Articles

As the old Baltimore Catechism put it the meaning of Confirmation is that we receive the Holy Ghost to make us strong and perfect Christians and soldiers of Jesus Christ. The Sacrament of Confirmation is united to that of Baptism. In that, it completes the baptismal graces. In Confirmation, [the baptized] are more perfectly bound to the Church and are enriched with a special strength 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 (C.C.C. 1285). Together with the Eucharist and Baptism, it completes the Sacraments of Initiation. The Sacrament of Confirmation, DUMONT, Jacques, Oil on canvas, 113 x 144 cm, Private collection The Meaning of Confirmation, Particular Grace of the Sacrament You receiv...

The Holy Eucharist is 'the source and summit of the Christian life.' The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch. In brief, the Eucharist is the sum and summary of our faith: 'Our way of thinking is attuned to the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn confirms our way of thinking.’ Furthermore, in the Old Testament, blood was a sign of sorrow for breaking the law and faithfulness to the covenant between God and Israel. After the Jewish Passover meal, the cup of blessing changes the simple pleasure found in wine into a sign of the saving action of God: the expectation ...

Holy Orders, The Sacrament of Apostolic Ministry, by which the mission entrusted by Christ to his Apostles continues to be exercised in the Church through the laying on of hands. This sacrament has three distinct degrees or orders: deacon, priest, and bishop. All three confer a permanent, sacramental character (C.C.C. 1536). The whole Church is a priestly people. Through Baptism all the faithful share in the priesthood of Christ. This participation is called the ‘common priesthood of the faithful.’ Based on this 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, where the task is to serve in the name and in the person of Christ the Head in the midst of the community (C.C.C. 1...