DIOCESE OF BOISE OFFICE OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND

CATECHETICAL LEADERSHIP THE OFFICE OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND CATECHETICAL LEADERSHIP

SUPPORTS THE MISSION OF THE DIOCESE OF BOISE BY ASSISTING THE BISHOP IN CARRYING OUT HIS ROLE AS THE CHIEF CATECHIST OF THE DIOCESE.

ADVANCED CATECHIST CERTIFICATION

SACRAMENTS

Kathy Barkdull, Presenter

OUTCOMES FOR ADVANCED CERTIFICATION: SACRAMENTS

• To understand the power of sacramental words and symbols.

• To Understand the meaning of grace and how sacraments confer grace.

• To gain a basic grasp of a brief history of the sacraments (Scripture, Tradition, and the

Magisterium).

• Explain how Baptism is the door to life in the Spirit.

• Explain the steps of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.

• Explain the Sacraments of Initiation, the Sacraments of Healing and the Sacraments of

Vocation through origin and ritual.

OPENING REFLECTION

SACRAMENTS

“The purpose of the sacraments is to sanctify people, to build up the body of Christ,

and, finally, to worship God. Because they are signs they also belong to the realm of

instruction. They not only presuppose faith, but by words and objects they also

nourish, strengthen, and express it. This is why they are called sacrament of faith.

They do, indeed, confer grace, but, in addition, the very act of celebrating them is most

effective in making people ready to receive this grace to their profit, to worship God

duly, and to practice charity. It is, therefore, of the greatest importance that the

faithful should easily understand the symbolism of the sacraments and eagerly

frequent those sacraments which were instituted to nourish the Christian life.”

Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy #59

VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE REALITY

Visible Reality

Invisible Reality

֍ God‟s Grace

• Sacraments are efficacious signs.

• Christ instituted the Sacraments.

• Jesus entrusted the Sacraments

to the Church.

• Sacraments transmit divine life.

• Visible rites that signify and

make present God‟s Grace.

CCC 1131

SACRAMENTAL RITUALS

• Repeating our experience of God‟s action.

• Rituals can change.

• Rituals are symbols.

•Human communication and interaction.

•Clarified by the Word of God.

SACRAMENTS: A COMMUNAL RESPONSE

• Actions of the Church Community.

“It is very much the wish of the church

that all the faithful should be led to

take that full, conscious, and active part

in liturgical celebrations which is

demanded by the very nature of the

liturgy.”

• Work of the People.

• Formation for Mission.

BAPTISM

Call to Carry on the Mission

THE CALL TO BAPTISM

“Nor will divine providence deny the assistance necessary for salvation to

those who, without any fault of theirs, have not yet arrived at an explicit

knowledge of God, and who, without grace, strive to lead a good life.”

Dogmatic Constitution on the Church #16

“Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be

demanded of the person entrusted with more”

Luke 12:48

WHAT DOES IT MEAN WHEN GOD CALLS SOME TO BE BAPTIZED?

UNDERSTANDING BAPTISM

A LOOK AT THE HISTORY OF BAPTISM

New Testament period.

“Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of

the Holy Spirit.” Matt 28:19

“Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that

Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent them Peter

and John, who went down and prayed for them, that they might

receive the holy Spirit, for it had not yet fallen upon any of them:

they only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then

they laid hands on them and they received the holy Spirit.”

Acts 8:14-17

“Are you unaware that we who were baptized into

Christ Jesus were baptized into his death, so that, just as Christ

was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too

might live in newness of life.” Romans 6:3-4

BAPTISM IN THE EARLY CENTURIES OF THE CHURCH

• Primarily Baptism of Adults.

• The classical Catechumenate.

Pre-Catechumenate

The Catechumenate

Purification & Enlightenment

Easter Vigil

Mystagogy

THE DECLINE OF THE CLASSIC CATECHUMENATE

• Mass conversions by the Sixth

Century.

• Shift towards Infant Baptism.

• Separation of the Sacrament

of Confirmation.

WHAT THE RITE OF CHRISTIAN INITIATION TEACHES US

• Important insights into the Sacrament of Baptism.

• Baptism is part of the process of Initiation.

• Rituals and process working together.

• All about Conversion.

• Fostering connections.

• Unity of the three Sacraments of Initiation.

