Confirmation 2025
Confirmation weekend is very special at Ampleforth with hundreds of families, godparents, and friends descending on the valley to support those being confirmed. Last weekend was no exception with the Bishop of Middlesbrough, Terence Patrick Drainey, confirming 37 candidates in a packed church and accompanied by heavenly music. The sun shone too!
The Sacrament of Confirmation completes initiation into the Christian life, by a particular gift of the Holy Spirit of God, like the apostles of Jesus received on the day of Pentecost. That is why the bishops, who together are the successors of the apostles in an unbroken line, confer this sacrament.
Candidates, known by their Latin name as confirmandi, are prepared over many weeks both by chaplains and House catechists (who are fellow students). On the day itself, confirmandi are sponsored by a member of their family, or friend, someone who lives the Christian life in such a way they can accompany them into a deeper sharing of the life of the Church.
On Friday night, the confirmandi came together to pray in the Abbey Church in preparation for Sunday, to make their confession as a preparation of the heart, and to ask the prayers of their chosen saint. Each candidate chooses a patron saint, whose name they would like to be added to their baptismal names. They write to the bishop asking for confirmation and explaining the choice of their patron saint. On the day itself, the bishop talks to each candidate about their saint and calls each by their chosen name, to mark this moment in the Christian life.
Families and godparents come to Ampleforth to support and witness the moment when the bishop asks the Holy Spirit to be close to the confirmandi, using a special holy oil to do this which he brings with him. Called the oil of Chrism, it is blessed by the bishop just before Easter. Consisting of olive oil mixed with balsam, it has a powerful fragrance which diffuses in the air around you, like the Holy Spirit, making you a fragrant offering to God, as it says in scripture. It sets you apart, reserves you, for the work of making God known in the world. It’s the same oil used to set apart the hands of a priest at ordination, for the work of celebrating the sacraments.
