Day 151: The Seven Sacraments (2025)

But you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own catechism in a year reading plan. by visiting ascensionpress.com/slash CIY and you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Today is day 151. As I said, we're reading paragraphs 1113 to 1121. We're on article two

the Paschal mystery in the church's sacraments. What does that mean? Great question, Camper. What that means is it means that we're going to collate today. There are seven sacraments. They're the sacraments of Christ. What it means is that these sacraments were all instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord. So they are the sacraments of Christ, and they flow out of the work, the action, the saving words of Jesus Christ.

They're the powers that come forth from the body of Christ and they're actions of the Holy Spirit at work in his body. So they're they're the sacraments of Jesus, right? He is he instituted them. Now they're also the sacraments of the church. And so over the course of many, many years, the church has had come to a better understanding of, okay, there are these seven sacraments.

Here's how they are to be exercised. Here's how they are to be understood. Here's how they are to be lived out. Also, I love this in paragraph eleven eighteen. They're both by the church and for her, meaning they're by the church in the sense that they're The sacrament of Christ's work through the church, but they also build up the church. So they're by the church and for the church. And also we're going to highlight today, I mentioned it yesterday, but the baptismal priesthood.

So that all of those who are baptized are baptized obviously into Christ, but have a share in Christ's priesthood. At the same time, there's such a thing as the ministerial priesthood that guarantees and ensures the presence of Jesus Christ, the action of Jesus Christ in all of the sacraments. And so we're going to talk about that today. Without anything further, let's open up with a prayer as we pray. Father in heaven.

You are good. You're a God. We love you. And we ask you to please send your Holy Spirit to be with us in this moment. And we know that we have access to your fatherly heart. by the work of your son Jesus, by the gift of your Holy Spirit, and by the fact that you have called us and made us into your sons and daughters through baptism.

Lord, you continue to pour out your Holy Spirit upon us, and we ask that you in this moment come to us in our weakness, come to us in our need, come to us in our brokenness and give us healing, come to us in our frustration and give us peace. Come to us in our weakness and give us strength. Come to us in our fear and give us courage. Lord God, we do not ask for you to make this world safer. We do ask you to help us be more brave, to be more courageous.

And to be strong. Help us to love you the way you love us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. It is day one hundred and fifty one. We are reading paragraphs eleven thirteen to eleven twenty-one. Article 2. The Paschal Mystery in the Church's Sacraments. The whole liturgical life of the church revolves around the Eucharistic sacrifice and the sacraments.

There are seven sacraments in the church baptism, confirmation or chrismation, Eucharist, penance, anointing of the sick, holy orders, and matrimony. This article will discuss what is common to the Church's seven sacraments from a doctrinal point of view. What is common to them in terms of the celebration will be presented in the second chapter, and what is distinctive about each will be the topic of section two. The Sacraments of Christ.

Adhering to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures, 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. Jesus' words and actions during his hidden life and public ministry were already salvitic, for they anticipated the power of his paschal mystery. They announced and prepared what he was going to give the church when all was accomplished.

The mysteries of Christ's life are the foundations of what he would henceforth dispense in the sacraments through the ministers of his church, for what was visible in our Savior has passed over into his mysteries. Sacraments are powers that come forth from the body of Christ, which is ever living and life giving. They are actions of the Holy Spirit at work in his body, the church. They are the masterworks of God in the new and everlasting covenant.

The Sacraments of the Church As she has done for the canon of sacred scripture and for the doctrine of faith, The church, by the power of the Spirit who guides her into all truth, has gradually recognized this treasure received from Christ and as the faithful steward of God's mysteries, has determined its dispensation. Thus the Church has discerned over the centuries that among liturgical celebrations there are seven that are, in the strict sense of the term, sacraments instituted by the Lord.

The sacraments are of the Church in the double sense that they are by her and for her. They are by the church, for she is the sacrament of Christ's action at work in her through the mission of the Holy Spirit. They are for the Church in the sense that the sacraments make the church, since they manifest and communicate to men above all in the Eucharist, the mystery of communion with the God who is love, one in three persons.

