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For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch (CCC 1324). Scott P. Richert is senior content network manager of Our Sunday Visitor. In Catholicism, for example, there are seven sacraments: baptism, confirmation, holy communion, confession, marriage, holy orders, and the anointing of the sick. Baptism incorporates us into Christ and forms us into God’s people. In his apostolic constitution Divinae consortium naturae on the sacrament of Confirmation,[5] Pope Paul VI declared: "The sharing in the divine nature given to men through the grace of Christ bears a certain likeness to the origin, development, and nourishing of natural life. At the table of the Eucharist, we eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man so that we may have eternal life and show forth the unity of God’s people. This grace prepares us for the reception of the other sacraments and helps us to live our lives as Christians—in other words, to rise above the cardinal virtues, which can be practiced by anyone (baptized or unbaptized, Christian or not), to the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity, which can only be practiced through gift of God's grace. In these traditions the Eucharist and Confirmation are postponed until the child achieves the age of self-awareness. The faithful are born anew by Baptism, strengthened by the Sacrament of Confirmation, and receive in the Eucharist the food of eternal life. 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’ (CCC 1213). [3], In the Eastern Church all three sacraments are usually administered at the same time, even in the case of infants. From the time of the apostles, becoming a Christian has been accomplished by a journey and initiation in several stages. RCIA 9). The Sacrament of Baptism, the first of the sacraments of initiation, is a believer's entrance into the Catholic Church. In order to fully participate in the life of the Catholic Church, both children and adults must receive three sacraments of initiation. [8][9], Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, "On the Sacraments in general (III qq.60-64)", "Understanding the Sacraments of the Orthodox Church", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sacraments_of_initiation&oldid=965564467, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 2 July 2020, at 02:40. Christ’s call to conversion continues to resound in the lives of Christians. Learn Religions uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. For believers, baptism, confirmation, and holy communion are the three primary sacraments or rites on which the rest of our life as a Christian depends. There are symbols and symbolic actions in the ceremony of Baptism. Thus, the three sacraments of Christian initiation closely combine to bring us, the faithful of Christ, to his full stature and to enable us to carry out the mission of the entire people of God in the Church and in the world (RCIA General Introduction 2). 1212 The sacraments of Christian initiation - Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist - lay the foundations of every Christian life. In the process of initiation there are three sacramental ‘moments’: Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist. [1] As such, they are distinguished from the Sacraments of healing (Anointing of the sick and Sacrament of Penance)[2] and from the Sacraments of Service (Marriage and Ordination). For believers, baptism, confirmation, and holy communion are the three primary sacraments or rites on which the rest of our life as a Christian depends. Most Christian denominations practice three separate sacraments or rites of initiation into the church. Each sacrament introduces the person to different aspects of church life. Adults are normally baptized after enrollment as a catechumen, either formally, as in the Latin Rite, or more informally, as in some Eastern Catholic Churches. Catholics believe that through baptism, we are cleansed of original sin and receive sanctifying grace, the life of God within our souls. Explain what is meant by the phrase ‘sacrament of initiation’. Initiation into the life of the Church is a gradual process that takes place within the community of the faithful (RCIA 4). The sacraments of Christian initiation – Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist – lay the foundations of every Christian life. (In the Western Church, that order is also followed in the case of adult converts, who are usually baptized and confirmed in the same ceremony.) The sacraments of initiation (also called the “mysteries of initiation”) are the three sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist. The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. In the East, Holy Communion is administered to infants immediately after the sacraments of baptism and confirmation. Why Are Catholics Anointed With Chrism at Confirmation? By the sacrament of Confirmation, (the baptised) are more perfectly bound to the Church and are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit. Most Protestant denominations, though, do not see these rites as indispensable for salvation in the same manner as Catholics. Hence they are, as true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed (CCC 1285). Hence we are called and are indeed the children of God. The sacraments of Christian initiation – Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist – lay the foundations of every Christian life. After completing the sacraments of Initiation a person is welcomed and able to participate in all aspects of the daily life of the church. In the West, Holy Communion is normally delayed until the child reaches the age of reason (around seven years old). Canon 840). Even in the West, where Confirmation is routinely delayed until a person's teen years, several years after his or her First Communion, the Church continues to stress the theological implications of the original order of the sacraments (most recently in Pope Benedict XVI's apostolic exhortation Sacramentum caritatis). By offering ourselves with Christ, we share in the universal sacrifice, that is, the entire community of the redeemed offered to God by their High Priest, and we pray for a greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit, so that the whole human race may be brought into the unity of God’s family (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA), General Introduction 2). Through the sacraments of Christian initiation, we receive in increasing measure, the treasures of divine life and advance towards the perfection of charity (Apostolic Constitution on the Sacrament of Confirmation). Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and a few of the Protestant denominations use the term "sacrament" to refer to a rite in which it is believed that God's grace is bestowed on the individual. The sharing in the divine nature given to men through the grace of Christ bears a certain likeness to the origin, development, and nourishing of natural life.

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