"...the Church has discerned over the centuries that among liturgical celebrations there are seven that are, in the strict sense of the term, sacraments instituted by the Lord."

Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1117

Three sacraments -- Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders -- confer a special sacramental character, an indelible seal, by which the Christian is configured to Christ and the Church. This configuration, brought about through the work of the Holy Spirit, remains forever in the Christian as a positive source of grace and a promise and a guarantee of divine protection. It also gives the Christian a vocation to divine worship and to the service of the Church. These three sacraments can never be repeated.
"As fire transforms inself into everything it touches, so the Holy Spirit transforms into the divine life whatever is subjected to His power. "

Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1127
Sacraments of Initiation
Baptism. With Confirmation and Holy Eucharist, Baptism is one of the three sacraments of Christian initiation. It is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons and daughters of God. We are also incorporated into the Church as members of Christ's Mystical Body and, therefore, share in her mission..
"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

Matthew 28:19
Confirmation. Through the sacrament of Confirmation, the baptized are more perfectly bound to the Church and are enriched with a special power 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. Confirmation, therefore, brings an increase and deepening of baptismal grace, increasing the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and uniting the Christian more firmly with Christ and His Church.
"The two [Peter and John] went down to these people and prayed that they might receive the Holy Spirit. It had not yet come down on any of them since they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. The pair upon arriving imposed hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit."

Acts 8:15-17
"I received from the Lord what I handed on to you, namely, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread, and after he had given thanks, broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, after the supper, he took the cup, saying, ''This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.' Every time, then, you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes!"

1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Eucharist. The Holy Eucharist completes Christian initiation. The Eucharistic liturgy, or Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, has been preserved throughout the centuries down to our present day, and consists of two parts that form a single act of worship: (1) the Liturgy of the Word; and (2) the Liturgy of the Eucharist.
Instituted by Our Savior at the Last Supper, the Eucharistic sacrifice is not merely symbolic; rather, it makes present (re-presents) the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are, then, one single sacrifice. As the Church affirmed at the Council of Trent: "In this divine sacrifice which is celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and is offered in an unbloody manner."

It is Christ Himself, the eternal high priest of the New Covenant who, acting through the ministry of the ordained priest, offers the Eucharistic sacrifice. And it is the same Jesus Christ, really present under the species of bread and wine, who is also the offering on the altar of the Eucharistic sacrifice.

Therefore, when we as Christians partake of this sacrament, we receive not bread and wine, but the Real Presence of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.

What an awesome gift from our God! It is no wonder that the Church calls the Eucharist "the source and summit of the Christian Life."
Sacraments of Healing
Two of the seven sacraments are called sacraments of healing: the sacrament of Reconciliation (or Penance) and the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the divine physician, healer of both body and soul. He who forgave the sins of the paralytic and restored him to physical health has willed that the Church continue, through the power of the Holy Spirit, His work of healing and salvation.

Reconciliation (or Penance). Although, as Christians, we receive new life through the sacraments of initiation, we are still subject to the frailties of our human nature. We remain sinners. Sin offends God, rupturing communion with Him and also damaging communion with the Church. It therefore entails both God's forgiveness and reconciliation with the Church.
"Then he breathed on them and said: "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive men's sins, they are forgiven them; if you hold them bound, they are held bound."

John 20:22-23
Only God forgives sins, but Jesus entrusted the exercise of the power of absolution to the apostolic ministry. In imparting to His apostles His own power to forgive sins, the Lord also gives them authority to reconcile sinners with the Church.

We see this clearly and solemnly expressed by Jesus when He told Simon Peter: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
"Is there anyone sick among you? He should ask for the presbyters of the church . They in turn are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord."

James 5:14-15
Anointing of the Sick. Illness and suffering can lead to anguish, self-absorption, and sometimes even despair and revolt against God. But it can also lead to a better understanding of what is truly important and cause one to turn to God, the source of all life and being.

