This document discusses the Catholic understanding of prayer, liturgy, and sacraments. It begins with a prayer to the Holy Spirit and then provides definitions and explanations of key concepts. Liturgy is defined as the official public worship of the Church, especially the Eucharist. The sacraments are efficacious signs of grace that were instituted by Christ to give grace. The Church is considered the fundamental sacrament as it makes Christ present through the indwelling Spirit among its members.

2. Prayer to the Holy Spirit
• Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful.
And kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And you will renew the face of the earth.
O God, who
by the light of the Holy Spirit
grant that by the gift of the same Spirit
we may always be truly wise
and ever rejoice in His consolation.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

3. REFERENCES

5. LITURGY
•A public service, duty, or work.
•In Scripture it refers to the religious duties to be
performed by priests and levites in the Temple,
especially those related to the Sacrifice
•In present day, liturgy is the official public worship of the
Church.
•It is the special title of the Eucharist, and the
administration of the sacraments with the annexed use
of the sacramentals.

7. Etym MEANING
(Latin liturgia; from Greek leitos, of the people + ergon,
work: leitourgia, public duty, public worship.)
• leitos -meaning public, and ergo -to do.
• leitourgos, “a man who performs a public duty”, “a
public servant”, often leitourgeo, “to do such a duty “,
leitourgema, its performance, and leitourgia, the public
duty itself.

8. From a theological viewpoint
• liturgy is the exercise of Christ's priestly
office, Christ performs this priestly office as
Mystical Body, so that Head and members
sacred liturgy.
Its twofold function:
1. to give honor and praise to God, which is
2. to obtain blessings for the human race,
sanctification.

17. Seasons of the Liturgical Year
• Advent – preparation for the coming of Christ
• Christmas – celebration of Jesus’ Incarnation and birth
• Lent – Christ’s life culminating in his betrayal and
crucifixion
• Easter – celebration of Christ’s Resurrection and
Ascension, as well as the descent of the Holy Spirit at
Pentecost
• Ordinary Time – period when we continue to learn about
the path to holiness as witnessed by the life of Christ

18. Essential Qualities of the Liturgy
1.Trinitarian and Paschal
2. Ecclesial
3. Sacramental
4. Ethically Oriented
5. Eschatological

19. 1.Trinitarian and Paschal
•The Church’s liturgical prayer is directed to the
Father, through His Son, Jesus Christ, in the
Holy Spirit.
•Paschal quality since the liturgy celebrates the
Good News of our actual salvation worked by
the Blessed Trinity through Jesus Christ’s
Paschal Mystery.

20. 2. Ecclesial
• Liturgy is the prayer of the Church gathered in assembly,
an ecclesial activity, celebrated by the WHOLE Christ,
Head and members.
3. Sacramental
• Liturgy celebrates the Church’s prayer through a pattern of
symbolic, ritual movements, gestures and verbal formulas
that create a framework within which the corporate
worship of the Church can take place.

21. 4. Ethically Oriented
•The liturgy relates directly to moral life since it
empowers the people of God to full Christian
discipleship.
•One goal of liturgical celebrations is that we,
the faithful, return to our ordinary activities,
newly strengthened in faith, confirmed in hope,
and inspired with the power to love.

22. 5. Eschatological
• The liturgy makes present (incarnational aspect) Christ’s
saving Paschal Mystery whereby He inaugurated God’s rule,
the Kingdom. But God’s Kingdom, already begun, has not yet
been fully accomplished, as the early liturgical prayer,
“Maranatha, Come, Lord Jesus!” clearly depicts.
• The liturgy, then, at once commemorates Christ’s past saving
Mystery, demonstrates the present grace effects brought
about by Christ, and points to the future glory yet to come.

