For our next (and final) Confirmation Intensive, we are focusing on the Rite of Confirmation which includes the following:

• the Presentation of the Candidates
• the Bishop’s Homily
• the Renewal of Baptismal Promises
• the Laying on of Hands and the Anointing with Chrism
• the General Intercessions

I’m currently sharing with you what I’m developing for each of these 5 elements of the Rite (the kids will exerience five, 15-minute mini-sessions, one on each of the 5 elements). We continue today with the Renewal of Baptismal Promises.

Renewal of Baptismal Promises

• Explain to the young people that following the bishop’s homily at the Confirmation Mass, he will invite them to stand and renew their baptismal promises.
• Show a picture of your own baptism (or one of your children’s) and explain that since most of us were baptized as infants, someone else (our parents and grandparents) responded on our behalf.
• Explain that when the light of Christ was handed to us at baptism, it was held by one of our godparents as the priest prayed the following words: Receive the light of Christ. Parents and godparents, this light is entrusted to you to be kept burning brightly. This child of yours has been enlightened by Christ. He/she is to walk always as a child of the light. May he/she keep the flame of faith alive in their heart. When the Lord comes, may he/she go out to meet him with all the saints in the heavenly kingdom.
• Tell the young people that now they are old enough to be entrusted with the light of Christ that they received in baptism.
• Call them forward one at a time to take a vigil candle (battery operated tea light) from the prayer center and to go to a place in the room where they can be alone (sacred space).
• When all are in place, turn down the lights and play some instrumental music quietly in the background.
• Lead the young people through a guided meditation on the renewal of their baptismal promises.
• When you are finished leading them in this reflective prayer, invite them to return their battery operated candle to the prayer center and give them a real candle to take with them as a reminder that they are being entrusted with the light of Christ.