“The conjunction of the two celebrations signifies the unity of the

paschal mystery, the close link between the mission of the Son and

outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the connection between the two

sacraments through which the Son and the Holy Spirit come with the

Father to those who are baptized.” RCIA #215

INFANT BAPTISM

“Born with a fallen human nature and tainted by original sin, children also have need of the new birth in Baptism

to be freed from the power of darkness and brought into the realm of the freedom of the children of God, to

which all men are called. The sheer gratuitousness of the grace of salvation is particularly manifest in infant

Baptism. The Church and the parents would deny a child the priceless grace of becoming a child of God were

they not to confer Baptism after birth.” CCC #1250

“The practice of infant Baptism is an immemorial tradition of the Church. There is explicit testimony to this

practice from the second century on, and it is quite possible that, from the beginning of the apostolic preaching,

when whole “households” received baptism, infants may also have been baptized.” CCC #1252

WHAT ORIGINAL SIN IS AND IS NOT

“Although it is proper to each individual, original sin does not

have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam‟s

descendants. It is a deprivation of original holiness and justice,

but human nature has not been totally corrupted: it is

wounded in the natural powers proper to it; subject to

ignorance, suffering, and the dominion of death; and inclined

to sin – an inclination to evil that is called “concupiscence.”

Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ‟s grace, erases original

sin and turns a man back toward God, but the consequences

for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and

summon him to spiritual battle.” CCC 405

CONFIRMATION

Celebrating the Spirit of God

A LOOK AT THE HISTORY OF CONFIRMATION

• Early Church evidence is very limited.

• Celebrated at the Easter Vigil.

Gather in the baptistery.

Renunciation of Satan.

Stripping away the old for the new and anointed with oil.

Blessing of the font and immersed three times.

Clothed in white garments and return to the assembly.

Anointed with Chrism by the bishop and greeted with the kiss of peace.

SEPARATION FROM BAPTISM

• Pope Innocent I in 412.

• Longer period between the Easter Vigil and Confirmation.

• Separation from First Communion.

• Sacrament of Christian Maturity.

• Reconciliation of heretics and schismatics.

SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL

• 1972 Rite of Christian Initiation.

• 1969 Rite of Baptism for Children and 1971 Rite

of Confirmation.

• Confirmation – linked to Baptism.

Renewal of Baptismal Vows.

Encourage Baptismal Godparents as Sponsors.

Use of Baptismal name.

Celebrated within the Eucharist.

CONFIRMATION AND CONVERSION

• Called to a life of continual conversion.

• The Sacrament of Christian Maturity.

• Gift of the Spirit.

• The readiness of the Candidates and the Community.

• Sacraments are not magic.

EUCHARIST

Center of the Christian Life

THE SACRAMENT OF THE EUCHARIST

“The holy Eucharist completes Christian initiation. Those who have

been raised to the dignity of the royal priesthood by Baptism and

configured more deeply to Christ by Confirmation participate with the

whole community in the Lord‟s own sacrifice by means of the

Eucharist.” CCC #1322

EUCHARIST – SOURCE AND SUMMIT

“The 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.” CCC #1324

EUCHARIST – THE EFFICACIOUS SIGN

“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 the worship men offer to

Christ and through him to the Father in the Holy Spirit.”

CCC #1325

THE MYSTERY OF THE EUCHARIST

“To accomplish so great a work Christ is always present in his church, especially in liturgical

celebrations. He is present in the sacrifice of the Mass both in the person of his minister,

“the same now offering, through the ministry of priests, who formerly offered himself on

the cross,” and most of all in the Eucharistic species… He is present in his word since it is

he himself who speaks when the holy scriptures are read in church. Lastly, he is present

when the church prays and sings, for he has promised: „where two or three are gathered

together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.‟”

Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy #7

“For in the celebration of Mass in which the

Sacrifice of the cross is perpetuated, Christ is really

present in the very liturgical assembly gathered in

his name, in the person of the minister, in his word,

and indeed substantially and continuously under

the Eucharistic species.”

General Instruction of the Roman Missal #27

EUCHARIST

PENANCE

Sacrament of Continuing Conversion

A LOOK AT THE HISTORY OF PENANCE

• The Sacrament of Penance in the New Testament.

“On the evening of the first day of the week, when the doors where locked, where the disciples were, for

fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had

said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord, Jesus said

to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this,

he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven

them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” John 20:19-23

“How can we who died to sin yet live in it? …We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that

our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin… Consequently, you

too must think of yourselves as being dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.” Rom 6:2, 6, 11

HOW TO DEAL WITH POST-BAPTISMAL SIN

• The Order of Penitents.

Confession of sins to the Bishop or designated representative.

Enrolled in the Order of Penitents with imposition of ashes.

Carried out the penances assigned by the confessor.

Special places in the church.

Did not participate in Eucharist.

Supported by prayer and fasting.

Guided by their confessor or spiritual director.

