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SACRAMENTS MISSION STATEMENT As a Catholic Community, we joyfully proclaim and grow in the Good News of Jesus Christ through worship, fellowship, service, and lifelong faith formation. FAITH FORMATION AT ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST Faith Formation is described as the process of discovering, unwrapping, examining and appreciating God's gift. It is overlapping, ongoing, and lifelong. A comprehensive faith formation process must be integrated into parish life. It is another way of saying that we learn our faith as we live it, in the midst of a celebrating community that proclaims Jesus' message in word and action. Adults and children learn by doing. PREFACE In addition to the information on sacraments found on our website, please refer to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd edition, promulgated by Pope John Paul II. We are a Church of Sacrament and Word. We live our lives within the vast network of signs and symbols. A sign generally has one meaning and points to another reality. A symbol is a sign with more than one dimension, more than one meaning. A symbol tends to affect us complexly, and we tend to respond complexly. Symbolic activity is human activity par excellence. Religious rituals or liturgies belong to this form of human celebration. In the Catholic tradition we understand that the sacraments, our ritual celebrations, go further, and impart special grace from God to help us to holiness. These celebrations are called, Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders and Matrimony. Sacraments are the hidden glory of God's Word, clothed in pure reverence, so that we might see the grace of God. Baptism (more information...) Baptism is a sacrament that 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 children of God. "Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration through water in the word." Eucharist (more information...) The Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian life. The Eucharist is a sign and the greatest cause of communion in the divine life and unity of the People of God by which the Church is kept alive. It is the culmination of God's action sanctifying the world in Christ and of the worship offered to Christ and through him to the Father in the Holy Spirit. By the Eucharistic celebration we already unite ourselves with the heavenly liturgy and anticipate eternal life, when God will be all in all. It is by the conversion of the bread and wine into Christs body and blood that Christ becomes present in this sacrament. Penance and Reconciliation (more information...) 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. Penance is a sacrament of conversion, penance, confession, forgiveness and Reconciliation. Forgiveness of sin happens after an Act of Contrition and an effort not to sin again. There are three rites for the Celebration of the Sacrament of Penance: individual reconciliation, communal celebration with individual confession and absolution, and communal celebration with general confession and general absolution. Confirmation (more information...) The Sacrament of Confirmation is necessary for the completion of the baptismal grace. By the sacrament of Confirmation, the baptized are more perfectly bound to the Church and enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, as true witnesses of Christ, the confirmed are strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith in word and deed. Matrimony (more information...) "The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by 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." The Sacrament of Matrimony is the sacrament that unites a Christian man and woman in an intimate community of life and love under a sacred covenant until death. The ministers of the sacrament are the marrying couple themselves through the mutual giving and acceptance of the marriage vows. Anointing of the Sick (more information...) "The Church believes and confesses that among the seven sacraments there is one especially intended to strengthen those who are being tried by illness, The Anointing of the Sick." "This sacred anointing of the sick was instituted by Christ our Lord as a true and proper sacrament of the New Testament. It is alluded to by Mark, but is recommended to the faithful and promulgated by James the apostle and brother of the Lord." |
