Sacraments at Our Parish

The schedule for the Sacraments of Penance (aka Reconciliation aka Confession) and Eucharist (aka Holy Mass) is on the Mass/Confession page..

For Baptisms of children under seven years, contact the Parish Office to being the pre-baptism process..

For children (age seven and older) and youth who wish to receive first Penance (confession), first Eucharist (Holy Communion), and Confirmation, they attend the religious education classes to prepare them for the sacraments first. See the Religious Education page.

For non-Catholics who whish to be received into the Catholic Church, and to receive Baptism (if needed), Confirmation and Eucharist, see the information on the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (“RCIA”) (or Rito de la Iniciacion Christiana de Adultos (“RICA”) for Spanish) on the Adult Catechesis page.

For Matrmony (getting married), contact the Parish Office six or seven months in advance to complete the pre-nuptial process.

For the Anointing of the Sick, contact the Parish Office. The Anointing of the Sick is available for serious illness, age and infirmity, prior to serious surgery, and in anticipation of death. In the case of anticipation of death, it is critical that you do not leave it to the last minute because a priest may not be available, so call in advance.

Holy Orders is the sacrament of ordination of deacons, priests and bishops. If you want to explore such a calling, contact the Pastor.
 

Scott Hahn sums Christianity up this way:

Salvation is much more than most people believe and hope it could be. For we are not merely saved from sin; we are saved for sonship, to be divinely adopted sons and daughters of God. Forgiveness is the precondition for God’s greater gift, the gift that will last beyond our death: the gift of divine life. (Scott Hahn, Forward to Meconi & Olson, Called to Be the Children of God.)

This is what we were created for: sharing in that gift of Divine Life.

Scripture and the Church call this “grace” – God’s free gift of Himself, His Life, His Favor to us. We tend to slip into thinking that grace, or graces, are like things, say, a dollar bill, that we can do something with, currency. Wrong! Grace is more like union; it is a share in Divine Life. That is why grace transforms us to be more like Jesus Christ – because it really is Christ’s life in us through His Spirit dwelling within!

Once God assumed human flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary (historically around the turn of the First Century AD), God is forever united to humanity in the Person of Jesus Christ. Those who receive Him now live in Christ and have communion with God in Christ. John 1:12 says that for all who receive Christ and believe in His Name, He gives power to become children of God – sharing Divine Life! 

How does that happen? How do we come to share in Divine Life? 

Nicodemus. Jesus told Nicodemus, “Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3). He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” and said one has to be “born of the Spirit.” (John 3:5, 8.)

The Samaritan Woman. To the Samaritan woman at the well he spoke in terms of water: “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.” (John 4:10.) Jesus went on to say, “Whoever drinks of the water than I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 

Jesus, of course, was speaking both to Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman of baptism, being born again of the Holy Spirit through the water Jesus gives. Nicodemus wasn’t then ready to ask Jesus for this new life, but the Samaritan woman was. When she asked for this “water” Jesus replied, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” (John 4:16.) Now if you know the story you know that Jesus was disclosing to her that he knew her sinfulness and calling her to conversion. Conversion, repentance, turning around one’s life,  must come first before baptism. Jesus did this in a merciful and kind way, not sending her away as a sinner but telling her to stay, “and come here.” 

Now it is obvious from the rest of the New Testament (as well as the Apostolic Fathers) that the early Church understood this very well as the sacrament of baptism by which one was born again to “eternal” Divine Life, received “living water” and the gift of the Holy Spirit. The outward sign of pouring water accompanied by the words Jesus gave in Matthew 28:19 for baptism, “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” as an act done by Christ himself as “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20) effected (brought about) the forgiveness of sins, the new birth into the Kingdom of God as a son or daughter of God with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. God’s word is efficacious – it does what it says, it change the human condition. It brings us to share in God’s Life.

Manna and the Bread of Life. And so this is why Jesus told the people not to labor for food which perishes, “but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of man [Jesus] will give to you” (John 6:27). And he said, “I am the Bread of Life” (John 6:35), “the Bread which came down from heaven” (John 6:41). The Manna (bread) which God gave through Moses to the Hebrews in the wilderness (roughly around 1260 BC) was just a sign pointing to Jesus. “He who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life,” Jesus said (John 6:47-48), and “the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh” (John 6:51). He went on even more strongly, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you have no life in you; he who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life.... He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” (John 6:55-56.) 

