The sacraments, and sacramental programmes
What is Baptism?
Baptism is a significant step in the life of a family. It is the beginning of the child's journey of faith towards God as Father.
Celebrating a baptism is more than a private family celebration. Sometimes this sacrament is called the sacrament of 'christening' whereby a child becomes a member of the Christian family who will support parents in their responsibility for the Christian upbringing of their child.
Through baptism, we are incorporated into Jesus Christ. We are formed into God’s people and raised from our natural condition to the dignity of adopted children. We become a new creation through water and the Holy Spirit.
Today, infant baptism is seen as the parents and the whole community witnessing a celebration of the presence of Jesus continuing in the world. Parents and the community commit themselves to walk in faith with the child and renew their own relationship with Jesus Christ.
Parents are the first educators of their children. It is their responsibility to bring their child up in the faith by their guidance and example. In the baptism ceremony, parents renew their own commitment to Christ in the Church, and pledge to live out the ways of Christ in their daily lives.
Godparents agree to assist and support the parents in leading this child into the ways of Christ They represent the community of believers into which the child is being baptised hence they must be members of the Catholic Church, who have themselves received the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and eucharist. In the baptism liturgy they, too, renew their commitment to Christ in the Church in the same way as the parents, promising to follow Christ.
The faith community promises to be supportive of the child, the parents and godparents in the child’s growth in faith.
The first point of contact in the parish for candidates for the Baptismal Programme is Father Michael. He is assisted by
1st Holy Communion 2012
We need you!
Our new team came up with a good suggestion to involve the wider parish in the children's journey to make their first holy communion. We are inviting members of the wider parish to 'adopt' a first holy communicant, and write a note of support to that child who is about to receive the sacrament for the first time. If you would like to help, please contact the parish office to indicate your interest. Please pray for these children!
by Rev. Thomas M. Casey
Have you ever heard the question, "Why should I confess my sins to a priest, when I can go directly to God?"
One answer is that we can talk directly to God and ask forgiveness for the sins or faults that weigh on us. There is allowance made for this approach in the penitential rite at the beginning of Mass, and surveys indicate that many Catholics use this opportunity to examine their conscience or take their spiritual temperature and ask forgiveness. The Church has always taught that God's love and acceptance are available whenever anyone is truly sorry for harmful words, deeds or attitudes.
Most of you probably find yourselves talking to God at some point during the week, perhaps even daily. You may ask God to help you do well on a test, to make a sports team or just to be liked by your classmates.
Other times you may be uncertain about a decision that you have to make and you feel the need to pray over it. Maybe a close friend has asked you to lie to his or her parents about being with you when the friend was really with someone the parents disapprove of. At times like this, talking to God will help you sort out your feelings and be honest to your conscience.
At other times you find that you need to ask someone else for advice, simply to get a second opinion about some concern. You might ask an older brother or sister: "What should I say when my friends pressure me to drink or try drugs?"
A Sacrament for Seeing the Truth
The priest in his role as confessor in the Sacrament of Reconciliation can also serve as a kind of sounding board or mirror who helps you see points you may not have thought of.
When you look to others, whether priest, family or friend, it probably isn't because you doubt God. You're checking with those you trust and respect to reassure and inform you. God, after all, speaks to us through those around us. So it is with the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
You sometimes need feedback from another individual who can help you understand your feelings, examine your motives, analyze your actions and suggest a resolution of your concerns. Catholics believe that God is so close to creation that the divine enters our life in the most personal manner imaginable: God becomes a visible part of our world in the person of Jesus Christ.
This Jesus meets you in the sacraments of the Church in order to give you the gift of his presence through the most common elements of your daily life: water, bread and wine, touch and speech.
Jesus gives you the Sacrament of Reconciliation as a help because he understands that you often need to hear a voice other than your own to assure you that you are forgiven, that all is well and that you do not need to be haunted by past mistakes.
When Jesus comes for the first time into our hearts,we receive him under the appearance of bread in First Holy Communion. What does it mean that he came into our hearts? To answer this question we must go back for a moment to the Upper Room. There, during the Last Supper, just before his death, the Lord Jesus gave the bread to the Apostles and said: "Take this and eat it: this is my Body". In the same way he gave them the wine, saying: "Take this and drink from it: this is the cup of my Blood". And we believe that, although the Apostles ate what tasted like bread and wine, they were really eating the Body and drinking the Blood of Christ. And this was the sign of his infinite love. For a person who loves is ready to give to the person he loves all the most precious things he has. In this world, the Lord Jesus did not have many things to offer to the Apostles. But he gave them something more — he gave them himself. From then on, when they received this most holy Food, they could always be with Jesus. He himself lived in their hearts and filled them with holiness. This is what it means that Jesus has come into our hearts. He is in us, his love fills us and makes us become always more like him, always more holy.