Rite of Reconciliation.

IRISH PRIVATE PENANCE

• Irish Monks in Europe.

• The Church in Ireland.

• New form of private penance.

• Initial negative response.

• Conflicting understanding of sin.

• Strengths and limitations of both.

• Tension and Acceptance.

• Ritual revisions.

THE DEMISE OF PUBLIC PENANCE

• Book of Penitentials.

• Substitutions.

Certain prayers or almsgiving.

Other people doing part of the penance.

Indulgences.

Council of Trent

Grocery list approach.

Confessor as Judge.

The Confessional Box.

Changes by Moral Theologians.

Jansenism

SACRAMENT OF PENANCE IN THE 20TH CENTURY

• Pope Pius X

• Pope Pius XII

• 1960‟s – 1970‟s

• A contemporary understanding of sin.

A violation of God‟s law and a break in our relationship with God and others.

Sin in a personal and broader way.

God‟s love and mercy and free gift of God‟s grace.

THE REVISED RITES OF RECONCILIATION

• Second Vatican Council

Individual Confession.

Communal Penance

Service.

General Absolution.

IMPORTANT INSIGHTS

• A Community Sacrament.

• A Process of Conversion.

• Elements of the Sacrament

Confession.

The Penance.

Absolution or Reconciliation.

ANOINTING

• Sacrament of the Sick

JESUS‟ COMMISSION TO HEAL THE SICK

“Christ invites his disciples to follow him by taking up

their cross in their turn. By following him they acquire

a new outlook on illness and the sick. Jesus associates

them with his own life of poverty and service. He

makes them share in his ministry of compassion and

healing: „So they went out and preached that men

should repent. And they cast out many demons, and

anointed with oil many that were sick and healed

them.” CCC #1506

A LOOK AT THE HISTORY OF ANOINTING

• Older than the Church itself.

• The New Testament.

“Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone in good spirits? He should sing praise. Is anyone

among you sick? He should summon the presbyters of the church, and they should pray over his and anoint

him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise

him up. If he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray

for one another, that you may be healed. The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful.”

Letter of James 5:13-16

The first 800 years.

“Now there is no doubt that these words are to be understood of the faithful who are sick and who can be

anointed with the holy oil of chrism, which has been prepared by the bishop, and which not only priests but all

Christians may use for anointing when their own needs or those of family demand.” Pope Innocent I

FROM CHARLEMAGNE TO VATICAN II

• Uniformity of Church worship in the 9th Century.

• Associated with the rites for the dying.

• Extreme Unction.

• Council of Trent.

• Second Vatican Council.

PASTORAL CARE OF THE SICK

• Rites of Anointing and Viaticum.

• Ministry to the sick and

homebound.

• Liturgy of Anointing.

Prayer of Faith.

Laying on of hands.

Anointing with oil.

Viaticum and Rites for the Dying.

CANDIDATES FOR ANOINTING OF THE SICK

“Great care and concern should be taken to see

that those of the faithful whose health is seriously

impaired by sickness or old age receive this

sacrament.” Pastoral Care of the Sick #8

Need not be near death.

Anointed before surgery.

Those weakened by age.

Children with sufficient use of reason.

Serious mental illness.

MARRIAGE

• Symbol of God‟s Love

THE SACRAMENT OF MATRIMONY

“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.”

CCC #1601

HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE

• Marriage as Sacrament.

• Rejection of divorce.

• Marriage as reflecting the love of God.

• The theology of Marriage as a Sacrament.

• Early Christian marriage.

• Marriage ceremonies in the Early Church.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY

• Fourth Century Christians.

• Ninth to eleventh centuries.

• Eleventh and Twelfth centuries.

• Council of Trent.

• The Twentieth Century.

• Contract vs Covenant.

SECULAR REALITY – SAVING MYSTERY

• Love of husband and wife.

• Marriage as Sacrament.

• Jesus and the Christian Community as Sacrament.

• The gift of Grace in the Sacrament of Marriage.

• The Domestic Church.

• A shared faith.

• A successful marriage.

THE ISSUE OF INDISSOLUBILITY

• Early History of the issue of indissolubility.

• Confusion over the indissolubility of a

marriage.

• Marriage Tribunals.

Reception of the sacraments after a

divorce.

What makes a marriage sacramental?

COMPASSION AND PASTORAL CARE OF DIVORCED CATHOLICS.