By His passion and death on the cross, Christ gives new meaning to suffering. Through suffering, we can become configured to Him and united with His redemptive passion.
"Heal the sick!" Christ's command is taken seriously by the Church. She believes in Christ's life-giving presence, a presence that is especially active in the sacraments. The Church also believes that, among the sacraments, there is one intended to strengthen those who are being tried by illness, the Anointing of the Sick.
Sacred Scripture begins with the creation of man and woman in the image and likeness of God and concludes with a vision of the "wedding feast of the Lamb." How fitting that marriage is given such prominence, for family life and the vocation of marriage are at the very heart of God's plan for humanity.

God created us out of love and also calls us to love, for we are created in the image and likeness of God, Who is Love. Since God created man and woman, their mutual love becomes an image of the absolute and unfailing love with which God loves them. This love, then, is very good indeed in the eyes of God, and is intended to be fruitful and faithful, mirroring the love Christ has for His Church.
"...for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and the two shall become as one. They are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore let no man separate what God has joined."

Mark 10:7-9
Following the teaching of Jesus, the Church has always taught the indissolubility of marriage. This is not an impossible burden, for it is in loving each other with a Christ-like love and renouncing themselves that spouses will receive the full benefit of the sacramental graces of marriage. It is only with the help of Christ that married life can be lived as God wills. This grace of Christian marriage is a fruit of Christ's cross, the source of all Christian life.
"And God blessed them, and God said to them: 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.'"

Genesis 1:28
"I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of hands."

2 Timothy 1:6
Through Baptism all the faithful share in the priesthood of Christ. This participation is called the "common priesthood of the faithful."

Based on the common priesthood and ordered to its service, there exists another participation in the mission of Christ: the ministry conferred by the sacrament of Holy Orders. In this ministry, the task is to serve in the name and in the person of Christ, the Head in the midst of the community.
The ministerial priesthood has the task not only of representing Christ -- the Head of the Church -- before the assembly of the people, but also of acting in the name of the whole Church when presenting to God the prayer of the Church, and above all when offering the Eucharistic sacrifice. It is because the ministerial priesthood represents Christ that it can represent the Church.

Catholic doctrine, expressed in the liturgy, in the Magisterium or teaching authority of the Church, and the constant practice of the Church throughout the ages, recognizes that there are two degrees of ministerial participation in the priesthood of Christ: the episcopacy (bishop) and the presbyterate (priest). The diaconate is intended to help and serve them. Each order -- bishop, priest and deacon -- has its unique participation conferred on it by a sacramental act of ordination through the sacrament of Holy Orders.
"Let everyone revere the deacons as Jesus Christ, the bishop as the image of the Father, and the presbyters as the senate of God and the assembly of the apostles. For without them one cannot speak of the Church."

St. Ignatius of Antioch
"Amongst those various offices which have been exercised in the Church from the earliest times the chief place, according to the witness of tradition, is held by the function of those who, through their appointment to the dignity and responsibility of bishop, and in virtue consequently of the unbroken succession going back to the beginning, are regarded as transmitters of the apostolic line." -- Second Vatican Council

Lastly, there is the order of diaconate. As clergy, deacons are ministers ordained for tasks of service of the Church. They do not receive the ministerial priesthood, but ordination confers on them important functions in the ministry of the word, divine worship, pastoral governance, and the service of charity. These tasks they carry out under the pastoral authority of their bishop.
"Look around among your own number, brothers, for seven men acknowledged to be deeply spiritual and prudent, and we shall appoint them to this task...They presented these men to the apostles, who first prayed over them and then imposed hands on them."

Acts 6:3,6
There are seven sacraments in the Church: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Reconciliation or Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Marriage and Holy Orders. To be a Catholic Christian is to be steeped in the sacramental life of the Church, for the purpose of the sacraments is to sanctify us as Christians, to build up the Body of Christ, and to give worship to God.

These seven sacraments of the New Covenant are the source of sacramental grace -- grace given by Christ through which the Holy Spirit heals and transforms those who receive Him by conforming them to the Son of God. When celebrated worthily in faith, the sacraments always confer the grace that they promise. They do so because in the sacraments Christ Himself is at work.
Marriage
Holy Orders
As in the universal Church, the liturgical life of St. Vincent de Paul Parish revolves around the Eucharistic sacrifice and the sacraments.
Updated: 8/11/2011