24. • “liturgy is the summit towards which the activity of the Church is
directed, and the fountain from which all her power flows”.
• The center of the Church’s liturgy is the Eucharist which
commemorates the Paschal Mystery of our Lord Jesus Christ __ his
Passion, Death, Resurrection, Ascension, and the sending of the
Holy Spirit

26. SACRAMENTS (cfc)
•They are efficacious signs of grace, originating in
Christ and confided to his Church, by which the
divine life of grace is instilled or deepened within us
(cf. CCC 1114-31)
• A sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace

27. • These signs and symbols come from creation (water, bread,
wine, fire), social life (washing, anointing), and the history of
salvation (sacrifices, laying on of hands)
- The visible rites by which the sacraments are
celebrated signify and make present the graces
proper to each sacrament.
- They bear fruit in those who receive them with the
required dispositions.

28. • “Sensible sign.” Form (words) and matter (sacred action)
- sacraments are performative word events __ like Jesus’ own
ministry of words and deeds __ real happenings that make
present the spiritual reality they express.
- sacraments communicate through touch (anointing, imposing
hands, washing, embracing), through gestures (standing, bowing,
sitting, kneeling) and through words (proclaimed, listened to,
spoken and responded to).
- It is through these human means of communication that the divine life
and love is communicated in the sacraments

29. “Instituted by Christ.” (Scriptural foundation)
• This expresses the essential link between the sacraments and Christ.
- Jesus as “Primordial Sacrament,” and the Church as the
“Foundational/basic Sacrament.”
 Jesus in his humanity is the sacrament of God’s saving love for all;
 the Church is the sacrament of Jesus, and
 the seven ritual sacraments are sacraments of the Church
- Jesus “instituted” the sacraments by first being the sacrament of his Father through his
whole life of word and action, and then by establishing the Church to be his basic
sacrament.
- The Church makes Christ present to all persons in every age first, by being his Body, and
second, by celebrating those actions that continue Christ’s own ministry.

30. “To Give Grace” Effect of the sacrament
• Sacramental grace – is a grace of the Holy Spirit, given by
Christ, that is proper to each sacrament.
The Sacraments also give (or increase) sanctifying grace and
many actual graces
• Sanctifying grace – God’s life within us
• Actual grace - is that special help which the Holy Spirit gives us
to enlighten our minds and to inspire and guide our wills to do
good and to avoid evil in particular situations.

31. Sacramental Character
Sacramental character - is a spiritual seal which confers an indelible
(permanent) mark on the soul
• The three sacraments which bestow a sacramental character are:
- Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Orders
Since this character is permanent these sacraments can only be
received once
It has four characteristics
 Configures one to Christ
 Distinguishes one from others
 Disposes one to live out the character
 Obliges one to live out the character

32. Christ: The Sacrament of God
•Christ perfectly fulfils the nature of a
sacrament precisely because He is the
Word of the Father made flesh. He in turn
established the Church, the visible
institution (material sign) of His Mystical
Body (spiritual reality) that continues His
work on earth and keeps Him visibly
present in signs.

33. By being the ‘Primordial Sacrament,’ He is the SOURCE, the PRIMARY AGENT and
the GOAL of all sacramental activity.
- As “SOURCE”, Christ is the one in whom all the sacraments are rooted and from
whom they derive their efficacy.
- As “PRIMARY AGENT”, he is the one who, through the actions and words of the
minister celebrating the various sacraments, baptizes, confirms, forgives, and
reconciles, heals, offers himself in sacrifice, binds in faithful love and consecrates
for service.
- As “GOAL” of all sacraments, Christ is the perfection toward which our life on
earth tends. Not only does he challenge us to a response of love, but effectively
empowers us, through the Holy Spirit, to grow into his fullness, i.e., to attain the
perfection of holiness that he is. When properly received, then, the sacraments
gradually fashion us ever more “to the image and likeness of Christ.”

34. Church: The Fundamental Sacrament
•The Church is the fundamental sacrament
because it is the effective material symbol
of Christ’s continued spiritual presence in
the world as the Risen Lord.

35. Church: The Fundamental Sacrament
•St. Paul calls the
Church Christ’s
“Body” on earth (Eph
1:22) that reaches
out to all to draw
them and the entire
creation to the
Father.