The first point of contact in the parish for first holy communion preparation is Father Michael. He is assisted by
by Carol Luebering
My father, Leo, didn't get a middle name at Baptism. We kids teased that his parents had simply run out of names. He was the last of a very large family. (More likely, the lack had to do with the custom of their immigrant community.) The middle initial he used throughout his adult life stood for his Confirmation name, Peter. Using the initial as part of his name was very fitting, for the Sacrament of Confirmation is as much a part of our Christian identity as Baptism. It was fitting, too, that he bore the names of two popes. Confirmation, administered by the bishop or his delegate, is a personal experience of belonging to a large family of believers.
Older Catholics remember Confirmation as the moment when their identity was changed: They "received the Holy Spirit" and became "soldiers of Christ." Today Confirmation is often defined as a sacrament of mature Christian commitment. It is the occasion when young people baptized as infants put their "personal signature" on their parents' decision.
But the bishops have fixed the age for Confirmation in the United States at "between seven and 17." Can "commitment" mean the same thing to a second-grader and a high school senior? This Update will explore the rich meaning of the Sacrament of Confirmation by looking at it in terms of our Christian identity.
Acquiring Christian identity
Our earliest ancestors in faith did not distinguish Confirmation from Baptism. The apostle presiding over the little community baptized new members, anointed them with oil and offered them the Eucharist for the first time in one rite of initiation. (The same thing happens today at the Easter Vigil when catechumens are initiated.)
As the Church grew and spread throughout the world, the apostles' successors, the bishops, could no longer personally baptize every new Christian. They delegated the rite to priests. Still, the bishops made regular visits to local communities to confirm the priests' Baptisms with a second anointing. Thus a separate sacrament was born.
Confirmation is still, with Baptism and Eucharist, a sacrament of initiation. The Catechism of the Catholic Church insists that the unity of the three sacraments "must be safeguarded" (#1255), even though children do not receive them at the same time.
The Catechism describes Confirmation as a deepening of baptismal gifts. It says that the sacrament roots us more deeply in our identity as God's children; unites us more firmly with Christ; increases in us the gifts of the Holy Spirit; binds us more closely to the Church; and gives us special strength to bear witness to our faith (see #1303).
With Baptism and Eucharist, Confirmation shapes us as Catholic Christians. Each of these sacraments focuses on a different aspect of our life as believers: birth, breath and nourishment.
Baptism is birth into the family of the Church. In the baptismal font we die and rise to new life in Christ. Parents bring an infant to the font because they want more for the child than physical life. They come to ask the fullness of life that only Christ can give. When infant baptismal symbolism is at its best, a baby is lowered beneath the water into the death of Jesus and rises again, gasping with eternal life.
Inhale, exhale: That's the essential rhythm of life; it's the first thing a newborn must do to survive. The breath of Christian life is the Holy Spirit, the very Spirit of God dwelling within us. First received at Baptism, the gift of the Spirit is celebrated more fully in Confirmation. It's like taking a more grown-up breath.
Besides breath, a newborn needs nourishment in order to survive. Living and breathing, once established, continue without conscious thought. But the need for food demands our attention frequently. The food we eat is the very stuff of which our bodies are made. Without it babies can't grow and grown-ups can't maintain healthy bodies. Just so, we need the nourishment of Eucharist frequently. We became members of Christ's Body when we were baptized, but the Eucharist nourishes our growth and keeps us healthy members of Christ.
Sacramental marriage between two baptised Christians reflects God’s unfailing, unchanging and permanent love. It is true that human love is always imperfect; that is why it demands effort. To live faithfully in mutual love in a marriage requires generosity, selflessness, forgiveness, communication and a sense of humour. It is said that the greatest gift parents can give to their children is their love for each other. It is not enough that mother and father individually lavish their love on their children. It is only when each child experiences the faithful love of parents for each other, that he or she in turn can feel secure and trusting in love.
Anointing of the Sick is one of the seven sacraments, and is associated not only with bodily healing but with forgiveness of sins. Only priests can administer it, and "any priest may carry the holy oil with him, so that in a case of necessity he can administer the sacrament of anointing of the sick."
The Catholic Church sees the effects of the sacrament as follows. As the sacrament of Marriage gives grace for the married state, the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick gives grace for the state into which people enter through sickness. Through the sacrament a gift of the Holy Spirit is given, that renews confidence and faith in God and strengthens against temptations to discouragement, despair and anguish at the thought of death and the struggle of death; it prevents from losing Christian hope in God's justice, truth and salvation.
The special grace of the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick has as its effects:
- the uniting of the sick person to the passion of Christ, for his own good and that of the whole Church;
- the strengthening, peace, and courage to endure in a Christian manner the sufferings of illness or old age;
- the forgiveness of sins, if the sick person was not able to obtain it through the sacrament of penance;
- the restoration of health, if it is conducive to the salvation of his soul;
- the preparation for passing over to eternal life."