we are in a time of testing, where we must use our freedom to turn to God. This means also that we can receive the joy of heaven not merely as an alms, but as the fruit of our active cooperation with God's grace.

Knowing both the power of the temptations that come to us and also our weakness, Christ left in His Church the means of regaining His gift of new life if we lose it through serious sin. He Himself comes to meet the fallen sinner and to return his or her lost treasure.

When He appeared after His resurrection to the followers to whom He entrusted His Church, Christ said to them. “Peace be with you, I came upon an errand from my Father and now I am sending you out in my turn.” With that, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit; when you forgive men’s sins they are forgiven, when you hold them bound, they are held bound ”(John 20, 21-23).

The Catholic priest is the minister of this power given to the Church by Christ, and Catholics bring their sins to Christ in the Sacrament of Penance. The necessary condition for forgiveness is sincere sorrow for having turned away from our loving God by our sins. This calls for another genuine conversion – i.e., a turning back to God.

This meeting with Christ repeats again in the life of each of us the story of the younger son returning to his Father : “I will rise up and go to my father and say to him : Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am not worthy to be called your son” (see book I).

Pope Pius XII described the benefits of frequent meeting with Christ in this Sacrament of Penance (or Reconciliation as it is also called) :