36. Church: The Fundamental Sacrament
•The Church is the
sacrament of Christ
because Christ is present,
through His indwelling
Spirit, in the midst of the
community members.
•He graces them and enables
them to love as He loves

37. •God communicates with people
through signs and symbols. He
expresses His love that way. The
Church offers us a treasury of signs
and symbols especially in the
sacraments.

38. Living the Signs of Jesus’ Love in the
Sacraments
•A symbol is a sign with a deeper
meaning or “a variety of meanings
that we discover rather than create”
(CFC 1521). Symbols may be termed
“effective” signs because they
produce or effect what they signify.

39. •Each sacrament has two
constituents. They are:
•a material sign that makes present a
spiritual reality and
•the spiritual reality that is made
present by the material sign.

40. “To Give Grace.”
• Grace is favor, gift from God to people, a virtue coming
from God, a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine
assistance.
Christ is active in all the sacraments, most
especially in the Holy Eucharist, when his Body
and Blood are made present under the
appearances of bread and wine, through the
priest’s words of consecration and the power of
the Holy Spirit.

41. Catholic sacraments are at once sacraments:
• of Christ in origin and presence,
• of the Church, in the sense that they are by and for the
Church,
• of Faith, as condition and ongoing expression,
• of salvation, as efficacious and necessary means,
• of eternal life, as their ultimate goal.

42. The effect of the sacraments is twofold:
- to draw us into a closer relationship to the Church,
and thereby to relationship to Christ himself, in the
Spirit, and to the Father.
Vatican II had likewise stressed the purpose of the
sacraments:
• to sanctify men and women,
• to build up the Body of Christ, and
• to give worship to God.

43. Celebrating the Sacraments with Devotion
1. Give full attention to the celebration.
2. Connect the sacraments to our lives.
3. Become more sensitive to the sacred in our everyday
lives.
4. Learn the need to turn to Christ.
5. Develop a sense of Christian fellowship.

44. There is a big difference between “receiving” the
sacraments and “celebrating” them.
 To say we have “received” the sacraments of Baptism,
Confirmation, and the Eucharist is to say we are done and
over with them. On the other hand,
 to say we have “celebrated” the sacraments is to say we
have actively participated in the sacraments that are very
much alive in our minds, hearts, and actions.
Living Up to the Moral Demands of the
Sacraments

45. The Christian life is about discipleship: it is about
sharing in the mission of Jesus in our everyday lives.
Through the sacraments, Christ makes His presence
felt, transforms us more, and empowers us for
deeper discipleship. It is indeed comforting to know
that Christ, Emmanuel, the God who is here with us,
“will be with us always till the end of time” through
the Church and the sacraments.
Living Up to the Moral Demands of the Sacraments

46. SACRAMENTALS AND POPULAR RELIGIOSITY
- the Church, over the centuries has instituted
“sacramentals” (cf. CCC 1667-73).
- They are objects, actions, practices, places, and the
like, that help us become aware of Christ’s grace-filled
presence around us or liberate from the presence of
the Evil One.
- they are sacred signs/symbols which signify some
spiritual effect which is realized through the action of
the Church.

47. •Sacramentals are very popular among Filipinos, who eagerly
make use of blessings (homes, cars, buildings),
• actions (kneeling, bowing, making the Sign of the Cross),
• words (grace before and after meals, indulgenced novena prayers,
pious invocations, litanies),
• objects (ashes, palms, candles, crucifixes, rosaries, scapulars,
statues),
• places (churches, shrines), and
• time liturgical seasons (cf. Advent, Lent, Easter, Ordinary time).
Filipinos tend naturally to seek concrete sensible expression of their
Faith and religious experience. This is most manifest in their
popular religiosity.

48. The Dominican Blessing
•May God the Father bless us. May God the
Son heal us. May God the Holy Spirit
enlighten us,
and give us eyes to see with, ears to hear
with, hands to do the work of God with,
feet to walk with, a mouth to preach the
Word of Salvation with, and may the angel
of peace watch over us and lead us at last
to the Lord's gift of the Kingdom. Amen