Classes for the 2024-2025 school year begin on Sunday, September 22nd. Students should register in advance of the first class. The parish hosts a two year program to prepare teenagers for the Sacrament of Confirmation. Classes generally meet twice a month on Sunday mornings beginning at 8:25 AM at Sacred Heart Church in Kent prior to the 10 AM Mass. This is a dynamic program with reading, discussion and insight. 
           Just as Baptism gives new life, Eucharist nourishes life, and Reconciliation restores life when it is broken, Confirmation strengthens that life by the gifts of the Holy Spirit (cf. CCC 1285). It is about strengthening what God has given, and continues to give, to his sons and daughters (cf. CCC 1302-1303).
     The Sacrament of Confirmation is not a rite of passage, nor a graduation from religion class, nor a ratification of a personal faith choice. Rather, it’s all about what God is doing for His beloved daughters and sons. It is strengthening the divine life which God gave at Baptism, nourishing us in the Eucharist, and reconciling with us in Penance. Why? So that the individual can better defend and witness to the faith through the gifts and workings of the Holy Spirit. And there are—and will be—many situations where we are called upon to defend and witness to our faith. And we need all the help we can get!
    The Sacrament of Confirmation strengthens us making us willing to accept those responsibilities and, if necessary, suffer and die for the faith. In the Sacrament of Confirmation, the Holy Spirit completes the grace of baptism and offers the newly confirmed strength as a true witness of Christ. Thus, the newly confirmed is “more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed” (cf. CCC, 1285). Thus, the Holy Spirit completes what was begun at baptism.
     The Sacrament of Confirmation helps a person remain faithful to his or her baptismal commitment to witness to Christ and to serve others. The gifts of the Holy Spirit associated with Confirmation are strengths (or virtues) that Christian living requires if it is to be fruitful and complete. Thus wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord, are divine aids to Christian living without which fulfilling one’s baptismal calling would be far more difficult, if not impossible.