Personal Encounters with God the Father, through Jesus in the Spirit

CHAPTER 1: What do you mean by the word sacrament?

Origin: Latin word sacramentum Pre-Christian era - sacramentum means any pledge in the form of property or money Later - it was used to mean an oath or an allegiance made by soldiers to the emperor and to the gods of Rome sacramentum - was understood in relation to any religious ritual that took place in a sacred place

Early life of the Christian Church - sacramentum was used for ceremonies of Christian initiation It likened the ritual for the administration of baptism, where receivers of the sacrament vowed to live a new life in Christ, to that of the ceremony in which soldiers took a vow of allegiance to their commanders

 5th Century (time of St. Augustine of

Hippo) sacramentum referred to any person, object, place or ritual that was holy and sacred St. Augustine of Hippo defined sacramentum as a sign of a sacred reality ; it means any visible sign that points to the reality of God Later Christian usage - refer only to the seven rituals which the Catholic Church call the sacraments

JESUS, The Primordial Sacrament of the Father

A sacrament is any visible sign of the invisible God
(St. Augustine)

everything around us the created world are a visible signs

of God however, the best and most complete visible sign or sacrament of God is JESUS CHRIST Himself Jesus (He) is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation (Colosssians 1:15) in this sense, speak of Jesus as the Sacrament of the Father

Jesus is the Primordial or Fundamental Sacrament of God

- Jesus is a sacrament, a sign and personification of all that God is - Jesus is the instrument through which God encounters people - all other Christian sacraments have their meaning only in and through Jesus The Church is fundamentally and only a sacrament because Jesus is a sacrament Through Jesus, God the Father in His love and mercy, gave man all that he needed in order to be saved (His grace, forgiveness, justice and compassion) In Jesus, all men are saved. He becomes the Fathers sacrament by his preaching on Gods love and His Kingdom, and by His very actions that concretizes what He preaches (healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, performing miracles to bring Gods kingdom closer to man) More than all of these, Christ has made His being the Primordial Sacrament more manifest in His passion, death and resurrection

The CHURCH is the Sacrament of Jesus

The Church is a

sacrament, and the Church is a sacrament of Christ

the mystery of the moon

Our conviction that it is through the Church that we encounter Jesus today is rooted in the Scripture:

I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Matthew 28:20

Our conviction that it is through the Church that we encounter Jesus today is rooted in the Scripture:
Parable of the Sheep and the Goat: Then the King will say to those on his right, Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. Then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you? The King will reply, Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.

CHAPTER 2: The Sacraments of the Church

The purpose of the sacraments is to make people holy,

to build up the Body of Christ, and finally, to give worship to God; but being signs they also have a teaching function. (Constitution on the Liturgy)
Sacraments are powers that come forth from 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)
Seven sacraments are the center of Catholic life. (PCP II)

The Sacraments of the Church

The way in which the sacraments are practiced and the way each one is understood today went through a gradual process of discernment, reflection and study. In cooperation with divine revelation and the Holy Spirit Who directs the process of revelation, the Church has discerned over the centuries that there are seven sacraments were instituted by Christ.

Sources of Gods revelation:

1. Scriptures particular sacraments show their institution in Jesus

baptism through the baptism of Jesus Eucharistic sacrifice in the Last Supper institution of Orders in Mark 14:12-15 penance in the commission of binding and loosing (Mt. 16:19; 28:16-20) baptism (Acts 2:22-36) laying on of hands (Acts 8:12-17 and 19:1-17) references to healing (Acts 3:1-10) Tertullian was instrumental in introducing the term sacramentum to describe the rituals and practices of the early Christian communities St. Augustine presented a definition of sacraments Council of Lyons (1274) declared that there are 7 sacraments of the Church Council of Trent (1545-1547) defined the core of our sacramental theology and which finalized much of what we presently understand and practice about the 7 Sacraments

2. Tradition of the Apostles

3. Fathers of the Church