Forming, as it were, one mystical person with Christ the head, the church acts in the sacraments as an organically structured priestly community. Through baptism and confirmation, the priestly people is enabled to celebrate the liturgy while those of the faithful who have received holy orders are appointed to nourish the church with the word and grace of God in the name of Christ.

The ordained ministry or ministerial priesthood is at the service of the baptismal priesthood. The ordained priesthood guarantees that it really is Christ who acts in the sacraments through the Holy Spirit for the Church. The saving mission entrusted by the Father to his incarnate Son was committed to the apostles and through them to their successors. They received the Spirit of Jesus to act in His name and in His person.

The ordained minister is the sacramental bond that ties the liturgical action to what the apostles said and did, and through them to the words and actions of Christ, the source and foundation of the sacraments. The three sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and holy orders confer in addition to grace, a sacramental character, or seal, by which the Christian shares in Christ's priesthood and is made a member of the Church according to different states and functions.

This configuration to Christ and to the Church, brought about by the Spirit, is indelible. It remains forever in the Christian as a positive disposition for grace. a promise and guarantee of divine protection, and as a vocation to divine worship and to the service of the Church. Therefore, these sacraments can never be repeated.

Okay, so there we are. Day one fifty one, paragraphs eleven thirteen to eleven twenty-one. It's so good. Okay, right off the bat, at paragraph eleven thirteen, we get the review. We know this. And maybe it didn't until n right now. There are seven sacraments in the church. And we jump right into the fact that

We know the sacraments are sacraments of Christ. They're all instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord, but paragraph eleven fifteen highlights that the words and actions of Jesus, both during his hidden life, right, in Nazareth, those those first thirty years that we only have a couple of glimpses of, and his public ministry, so what he did and said during that time, Those words and actions were already selvific.

Because they anticipated the power of the Paschal mystery, right? So so yes, Jesus' teachings were already selvific, right? His healings were already selvific because they're connected and anticipated the power of the Paschal mystery, his suffering, death and resurrection.

And what they do, that those those words and actions announced and prepared what he was going to give the church when all was accomplished. And the mysteries of Christ's life are the foundations of what he would then dispense in the sacrament. What was visible in the Savior has passed over into his mysteries. You guys, when we encounter the sacraments, when we participate in the sacraments,

We're not just, again, we're not just remembering the anemnesis. It's a remembrance that brings us there. We're given the Holy Spirit, and it's made present to us. And the mysteries of Christ's life are now visible to us. In the sacraments. And then think about that. The the mysteries of Christ's life are now visible in the sacraments. That's one of the reasons why Saint Ambrose, back in like what, the third, fourth century?

He said, You've shown me your face, O Lord. I've seen you in the sacrament. I've seen your action. I've seen your work. I've seen your life, your love. I've seen this power in the sacraments. And that's why the sacraments are the power that comes forth from the body of Christ. They're the actions of the Holy Spirit that work in and through the church. And this is just incredible. Now

Keeping this in mind. Now some people will say, okay, at the sacraments though. I hear that, you know, they didn't really have the sacrament of reconciliation in the early church. Well, they did have the sacrament of reconciliation in the early church. But they wouldn't necessarily have it exactly the way that we have it, right? They wouldn't necessarily have confessionals and they wouldn't necessarily have here's the rubrics and whatnot.

But they did have the sacrament in its germinal form, right? It was given to the apostles when Jesus says, receive the Holy Spirit. Those whose sins you hold bound are held bound. Those whose sins you forgive are forgiven them. Like that's already been handed over. James chapter five talks about calling for the priests of the church and by their work.

Your sins will be forgiven. Okay, so the seed is there. Now, paragraph eleven seventeen highlights this. It says, just as she is done for the canon of sacred scripture and for the doctrine of the faith, The church, by the power of the Spirit who guides her into all truth, has gradually recognized this treasure received from Christ, and as faithful steward of God's mysteries has determined its dispensation. So Think about you know.

