The Seven Sacraments of the Church

❖ What unites the sacrament with each other?

⮚ All sacraments are an encounter with Christ, who is himself the original sacrament. There are sacraments of
Initiation (which introduce the recipient into the faith: Baptism-Confirmation-and Eucharist. There are sacraments
of healing: Reconciliation and the Anointing of the Sick. And there are sacraments of communion and mission:
Matrimony and Holy Orders.
⮚ Function of the 7 sacraments:
▪ Baptism joins us with Christ
▪ Confirmation gives us his spirit
▪ Eucharist unites us with Him
▪ Confession reconciles us with Christ
▪ Anointing of the sick: Christ heals, strengthens, and consoles.
▪ Matrimony: Christ promises his love in our love and his fidelity in our fidelity.
▪ Holy Orders: Priests have the privilege of forgiving sins and celebrating the Holy Sacrifices of the Mass.

❖ Sacrament of Initiation
⮚ Baptism
▪ It is the way out of the kingdom of death into life, the gateway to the Church, and the beginning of a lasting
communion with God.
● In other words, it is the foundational sacrament and the prerequisite for all other sacraments.
● Baptism is a covenant with God, the individual must say Yes to it.
⮚ Eucharist
▪ Holy Eucharist is the Sacrament in which Jesus Christ gives his Body and Blood-Himself-for us, so that we
too might give ourselves to Him in love and be united with Him in Holy Communion. In this way, we are joined
with the one Body of Christ, the Church.
▪ The mysterious center of all these sacraments because of His historic death on the cross
● Hence, the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. (Vatican II)
⮚ Confirmation
▪ It is the sacrament that completes the baptism; in it the gift of the Holy Spirit is bestowed upon us.
● Anyone who freely decides to live a life as God’s child and asks for God’s Spirit under the signs of the
imposition of hands and anointing with Chrism receives the strength to witness God’s love and might in
word and deed.
● Meaning to say, he/she is a full-fledged responsible Catholic member.
❖ Sacrament of Service/ Healing
⮚ Christ’s love is shown in the fact that he seeks the lost and heals the sick. That is why he gave us the Sacraments
of healing and restoration, in which we are freed from sin and strengthened in our physical and spiritual
weakness.
▪ Penance/ Reconciliation
● The other names for these sacraments are forgiveness, reconciliation, conversion and confession.
● Question: We have baptism, which reconciles us with God; why do we need a special sacrament of
Reconciliation?
♦ Baptism does snatch us from the power of sin and death and brings us into the new life of the
children of God, but it does not free us from human weakness and the inclination to sin. That is why
we need to go to confession.
● Question: What prepares a person for repentance?
♦ If a person recognizes contradiction between God’s love and our sin, then we arrive to the point that
we called Contrition. (Contrition means we are truly sorry for our sins; we need to resolve to change
our life and place all our hope in God’s help)
▪ Anointing of the sick
● Jesus came in order to show God’s love. He often did this in places where we feel especially threatened:
in the weakening of our life through sickness. God wants us to become well in body and soul and,
therefore, to believe and to acknowledge the coming of God’s kingdom.
● Question: What is Viaticum?
♦ Viaticum means the last Holy Communion that a person receives before dying.

❖ Sacrament of Communion and Mission

 ⮚ This Sacrament helps us to build the People of God (it is directed to the good of others); in other words, they are a
channel through which God pours out love into the world.
▪ Holy Orders
● The priests of the Old Covenant saw their duty as mediating between heavenly and earthly things,
between God and his people. Since Christ is the “one mediator between God and men” (1 Tim 2:5), he
perfected and ended that priesthood. After Christ there can be an ordained priesthood only in Christ, in
Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, and through a calling and apostolic mission from Christ.
● In Persona Christi
▪ Marriage
● God disposed man and woman for each other so that they might be “no longer two but one” (Matthew
19:6) In this way they are to live in love, be fruitful, and thus become a sign of God himself, who is nothing
but overflowing love.
● A sacramental marriage has three necessary elements:
♦ Free consent
♦ Affirmation of a lifelong, exclusive union
♦ Openness to child

The most profound thing about a Christian marriage, however, is the couple’s knowledge: “We are a living image of the
love between Christ and the Church”

Moreover, All the sacraments are anchored in Christ’s words and deeds and we are called to follow Him. Sacraments are
meant to be like Him because we are members of His Church. As Christians, we should be aware that all of these
sacraments are centered in the Paschal mystery of Jesus that we always commemorate during the Holy Mass because
the Eucharist is the outstanding means whereby the faithful may express in their lives and manifest to others, the
mystery of Christ and the real nature of the true Church.

❖ The Holy Eucharist in the Sacrament of Initiation

⮚ It perfects in us the gifts of Baptism and Confirmation and it calls us to form this one body, but it is the Holy
Eucharist that fulfills this call.
❖ Holy Eucharist and Reconciliation
⮚ The Eucharist calls the same pursue to conversion
⮚ Full restoration with the Church is shown by going back to the Holy Eucharist
⮚ Holy Eucharist cannot unite us to Christ without at the same time cleansing us from past sins and preserving us
from future sin. Only in confession, we can be cleansed from mortal sins.
❖ Holy Eucharist and Anointing of the Sick
⮚ Holy Eucharist signifies that Christ’s suffering and death have been transformed into love.
⮚ Viaticum- Food for their journey
⮚ Holy Eucharist gives the dying the promise of eternal life and power of resurrection.
❖ Holy Eucharist and Holy Orders
⮚ Because of Jesus’ words during last supper; Do this in memory of me. (It means he established the priesthood of
the New Covenant)
❖ Holy Eucharist and Matrimony
⮚ Holy Eucharist is the sacrament of love and has a particular relationship with the love of man and woman united in
marriage.
⮚ Conjugal love is a sacramental sign of Christ’s love for the Church.
⮚ The Holy Eucharist strengthens the indissoluble unity and fruitful love of husband and wife.