Immaculate Conception Catholic Church at 419 Jones Street, Moville, IA 51039-0802 US - THE SACRAMENT OF CONFIRMATION

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.

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