(SNR) - Bishop James Conley celebrated the sacrament of Confirmation for students of nine parishes the weekend of Gaudete Sunday.
He embarked on a “Chrism trail” of nearly 600 miles, conferring the sacrament the morning of Dec. 10 at Sacred Heart Church in Beaver Crossing for students of Sacred Heart and St. Patrick Parish in Utica; and then at St. Joseph Church in Benkelman that evening for students of Benkelman and St. Joseph Parish in Stratton. On Dec. 11 he visited St. Patrick Church in McCook to confirm students from St. Patrick, Sacred Heart and St. Ann parishes, followed by a Mass St. Joseph Church in York for students of St. Joseph and St. Patrick Parish in McCool Junction.
He also celebrated Confirmation liturgies this month in Wymore and Aurora.
In the Sacrament of Confirmation, the bishop marks the head of a baptized person with holy Chrism and the person is “sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit” and is strengthened for service to the Church, the Body of Christ. In his 2020 pastoral letter, “Confirmed for Mission,” Bishop Conley said Confirmation “is the sacrament that strengthens each of us in this fundamental identity and mission.”
He offered the pastoral letter on Confirmation to highlight the evangelical dimension of the sacrament, and “to offer a word of exhortation on the vital importance of continuing in the mission of the Church after Confirmation.”
Father Christopher Eckrich, master of ceremonies for the diocese, travels with Bishop Conley for Confirmations and other liturgies. He said at each Confirmation Mass, the bishop stresses how the sacrament “strengthens us to live our faith courageously” and “how we were made for these times.”
The bishop has stressed those themes on several occasions.
“God has called each one us in our own individual vocations to be alive at this time in history for a divine reason. We all have work to do,” the bishop wrote in January. “In the words of St. John Henry Newman, ‘God has created me to do him some definite service.’ Each one of us has an important role to play in these times.”
Later that year, to graduating students, he said, “God wants to use each one of us, with all our gifts and all our shortcomings, to bring the light of Christ and his hope, peace and joy, to a world that is filled with division, hatred and hopelessness.”
In the Sacrament of Confirmation, as Bishop Conley explained in his pastoral letter, the Holy Spirit “deepens the grace of Baptism and orients the confirmed toward evangelization,” imparting strength to do what God asks.
The Code of Canon Law says Confirmation “is to be conferred on the faithful at about the age of discretion, unless the Conference of Bishops has determined another age, or there is danger of death or in the judgment of the minister a grave cause suggests otherwise” (Canon 891). The age of discretion is usually considered to be around 7 years old.
Canon Law says that to receive the sacrament licitly, outside of the danger of death, a baptized Catholic must have the use of reason, be suitably instructed, be properly disposed, and be able to renew the baptismal promises.
In the Diocese of Lincoln, the synodal legislation sets the ages at fifth grade for parishes where confirmation is celebrated each year; fifth and sixth grade where it is celebrated every two years; fifth, sixth and seventh grade where every three years (due to the number of students in the classes).
Students are prepared using “92 Questions,” which were developed by Father James Divis during the episcopacy of Bishop Glennon Flavin. During his Confirmation Masses, Bishop Flavin would ask the children to be confirmed a variety of questions in many different areas of the faith. Over time, Father Divis compiled the questions and produced the list which has become the standard for preparation in the Diocese of Lincoln.
Bishop Conley had the 92 Questions updated in 2015 with several new questions as well as Scripture and Catechism references.
At each Confirmation Mass, the bishop questions students in a group so that they can demonstrate their preparation for the sacraments.
“I am so happy our students learn the ‘92 questions,’” the bishop told the Register Dec. 19, “and the fact that our Confirmation students know their Catholic faith well and do not suffer from religious ignorance like so many young people today.”
However, he added, “it is not enough to know about Jesus and his Church, we need to know Jesus himself in a personal and intimate way, through a real encounter. That’s why the very last question of the 92 is so important: how often should we pray? Every day!”
Bishop Conley will next travel for Confirmation liturgies in February. The Masses will be celebrated at St. James Parish in Curtis, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in North Platte, Mother of Sorrows in Grant, and Sacred Heart in Lincoln. More than two dozen are scheduled for the spring semester, as well as several to be celebrated by Emeritus Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz.