“There is a need „to avoid judgements which do not take into

account the complexity of various situations‟ and „to be attentive, by

necessity, to how people experience distress because of their

condition‟” “It is a matter of reaching out to everyone, of needing

to help each person find his or her proper way of participating in

the ecclesial community, and thus to experience being touched by

an „unmerited, unconditional and gratuitous‟ mercy”. “The divorced

who have entered a new union, for example, can find themselves in

a variety of situations, which should not be pigeonholed or fit into

overly rigid classifications leaving no room for a suitable personal

and pastoral discernment”. Pope Francis

NECESSITY OF FAITH AND COMMITMENT

• Delaying marriage.

• Marriage preparation.

Determine the readiness of the couple.

Assistance for a successful and happy marriage.

Lifetime of training in the meaning of Christian Marriage.

Christian community support.

Understanding of the wedding celebration.

Marriage as true sacrament.

HOLY ORDERS

• 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: espiscopate,

presbyterate, and diaconate.” CCC #1536

A LOOK AT THE HISTORY OF HOLY ORDERS

• The Early Centuries.

The Twelve Apostles.

The churches founded by St. Paul.

Other Christian churches.

Order of Deacons.

The Didache.

Struggles of the Early Church.

Presiding at the Eucharist.

Leaders of the local community.

FROM PRESBYTER TO PRIEST

• The Jewish Covenant and the New Covenant.

• Eucharist – sacrifice of Jesus.

• Presbyters (priests) as the Council of Advisors.

• Customary presider of the Eucharist.

• Understanding of ordination.

THE COMMUNITY CONNECTION

• Third Lateran Council in 1179 and Fourth Lateran

Council in 1215.

• Narrowing of the ministry focus in the Church.

• Steps to ordination.

Minor Orders: porter, lector, exorcist, and

acolyte.

Major Orders: subdeacon, deacon, and priest.

From priest to bishop.

REFORMS SINCE THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL

• Revised Ordination Rites.

• Suppression of the minor

orders.

• Restoration of the Permanent

Diaconate.

• Shaping ministries for the needs

of the Church of today.

BENEATH THE HISTORY

ORDERS IN THE CHURCH

• Bishops – College of

Bishops.

• Priests – a Priestly

Community.

• Deacons – a

Community of Service.

THE PASCHAL MYSTERY IN THE CHURCH‟S SACRAMENTS

“Seated at the right hand of the Father and pouring out the Holy Spirit in his Body which is the Church, Christ now acts through

the sacraments he instituted to communicate his grace. The sacraments are perceptible signs (words and action) accessible to

our human nature. By the action of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit they make present efficaciously the grace that they

signify. CCC 1084

“Sacraments are „powers that comes 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.”

CCC 1116

“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 by unifying them in a loving union with the only Son, the Savior.” CCC 1129

RESOURCES FOR SACRAMENTS

Understanding the

Sacraments Today

Revised Edition,

Lawrence E. Mick,

Liturgical Press

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

1. How does the church‟s teaching on the salvation of those not formally baptized affect your understanding of the sacrament of baptism?

2. In the sacrament of confirmation, how are conversion and the work of the Holy Spirit connected? Is this connection apparent in the way your

parish prepares for the sacrament?

3. The celebration of the Eucharist requires attention to the four ways that Christ revels himself. How can we achieve a more balanced awareness

of all four presences?

4. What did you find surprising in the history of the sacrament of penance and how can you personally have a deeper experience of the richness of

confession, of penance and of reconciliation?

5. How would you explain the sacrament of anointing as truly a sacrament of the sick and not just for the dying?

6. How would you describe the difference between a contract and a covenant in the sacrament of marriage? Explain the church‟s teaching on the

indissolubility of marriage and the process the church has to support those whose marriages have failed.

7. Why was the community connection to ordination so important in the early Church? What would be the advantages and disadvantages if this

community connection was restored and priests were to serve only the parish from which they were called to ordination?

DIOCESE OF BOISE OFFICE OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND

CATECHETICAL LEADERSHIP

Jackie Hopper

208-350-7541

jhopper@rcdb.org

www.catholicidaho.org

CLOSING REFLECTION

“Thus the Church‟s mission is not an addition to that of Christ and the Holy Spirit, but is

its sacrament: in her whole being and in all her members, the Church is sent to announce,

bear witness, make present, and spread the mystery of the communion of the Holy

Trinity.”

“Because the Holy Spirit is the anointing of Christ, it is Christ who, as the head of the

Body, pours out the Spirit among his members to nourish, heal, and organize them in

their mutual functions, to give them life, send them to bear witness, and associate them

to his self-offering to the Father and to his intercession for the whole world. Through

the Church‟s sacraments, Christ communicates his Holy and sanctifying Spirit to the

member of his Body.” (CCC 738-739)