What are the sacraments?

In the Catholic Church we have 7 sacraments.

CCC 1210
Christ instituted the sacraments of the new law. There are seven: Baptism, Confirmation (or Chrismation), the Eucharist, Penance, the Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony. The seven sacraments touch all the stages and all the important moments of Christian life: they give birth and increase, healing and mission to 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.

The sacraments are:

1. Baptism (aka being born again, the first sacrament, door of the sacraments, seal of God, water of eternal life)

CCC 1213

Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit (vitae spiritualis ianua), and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission: "Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration through water and in the word."

2. Confirmation (aka unction, sealing, chrism)

CCC 1285

Baptism, the Eucharist, and the sacrament of Confirmation together constitute the "sacraments of Christian initiation," whose unity must be safeguarded. It must be explained to the faithful that the reception of the sacrament of Confirmation is necessary for the completion of baptismal grace. For "by the sacrament of 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."

3. Holy Eucharist (aka Communion, The Lord's Supper)

CCC 1322-1324

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.

"At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Savior instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood. This he did in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until he should come again, and so to entrust to his beloved Spouse, the Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a Paschal banquet ‘in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us.'"

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."

4. Confession (aka Reconciliation, Penance)

CCC 1420-1422
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.

"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 and which by charity, by example, and by prayer labors for their conversion."

5. Anointing of the Sick (aka Last rites, extreme unction)

CCC 1499

"By the sacred anointing of the sick and the prayer of the priests the whole Church commends those who are ill to the suffering and glorified Lord, that he may raise them up and save them. And indeed she exhorts them to contribute to the good of the People of God by freely uniting themselves to the Passion and death of Christ."

6. Holy Orders

CCC 1533-1536

Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist are sacraments of Christian initiation. They ground the common vocation of all Christ's disciples, a vocation to holiness and to the mission of evangelizing the world. They confer the graces needed for the life according to the Spirit during this life as pilgrims on the march towards the homeland.

Two other sacraments, 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."

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: episcopate, presbyterate, and diaconate.

7. Matrimony (aka Marriage, gettin' hitched, tying the knot, becoming one flesh)

CCC 1601-1602

"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."

Sacred Scripture begins with the creation of man and woman in the image and likeness of God and concludes with a vision of "the wedding-feast of the Lamb." Scripture speaks throughout of marriage and its "mystery," its institution and the meaning God has given it, its origin and its end, its various realizations throughout the history of salvation, the difficulties arising from sin and its renewal "in the Lord" in the New Covenant of Christ and the Church.

Did Jesus drink alcohol?

For the first 1800-1900 years of Christianity, drinking alcohol in moderation was one more way to enjoy God's gifts. But a movement in the social politic of America in the early 1900's suddenly changed some protestant denominations stance on alcohol consumption.

These groups began teaching that drinking alcohol was always or almost always a sin. This was a huge change from historical Christianity.

As a result of this new teaching, we had a lot of people twisting scripture to try and support this idea that Jesus didn't drink alcohol and that the word "wine" in scripture is actually referring to grape juice.

But this is in no way supported by scripture, history, or logic.

The Jews, prior to Jesus' birth, had always considered "wine" to be fermented (alcoholic) grape juice. And it was certainly a part of many activities, including weddings, and it was definitely used in the passover celebration.

When Jesus came along there is no indication that He changed or condemned any of these existing practices. In fact, he seems to have encouraged them. His first miracle was turning water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana (John 2:1-11). And again, the wine that these Jews would have been drinking was fermented, alcoholic wine - not grape juice. And then of course Jesus used wine when he celebrated passover with his apostles and instituted the Eucharist.

Another point to remember is that back then people had no way of preserving juice. They had no preservatives or other modern processes to keep grape juice from fermenting. So once they harvested the grapes for the year and stored the juice in skins, the fermentation process naturally began. If you put juice in a container and leave it alone for a few months what do you get? Fermented, alcoholic wine. That's what you get.

The passover feast occurred 6-7 months after the grape harvest. By then the grape juice was surely a nice shiraz, or a pinot. So it would have been impossible to not have alcoholic wine for the passover and really for any occasion during the large part of any year.

And even in scripture the apostles themselves are mistakenly accused of being drunk on wine (Acts 2:13-15). First, this seems to infer that it's not unreasonable to think the apostles may have been drinking alcoholic wine. And second, Peter responds to the accusers, not by saying that they didn't drink alcohol or that it was bad. He responds by saying basically, "hey, we're not drunk, it's too early to be drinking wine." The implication is obviously that the apostles did drink alcoholic wine, it was just too early in the day to have done so - and they certainly weren't drunk.

And the constant teaching of the Church is consistent with all of this. Drinking wine can be a good and holy thing.

All that being said, the Church has also always taught that abuse of alcohol or anything else to the point of impairing your judgment is a serious sin. Just as some groups have taken the use of alcohol to an extreme by prohibiting it, it is just as incorrect and even more dangerous to take it to the other extreme of abusing it.

