Confirmation

Registration for 2022-23 Confirmation Classes are now open!

Registration
Confirmation preparation is coming up! Classes will begin at St. Martha's on Thursday, January 19th, 2023, 6:00 PM here at St. Martha's. Classes will continue on a biweekly basis throughout the spring.

Please fill out one of the sacrament sign-up registration forms (found here) and either return them to the parish office or scan them to sacraments@stmarthasparish.ca. Please include a copy of your child's baptism certificate.

Upon receiving your completed form, you will be added to our email list and we will send you more details as we get them!

Confirmation Registration Requirements
The minimum age to participate in Confirmation is twelve years old, or anyone in Grade 6 or above. Your child must have completed their First Communion to be eligible for Confirmation preparation.

Required Documents for Confirmation

A completed copy of the sacrament registration form (found here).
A copy of your child's baptismal certificate, if the parish does not already have a copy. If you do not have a copy, the parish where it occurred should be able to provide that for you.
A baptism certificate belonging to one of the child's parents.
The sponsor's confirmation certificate. (Requirements of sponsors is found below)
Fees will be discussed at the first class.

Sponsors
What is a Sponsor?

A sponsor is a person who encourages and assists a candidate to embrace and actively practice the Catholic faith both before and after Confirmation. The sponsor also presents the candidate to the Bishop (or his delegate) at the celebration of Confirmation.

Who can be a Sponsor?

Being a sponsor is not just an honour. The sponsor must be an active, practicing Catholic who can be a role model for the candidate. Ideally, you should choose one of your godparents from Baptism, provided he or she meets the above guidelines.
If it is not possible to choose a godparent as your sponsor (e.g. they are deceased, live too far away, or are no longer a practicing Catholic), then you might ask someone else whom you see as an example of a committed, practicing Catholic. This could be a grandparent, aunt or uncle, other relative, family friend, parent of one of your friends, a teacher.
The requirements of the Catholic Church say that a sponsor:
- May not be the parent of the candidate.
- May be either a man or a woman (Sponsors do not have to be the same gender as the candidate.)
- Must be at least 16 years old.
- Must be a fully initiated Roman Catholic (Baptized, Confirmed and has made First Communion.)
- is a person who regularly comes to Sunday Mass and celebrates the sacraments.

What is Confirmation? and why should I be Confirmed?

"by the sacrament of Confirmation, [the baptized] are more perfectly bound to the Church and are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit. Hence they are, as true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed." (Catechism of the Catholic Church)

Confirmation seals our Baptismal grace and stirs in us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit engages the gifts we received at Baptism and helps our faith to grow, mature and shift as we do. Confirmation is our embrace of the Catholic Church, its taking ownership of our faith and making the public declarations that our parents made at our Baptisms.
Confirmation, like Baptism, imprints a spiritual mark or indelible character on the Christian’s soul; for this reason one can receive this sacrament only once in one’s life. The sacrament of Confirmation concludes the "sacraments of Christian initiation," whose unity must be safeguarded.
The reception of the sacrament of Confirmation is necessary for the completion of baptismal grace.
-Within the Church only Confirmed Catholics can be Godparents, and sponsors.