Now it is obviously clear that Jesus was speaking in a literal fashion (so people mistakenly thought he was talking about cannibalism) because of how they ridiculed Him and dismissed Him. So many of His followers even got up and left! Jesus’ 12 disciples may not have understood exactly what He meant and how this was to come about, but they believed Jesus solely because He said it. “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68-69.) 

It was at Jesus’s last Passover supper with them, “on the night when he was betrayed,” the day before he was crucified, that they understood. Jesus “took bread, and when He had given thanks [Greek: eucharistasas], He broke it, and said, ‘This is My Body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.’ In the same way also the chalice, after supper, saying, This chalice is the New Covenant in My Blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.’” (I Corinthians 11:23-25.) Because of Jesus’ thanksgiving, Christians have retained the Greek term for giving thanks and we call His Body and Blood the “Eucharist.”

Again, it is obvious from the rest of the New Testament (as well as the Apostolic Fathers) that the early Church understood this as a sacrament. Initially the sacraments (especially the Eucharist) were called “the mysteries,” but once Latin became the dominant language of the West the term “sacrament” came into use in the West. Th sacrament of the Eucharist is when, by Christ’s word, the Holy Spirit transforms bread into Christ’s Body and wine into Christ’s Blood. When the baptized eat and drink of the Lord’s Body and Blood, they abide in Christ and He abides in them.

So again, Christ gave us through tangible signs and efficacious words the means of receiving the invisible reality of grace, a sharing in Divine Life. God’s word is efficacious – it does what it says, and it change the human condition. 

What Does the Catechism of the Catholic Church (“CCC”) Say About Sacraments?

A sacrament is,

An efficacious sign of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us through the work of the Holy Spirit. The sacraments (called “mysteries” in the Eastern Churches) are seven in number: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance or Reconciliation [confession], Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony. (Glossary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2 Ed.)

Christ is the “mystery” of salvation “for there is no other mystery of God, except Christ” (St. Augustine). “The saving work of His holy and sanctifying humanity is the sacrament of salvation, which is revealed and active in the Church’s sacraments.... The seven sacraments are the signs and instruments by which the Holy Spirit spreads the grace of Christ the Head throughout the Church which is His Body.” (CCC 774.)

It is difficult in our materialistic world to grasp that invisible things are just as real as visible things. But we actually do all the time. Love is not a tangible, visible thing – but we know it very well from its signs. Joy is not a tangible, visible thing – but we also know it very well from its signs. The same for wisdom, freedom, reason, thought, and many more “invisible” things which we all know are quite real.

In the same way, believers need to learn to recognize the invisible realities of Christ’s Life shared with His Body through the Holy Spirit. In a similar fashion as with love and joy, we know the invisible reality from the visible signs of the sacraments – except in the case of the sacraments, we also know the efficacy of God’s word, it does what it says: the world is created, the leper healed, the dead raised, the sins of the paralytic are forgiven, the violent waves are stilled, and the bread and wine are changed into Christ’s Body and Blood.

Back to the Catechism: The whole liturgical life of the church revolves around the Eucharistic sacrifice and the sacraments (CCC 1113). “‘Adhering to the teaching of the Holy Scripture, to the apostolic traditions, and to the consensus ... of the Fathers,’ we profess that ‘the sacraments of the new law were ... all instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord” (CCC 1114). Jesus’ words and actions during his life on earth were already salvific, anticipating the power of His Cross, the Paschal Mystery, which He then gave to His Church, His Body (see CCC 1115-1116). So when the sacraments are celebrated worthily in faith, they confer the grace that they signify, i.e., they are efficacious because Christ Himself is at work in them. For example, it is He who baptizes. (See CCC 1127.)

“The Church affirms that for believers the sacraments of the New Covenant are necessary for salvation. ‘Sacramental grace’ is the grace of the Holy Spirit, given by Christ, and proper to each sacrament. The Spirit heals and transforms those who receive Him by conforming them to the Son of God. The fruit of the sacramental life is that the Spirit of adoption makes the faithful partakers in the divine nature [2 Pet 1:4] by uniting them in a living union with the only Son, the Savior.” (CCC 1129.)

“In the sacraments of Christ the Church already receives the guarantee of her inheritance and even now shares in everlasting life, while ‘awaiting our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus’ [Titus 2:10].” (CCC 1130.)