Let Us Return to the Sacraments

 

Let me preface this post by admitting that although I was raised in the Catholic faith and attended Catholic school from grades K -8, I knew very little about the benefits of receiving the sacraments until I began studying about them at the graduate level at the age of 52. Therefore, I would be extremely overjoyed if this post sheds some light for those much younger on just how fortunate we are as Catholics to have the sacraments at our disposal.

We are privileged because Jesus instituted the sacraments for us during his earthly ministry intending them to be conduits of sanctifying grace. Sanctifying grace is what helps us to be holy. It is that marvelous, supernatural sharing-in-God’s-own-life.

It is disturbing to see friends and family members who have wandered from the practice of their Catholic Faith, who no longer baptize their children, reconcile their relationships with God by seeking His mercy, forgiveness, and peace through the Sacrament of Reconciliation/Confession,  or get married in the Church and receive the grace conferred through the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony, which when cooperated with helps married couples live in accordance with God’s will.

Similar to my own past experience, I believe many Catholics, including fallen away Catholics, no longer practice their Faith, including attendance and participation at Mass and the reception of the sacraments, because they no little about the richness of these awesome gifts given to us by Christ. Perhaps they were never properly taught about the Faith during the formative years, or later in life never bothered to invest the time and effort to learn more about our Catholic Faith. 

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the grace conferred through the reception of the sacraments have not come to us without an enormous price. These gifts were earned by the merits of our Savior, Jesus Christ, through his life, passion, death, and resurrection, which is the reason why they must never be taken for granted. Think about the period during which we could not attend Mass during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is important  also to remember that we must be properly disposed to receive the sacraments and willing to cooperate with the grace conferred. Taking time to learn about the sacraments and the ways in which we can cooperate with the grace they confer is a great way to start.

Believe me, we have God’s riches at our disposal within the Sacraments of the Catholic Church. In these turbulent times, the sacraments are gifts we should receive and cherish often.

Learn a little more about the sacraments by following the two links below:

USCCB / Sacraments

EWTN / The Seven Sacraments

WHAT IS NOT ASSUMED, IS NOT SAVED: CHRIST'S HYPOSTATIC UNION

 

Our first parents, after being given everything in the garden by their Creator, were given just one prohibition, one law, by the Creator,

“16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” (Gn 2-16-17)

The Creator, the Perfect Judge, promulgated to Adam and Eve this one law which carried a sanction of death if violated. Adam and Eve broke this law and as a result brought death into the world. Being the Perfect Judge, God had no choice but to impose the penalty of death, not only upon Adam and Eve, but upon all of their offspring, all of humanity to follow.

Since God created everything that exists including man ex nihilo, out of nothing, death for man meant that he would return to a state of non-existence. For God, our omnipotent Creator, this was unacceptable, yet, as the Perfect Judge the penalty of death would have to stand.

There was only one thing God could do while remaining both a Perfectly Just Judge and an Omnipotent Creator. God, the Creator of the universe, would have to become Incarnate, assuming all of the elements of human nature except for sin while at the same time retaining all of His divine nature. This is accomplished in the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Christ was both fully human and fully divine. He was not half human and half divine, nor could you say that Christ was a mixture of both human and divine natures. We refer to Christ’s dual natures as the Hypostatic union, which is a technical term in Christian theology employed in mainstream Christology to describe the union of Christ's humanity and divinity in one hypostasis, or individual existence.

Having totally and completely assumed a human nature, our Lord could now take the punishment of death for all mankind. For our Lord was the only one who could take the penalty in our stead and not remain in death and thus return to a state of non-existence because of his divine nature.

The whole point of this blog post is to emphasize that God TRULY took on human flesh to save us from sin and death, from returning to a state of non-existence. He assumed human nature in its entirety and took what was meant for us upon himself. Please always keep in mind, WHAT IS NOT ASSUMED, IS NOT SAVED! Thank you, Jesus!

5 Effects of the Sacrament of Confirmation

The Sacrament of Confirmation is much more than just a rite of passage!