Many Catholics take the Church's acceptance of the use of alcohol as a license to get drunk. This couldn't be further from the truth and is a sin of grave matter. I've heard many a Catholic respond to negative inferences of getting drunk by saying, "Oh, I'm Catholic...so it's cool."

No, it's not cool. And it's not Catholic.

It's another one of those things where a little common sense goes a long way.

The red candle near the altar

It's quite beautiful how many ornate, interesting, priceless things can be found in Catholic Churches. But the meaning behind all of them is actually the most beautiful part.

A fairly simple, but yet important, one of these symbolic things is that of the red candle found near the tabernacle (which is usually found behind the altar, but has been moved to other areas in many churches now).

This candle, when lit, is what tells us that the nearby tabernacle currently contains the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist (prompting genuflection and reverence).

If it is not lit, that means that the tabernacle is empty (therefore genuflection is not appropriate).

So look for the red candle first. It will tell you one of the most important pieces of information you need to know when entering a Catholic church.

Pavlov's Catholic: Genuflecting

I was at a movie theater looking for a seat. I eyed some open chairs past a row of people.

As I approached the row of chairs, I felt this overwhelming urge to drop down to one knee and make the sign of the cross. Luckily, I stopped before embarrassing myself too much.

But it made me think.

It's understandable to naturally do something that I've been doing my entire natural life. But have I become so conditioned as to do it without reflecting as to why I'm doing it?

Ivan Pavlov, who won the Nobel Prize in physiology in 1904, is probably most famous today for his experiments concerning conditional reflex. Basically, that with proper conditioning he could get a dog to begin salivating by using only familiar sounds (which the dog associated with food) without ever giving it actual food.

From that, the phrase "Pavlov's dog" has emerged to describe somebody who has been conditioned to respond to certain stimuli without really using their reason or critical thinking in the situation.

To many of us Catholics this sounds a bit too familiar. Hence, we approach a row of chairs or a pew and we automatically genuflect.

But what are we genuflecting to?

No, not the back (or front) of the Church. No, not the altar or a crucifix either. And hopefully not to a movie screen!

We genuflect to the Eucharist - to God made present body, blood, soul and divinity.

Most of us and our parents grew up in churches where the Eucharist was still kept in a tabernacle behind the altar. So we rightfully genuflect (towards the Eucharist) as we enter and leave the pew.

Now-a-days, many churches have removed the tabernacle from behind the altar to another part of the church. But Pavlov's Catholics just keeps right on genuflecting. Why though?

It's actually very sad that in our Catholic culture we have become so conditioned that we have no idea why we are doing what we are doing. And, in my experience, I see it in 99% of the people at every parish I've visited that has removed the tabernacle from behind the altar.

Catholics mindlessly genuflecting...to what? It appears that they really don't know.

Next time you go to a parish, don't mindlessly genuflect to nothing. A bow towards the altar is appropriate if the tabernacle has been moved elsewhere. And then when you are walking past the tabernacle, wherever it may be in your church building, genuflect there if appropriate. For you are in the presence of God in the flesh.

But most of all, remember to reflect when you genuflect.

Are Catholics required to go to mass on Sunday?

The short answer: Yes. (CCC 2041-2042)

And not only are we required to go, but it is considered a grave matter of sin if we do not go (and otherwise reasonably could have gone).

From the beginning, the Church has always seen this as the primary fulfillment of the 3rd commandment: Keep holy the sabbath day.

Many will read the 3rd commandment out of context in today's present culture and interpret for themselves that it simply means to make sure and do holy things on Sunday. Not only does this not make sense, it is not the way that the apostles interpreted it either.

God commands us to be holy everyday - not just on the sabbath. And it would be a pretty useless commandment if it actually meant to just be extra holy on Sunday.

What is truly meant by "keeping the sabbath holy" is to actually participate in the most fundamental of Christian celebrations - the mass.

CCC 2181:

"The Sunday Eucharist is the foundation and confirmation of all Christian practice. For this reason the faithful are obliged to participate in the Eucharist on days of obligation, unless excused for a serious reason (for example, illness, the care of infants) or dispensed by their own pastor. Those who deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin."

So it's important. And this is not up for interpretation, as some Catholics might argue. If you are Catholic, you are obliged to go to mass every Sunday - not just Sundays where you wake up early enough, it's convenient, or you are in town visiting mom and dad.

And there's a special obligation for parents to take their kids and any other dependents under their care.

There's no question that a lot of Catholics don't attend mass as they should. I suppose it is partially because they are unaware that it's a requirement, but I think the heart of the problem is that most Catholics take for granted what happens at the mass. I know I often do.

But then I think about what happens at each and every mass. And I realize that this is the most deliberately specific thing that Jesus gave Christians to do after he left. And I contemplate that we truly, physically receive the body and blood of Christ...of God. And I consider that communion with God is the ultimate goal of my life.

Then I can't wait to go.