Sacramental Life

Theology

What are the Sacraments?

According to Catholic doctrine, the Sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church. Through these visible rites, the divine life of the Holy Spirit is dispensed to those who receive them with the proper disposition. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required readiness.

The Church teaches that the Sacraments act ex opere operato (literally, "by the very fact of the action's being performed"). This means that the power of Christ and the Holy Spirit acts in them and through them, independently of the personal holiness of the minister. However, the fruits of the sacraments also depend on the disposition of the one who receives them.

Sacrament of Initiation

Sacrament of Baptism

Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit, and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission.

Deeper Spiritual Reality: The essential rite of Baptism consists in immersing the candidate in water or pouring water over his head, while invoking the name of the Most Holy Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Spiritually, it wipes away Original Sin and all personal sins, infuses sanctifying grace, and imprints an indelible spiritual mark (character) upon the soul that seals the Christian for eternity. Because of this permanent seal, Baptism can never be repeated.

Requirements & Process

Schedules & Fees

Sacrament of Initiation

Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist (First Communion)

The Holy Eucharist completes Christian initiation. The Eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life and that unity of the People of God by which the Church is kept in being. It is the culmination both of God's action sanctifying the world in Christ and of the worship men offer to Christ.

Deeper Spiritual Reality: While other sacraments communicate grace, the Eucharist contains Christ Himself—Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. By the power of consecration at Holy Mass, a substantial change occurs (termed Transubstantiation), where the bread and wine entirely cease to be bread and wine in substance, becoming instead the living reality of Jesus Christ while preserving only their physical appearance (accidents). It is the re-presentation of Christ’s single sacrifice on Calvary.

First Communion Information

Sacrament of Initiation

Sacrament of Confirmation (Kumpilan)

Baptism, the Eucharist, and the sacrament of Confirmation together constitute the "sacraments of Christian initiation." The reception of this sacrament is necessary for the completion of baptismal grace. For by the sacrament of Confirmation, the baptized are more perfectly bound to the Church and are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit.

Deeper Spiritual Reality: Confirmation brings an increase and deepening of baptismal grace: it roots us more deeply in divine filiation, unites us more firmly to Christ, increases the gifts of the Holy Spirit within us, and renders our bond with the Church more perfect. Like Baptism, it marks the soul with an indelible spiritual character, sealing the candidate with the Holy Spirit to act as true witnesses of Christ, to spread and defend the faith by word and deed.

Confirmation Information

Sacrament of Service

Sacrament of Holy Matrimony (Wedding)

The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament.

Deeper Spiritual Reality: The sacrament of Matrimony signifies and communicates the mystical union of love between Christ and His Church. The true ministers of this sacrament are the spouses themselves, who mutually express their consent before the Church's representative (the priest or deacon) and witnesses. The sacramental grace binds them in an indissoluble, lifelong bond, empowering them with the fortitude to love each other with a supernatural, selfless fidelity and to raise children in the faith.

Reminders & Logistics

Sacrament of Service

Sacrament of Holy Orders

Holy Orders is the sacrament through which the mission entrusted by Christ to his apostles continues to be exercised in the Church until the end of time: thus it is the sacrament of apostolic ministry. It includes three degrees: episcopate, presbyterate, and diaconate.

Sacrament of Healing

Sacrament of Penance & Confession

Those who approach the sacrament of Penance obtain pardon from God's mercy for the offense committed against him, and are, at the same time, reconciled with the Church which they have wounded by their sins and which by charity, by example, and by prayer labors for their conversion.

Deeper Spiritual Reality: Sin fractures our relationship with God and harms the body of the Church. Through this sacrament, Christ grants absolution through the verbal words of the priest. A valid confession requires three internal acts from the penitent: genuine sorrow for sins (contrition), a clear verbal disclosure of those sins to the priest (confession), and a resolution to make satisfaction or amendment (penance). It restores sanctifying grace lost by mortal sin.

Sacrament of Healing

Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick

By the sacred anointing of the sick and the prayer of the priests the whole Church commends those who are ill to the suffering and glorified Lord, that he may raise them up and save them.