ARE YOU IMPORTANT?

ARE YOU IMPORTANT?

These are the very first words of the song, Here I Am to Worship, “Light of the world

You stepped down into darkness.”  Upon hearing this song this morning, I couldn’t help but think of how people want to be important but fail to realize just how important and valued they truly are.  

One only needs to ponder two things deeply and carefully to realize just how important they are.

The first thing is to consider how God is the Creator of all that exists. He is “Maker of all things visible and invisible,” according to what we profess in the Nicene Creed. Think deeply about what is being said here. God created the entire universe, the ends of which science will most likely never determine, a vast universe containing billions of galaxies, containing billions upon billions of stars and planets. Think also of the microscopic world with all of its intricate detail and complexities, many of which still escape the knowledge of modern science.

The second thing to consider is that the same Creator God mentioned above chose to descend upon our earthly realm, making his appearance in history as a helpless infant no less.

Why did He do this, you ask?

God chose to become both fully human and fully divine in order to fulfill his mission of restoring creation to its originally intended condition prior to Adam & Eve’s fall in the garden - to redeem us. He accomplished this mission through his life, passion, death, and resurrection. The Creator God assumed our human nature so that we could have the opportunity to share in his divine nature. This happens when we unite ourselves with Christ, the Word made Flesh. To share in God’s divine nature is to be given the opportunity to experience the ultimate happiness of living eternally in the presence of God.

Without God’s incarnation and redemption, we were in danger of returning to a state of nonexistence (nothingness), since God created everything from nothing, and God being God, He was not about to allow that to happen.

How important are you? VERY IMPORTANT!

To learn more about the subject, consider reading St. Athanasius'

On the Incarnation

Also enjoy Father John Behr’s talks on St. Athanasius’ work on YouTube

Library : Mary’s Perpetual Virginity: Why Does It Matter?

Library : Mary’s Perpetual Virginity: Why Does It Matter?

VALUABLE RESOURCE - FORMED

DISCLAIMER - I submit the following post about FORMED.org solely to encourage brothers and sisters in Christ to enjoy the content and learn more about their Catholic Faith. I am not doing so for any commercial purpose, and do not receive or expect any compensation whatsoever for promoting this most valuable resource. I find the content on FORMED to be extremely entertaining and helpful and want only to share this information with others so that they may also enjoy it and grow in their faith.  

If your parish has a a subscription to www.FORMED.org, the video found at the bottom of this post will instruct you step by step on how to register using your parish's ACCESS CODE. You can obtain the parish ACCESS CODE by calling your parish office.

To register using the ACCESS CODE, log on to www.formed.org and scroll to the bottom left corner of the page where you will see the following then click on ENTER CODE.

This will bring you to the box shown in the photo below- fill out the fields - check the box acknowledging TERMS OF SERVICE and PRIVACY POLICY - then click on CREATE ACCOUNT.

You will then be sent an email to confirm your account. Log into your email and confirm. Once you do that you are good to go. Your FORMED account is ready. Just log in using the email address and password you used to register.

The video at the bottom of this post may be helpful in creating your account.

Once logged in you can browse through the various contents of the site by clicking on the following options (STUDY - WATCH - LISTEN -READ - SEARCH) shown in the photo below and found at the top of the FORMED home page.

You may also scroll to the bottom of the page and click on CONTENT LIST where you can pick a topic that is of interest to you. 

There is plenty of GREAT CATHOLIC CONTENT for you to enjoy using FORMED! Using FORMED will help you grow spiritually and increase your knowledge of the Catholic Faith which in turn will result in a more profound appreciation for what we have in the Church established by our Savior!

You may also download the FREE FORMED APP on your mobile devices and smart phones to access FORMED on the go - anytime - anywhere. 

Great Message from Matthew Kelly

As we prepare for the coming of our Savior during this Advent Season, let us watch and listen to this short message by Matthew Kelly and ponder how we as members of Christ's body can bring positive change into the world in which we live.