H.E. Bernard Tissier de Mallerais will administer the sacrament of Confirmation at St. Thomas More Church on Saturday, October 14, 2023.
What should one do in order to receive the sacrament of Confirmation?
The completed application packet must be returned no later than September 1, 2023. Late forms will not be accepted, thus delaying Confirmation for another 2-3 years. All children and adults who desire to receive the sacrament of Confirmation at Saint Thomas More Church must do the following:
- Download, fill in, and send a registration card asap.
- Have baptismal records sent from the church you were baptised in to the Saint Thomas More Church Office (if you have been baptised at Saint Thomas More, please disregard).
- If you are not attending Saint Thomas More Church, please request and send a recommendation letter from your Pastor.
- If the Confirmation sponsor is not attending St. Thomas More Church, a Letter of Good Standing is required from his/her pastor.
- Children must have at least one year of catechism after the First Communion and have passed the Confirmation test (October 1st).
- Children must attend the Confirmation Recollection at Saint Thomas More on October 7th.
- Adults must know their catechism and are invited to join the Recollection on October 7th.
- All must be in the state of grace in order to receive the sacrament of Confirmation.
- The registration fee is $30.
Confirmation Ceremony
Time
Mass and Ceremony begin at 9:00 am.
All receiving Confirmations and their sponsors must be at the church by 8:30 am.
Preparation
Children receiving the Confirmation should have at least one year of Catechism after the First Communion. They will be tested.
Adults should have studied too. Click and order here to cover the basics and review the doctrine.
The Church requires the sacrament of Confirmation to be received in the state of grace. It is imperative to plan a confession before the day of the Confirmation ceremony.
A special recollection will be preached at St. Thomas More Church for the preparation of the Confirmation ceremony: Saturday, October 7th from 10 am to 2 pm.
Requirements for Sponsors
One sponsor is required for each confirmand. Sponsors must be 14 years of age, Catholics in good standing with the Church, and themselves confirmed. Sponsors cannot be parents, spouses, or baptismal godparents of the confirmand. Seminarians, priests, and religious will not be accepted as sponsors unless a special authorization from his/her superior. Male sponsors are required for boys and female sponsors for girls. The family chooses the sponsors.
If the sponsor cannot physically be present at the ceremony, a proxy is needed to stand in for the confirmand.
Confirmation Patron
On the day of the confirmation, the confirmand may choose a new Patron Saint. The confirmation patron saint is to be of the same sex as the confirmand.
Dress attire
Boys: dress pants and dress shirt (Sunday best).
Girls: dresses and mantilla (Sunday best).
Guests
Families may invite as many guests as they wish to the ceremony but there is an rsvp to the banquet that follows.
Registration Card to Download >
Banquet
Please register here for the banquet (following after the ceremony).
Cost of Lunch: $25.00 per person and children 12 and under are free.*
*Immediate Family Only - Additional family members must register separately.
For more information, please call: (407) 872-1007
St. Thomas More Church - 550 Riverview Ave - Sanford, FL 32771
Whether the sacrament of Confirmation imprints a character?
A character is a spiritual power ordained to certain sacred actions. Just as Baptism is a spiritual regeneration unto Christian life, so also is Confirmation a certain spiritual growth bringing man to perfect spiritual age.
But it is evident, from a comparison with the life of the body, that the action which is proper to man immediately after birth, is different from the action which is proper to him when he has come to perfect age. And therefore by the sacrament of Confirmation man is given a spiritual power in respect of sacred actions other than those in respect of which he receives power in Baptism. For in Baptism he receives power to do those things which pertain to his own salvation, forasmuch as he lives to himself: whereas in Confirmation he receives power to do those things which pertain to the spiritual combat with the enemies of the Faith.
This is evident from the example of the apostles, who, before they received the fullness of the Holy Ghost, were in the "upper room...persevering...in prayer" (Acts 1:13-14); whereas afterwards they went out and feared not to confess their faith in public, even in the face of the enemies of the Christian Faith. And therefore it is evident that a character is imprinted in the sacrament of Confirmation.
(Extract from Summa Theologica, IIIa, q. 72, art 5 - St. Thomas Aquinas)
