The Sacraments
Source of Life
Holy Orders
Consecrating your life to God
Christ instituted the sacraments of the new law. There are seven. The seven sacraments touch all the stages and all the important moments of Christian life: they give birth, and increase healing and mission, in the Christian’s life of faith. There is thus a certain resemblance between the stages of natural life and the stages of the spiritual life. Following this analogy, we will expound the three:
- The sacraments of Christian initiation
- The sacraments of healing
- The sacraments at the service of communion and the mission of the faithful
This order, while not the only one possible, does allow one to see that the sacraments form an organic whole in which each particular sacrament has its own vital place. In this organic whole, the Eucharist occupies a unique place as the Sacrament of sacraments: all the other sacraments are ordered to it as to their end.
The sacraments of Christian initiation
The sacraments of Christian initiation – Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist – lay the foundations of every Christian life. The sharing in the divine nature given to men through the grace of Christ bears a certain likeness to the origin, development, and nourishing of natural life. The faithful are born anew by Baptism, strengthened by the sacrament of Confirmation, and receive in the Eucharist the food of eternal life. By means of these sacraments of Christian initiation, they thus receive in increasing measure the treasures of the divine life and advance toward the perfection of charity.
The sacraments of healing
Through the sacraments of Christian initiation, man receives the new life of Christ. Now we carry this life in earthen vessels, and it remains hidden with Christ in God. We are still in our earthly tent, subject to suffering, illness, and death. This new life as a child of God can be weakened and even lost by sin.
The Lord Jesus Christ, physician of our souls and bodies, who forgave the sins of the paralytic and restored him to bodily health, has willed that his Church continue, in the power of the Holy Spirit, his work of healing and salvation, even among her own members. This is the purpose of the two sacraments of healing: the sacrament of Penance and the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.
The sacraments at the service of communion
Holy Orders and Matrimony are directed towards the salvation of others; if they contribute as well to personal salvation, it is through service to others that they do so. They confer a particular mission in the Church and serve to build up the People of God.
Through these sacraments those already consecrated by Baptism and Confirmation for the common priesthood of all the faithful can receive particular consecrations. Those who receive the sacrament of Holy Orders are consecrated in Christ’s name to feed the Church by the word and grace of God. On their part, Christian spouses are fortified and, as it were, consecrated for the duties and dignity of their state by a special sacrament.
Source: Catechism of the Catholic Church (1210-1211, 1212, 1420-1421, 1533-1535)