We don't have like a comprehensive list of all seventy-three books of the Old and New Testaments. I mean, there are some lists, but when does the church officially establish this list? It was probably, you know, we have the Council of Rome in three fifty, we have the Council of Carthage in three ninety eight. And It's over the course of time. And also when it comes to the doctrine, when it comes to the Apostles' Creed or the Nicene Creed, right? The Nicene Creed that's

that's solidified in the year three twenty five in the Council of Nicaea. And it's also not just the Nicene Creed. We know this. It's the Niceneo-Constantinopolitan Creed, right? It comes from the Council of Constantinople as well in three eighty one. So over the course of time, what's been given to us in this deposit of faith, we've come to a deeper understanding of it.

And so the same thing is true, not just with scripture, not just with doctrine, but also with our understanding of the sacraments. And so what we understand now is not necessarily what they knew then, but it is an organic growth. And that's the most important part. There's an organic growth that the acorn becomes the oak tree. Uh the acorn does not become corn. Right? Organic growth

is essential and that's what we see both in scripture and also in doctrine and in the development of the sacraments as we understand them. I hope that makes some sense. One thing to keep in mind, I mentioned this a little bit or alluded to this yesterday. But we recognize that in paragraph eleven nineteen, through baptism and confirmation, the priestly people is enabled to celebrate the liturgy.

And so we recognize that that if you've been baptized, you have been anointed to share in Christ's priesthood. You've been anointed to share in Christ's mission of prophecy, and you've been anointed to share in Christ's kingship. Now that's so important.

Because that means you have a baptismal priesthood. I like to call it the kingdom priesthood. Paragraph eleven twenty highlights that there are those who are ordained to the ministerial priesthood. And that ministerial priesthood, like myself, is At the servicemal priesthood So the ordained priesthood is not meant to be lords over the baptismal priesthood, right? So the priests aren't meant to be the the the yeah, the lords over the lay faithful. That's not it at all.

Just like Jesus, telling his apostles, the greatest of all be the one who makes themself the least, the one who is the servant of all. And so the ministerial priests are meant to be at the service of the baptismal priesthood, not the other way around. I guess, of course, we help each other as a family of God and we take care of each other, we serve each other, but it's very, very important to understand that priests are not lords, not at all.

Priests are if they had any word, it would be servant leaders. You might even say maybe the best word is priests are meant to be fathers. And the father's not meant to dominate his family, the father's not meant to lord it over his family. The father is there to lead his family,

How does he do this? He does this by laying down his life for his family. He does this by by serving his family. Every father is the servant or the slave of his family, and that is a gift. So priests are meant to be the same. That they're meant to lay down their lives and be at the service of the baptismal priesthood. And that ordained priesthood though is so important because it guarantees that it really is Jesus Christ who acts in the sacraments through the Holy Spirit. For the church.

And just that's very important because Jesus passed that on, right? The saving mission that the Father entrusted to the Son was committed to the apostles and through them to their successors. Remember what Jesus had said. He said, As the Father sent me, so now I send you, breathes on them and

Sends about forgiveness of sins. He gives them the ability to confect the Eucharist. And so we recognize that as part of the body of Christ, the sacraments come to us, obviously, by Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. But they come to us through that ministry over the ordained priesthood, and then all of the faithful participate in them in their baptismal priesthood. Hopefully that makes sense. Tomorrow we're going to talk about the fact that the sacraments are sacraments of faith.

And so we just mm and then sacrifice of salvation, sacrifice of eternal life. It's all coming. It's all coming in hot. It's coming in fast. And so, man, what a gift. Because here you are, able to exercise your baptismal priesthood, able to exercise your kingdom priesthood now, united with the priest in your parish. Here we are, a priestly people.

able to offer sacrifice to the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit. And what sacrifice? The great sacrifice of the Son of God. And we unite ourselves to that sacrifice. I hope that makes sense. Anyways, I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.