Morals of the Church
Library › Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology › Volume II › Book III. On the Aids of the Christian Life, or on the Sacraments › Treatise III. On Confirmation › Dissertation I. On Confirmation Considered in Itself

Part — Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology

Part III. On the Effects of Confirmation

115.

The effects of Confirmation are:

I. Sanctifying grace; per se second grace or an increase of grace, per accidens more probably first grace (n. 6); there is joined an increase of the virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit.

II. Sacramental grace: this consists in the fact that the sanctifying grace which Confirmation increases is both ordered to this, that the faithful constantly hold and constantly profess the faith, and carries with it the right to actual graces to be received in order to those effects (St. Thomas, III, q. 62, a. 1; St. Alphonsus, VI, 169).

III. Character. 1. The existence of character is clear from what was said in n. 8.

  1. The effects of character. It causes the baptized person to be constituted a soldier of Christ and to be deputed to profess the faith fearlessly (St. Thomas, III, q. 72, a. 5).

Confirmation