Catholic Prayer: Activating the Power of Your Confirmation

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The sacraments are the fountain of grace that Jesus gave us to connect to Him and to His Body, the Church. So it makes sense for us to turn to the sacraments when we want to deepen our Catholic prayer life. The Sacrament of Confirmation is an untapped power for most Catholics. It has taken on the unfortunate role of “graduation” from catechesis, and its true meaning has been largely lost. But the good news is that it’s never too late for us to activate the grace of this powerful sacrament in our lives to supercharge our prayer and our faith.

Confirmation has its name because it “confirms” and “seals” our baptism. During our baptism we are anointed as priest, prophet and king and made participants in the 3-fold mission of Christ, which is now given to His Body, the Church. The graces of Confirmation empower us to carry out the mission that Baptism anoints us into. Specifically, we are given a set of “actual” graces that help us to activate (the meaning of the word “actual” here) our relationship with God on a new and deeper level. These are the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit. We are also given charismatic graces – graces that equip us for our mission and that are used not for our own growth but for the good of others. These graces are often called “charisms” or “charismatic gifts.”

The charisms are the subject of another area of spirituality – carrying out our mission. But the Gifts of the Holy Spirit are directly related to our private prayer life.

How the Gifts of the Holy Empower Catholic Prayer

Four of those Gifts help us to know God more intimately. Knowledge is the Holy Spirit’s help to use created goods as God intended, and to know how they can best contribute to our holiness. Understanding is the help of the Holy Spirit to gain deeper insight into the truths of our faith, helping us to grow in intimacy with God. Wisdom is the gift of supernatural insight – the ability to think with the mind of God, to see things through His eyes. Wisdom especially is the Gift that empowers intimacy with God. Counsel is the aid of the Gift of the Holy Spirit within our conscience to know God’s will within specific moral circumstances. God does not leave us alone in our complex fallen world to struggle with what is right and wrong.

Three of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit build our Catholic prayer life by helping us to live with God at the center of our lives. Fortitude is the Holy Spirit’s strengthening of our courage. It takes a lot of courage not only to face evil in the world but to face our own need for conversion. Piety is the Holy Spirit’s inspiration to give God the honor that we owe Him – not just as a matter of legal obligation, but in a way that flows into love. Finally, Fear of the Lord is the Gift of valuing our relationship with God. The fear described by this Gift is like the fear that new parents experiences as they experience the wonder and awe of deeper love, and at the same time think to themselves, “I hope I don’t mess this up.” The same fear is experienced by newlyweds. That’s the kind of fear the Holy Spirit inspires in us. The sense of the preciousness of the relationship and the desire to preserve it.

These Gifts all lead us to a deeper, more intimate Catholic prayer life. While the Holy Spirit often gives us on or two of these gifts more strongly than the others to help equip us for our mission, He gives us all seven Gifts to empower our relationship with God. We can also ask the Holy Spirit in prayer to activate each gift more fully so we can know and love God more completely.