The document discusses the Catholic Church's teachings on the sacraments. It describes the seven sacraments - Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony. It explains what each sacrament is, who can administer it, and its significance and effects on those who receive it worthily. The sacraments are seen as essential means of grace, imparted through visible rites, which nourish the Christian's life and journey towards salvation.

2. • This sacraments are necessary for salvation, as
the modes of grace divinely instituted by
Christ Himself
• They bear fruit in those who receive them
with the required dispositions
• Through each of them Christ bestows that
sacrament's particular grace, such as
incorporation into Christ and the Church,
forgiveness of sins, or consecration for a
particular service.

3. The Sacraments
• The doctrine of the sacraments follows the Christology; for
the sacraments “have efficacy from the incarnate Word
himself.”
• The sacraments are signs which not only signify sanctification,
but also effect it. That they bring spiritual gifts in sensuous
form, moreover, is inevitable because of the sensuous nature
of man.
• The res sensibles are the matter, the words of institution are
the form of the sacranieits. Contrary to the Franciscan view
that the sacraments are mere symbol, whose efficacy God
accompanies with a directly following creative act in the soul,

4. • Thomas holds it not unfit to say with Hugo of
St. Victor that “a sacrament contains grace,” or
to teach of the sacraments that they “cause
grace.” Thomas attempts to remove the
difficulty of a sensuous thing producing a
creative effect by a distinction between
the causa principalis et instrumentalism.

5. God as the principal cause work through the
sensuous thing as the means ordained by him for
his end. “Just as instrumental power is acquired
by the instrument from this, that it is moved by
the principal agent, so also the sacrament obtains
spiritual power from the benediction of Christ
and the application of the minister to the use of
the sacrament. There is spiritual power in the
sacraments in so far as they have been ordained
by God for a spiritual effect.”

6. • This spiritual power remains in the sensuous thing
until it has attained its purpose. Thomas
distinguished the gratia sacramentalis from
the gratia virtutum et donorum in that the former
in general perfects the essence and the powers of
the soul, and the latter in particular brings to pass
necessary spiritual effects for the Christian life.
Although, later this distinction was ignored.

7. • In a single statement the effect of the sacraments is to infuse
justifying grace into men. Christ’s humanity was the instrument for
the operation of his divinity; the sacraments are the instruments
through which this operation of Christ’s humanity passes over to
men. Christ’s humanity served his divinity as instrumentum
conjuncture, like the hand; the sacraments are instruments separate,
like a staff; the former can use the latter, as the hand can use a staff.
• Of Thomas’ eschatology, according to the commentary on the
“Sentences,” only a brief account can here be given. Everlasting
blessedness consists for Thomas in the vision of God; and this vision
consists not in an abstraction or in a mental image supernaturally
produced, but the divine substance itself is beheld.

8. • In such a manner, God himself becomes immediately the form of the
beholding intellect; that is, God is the object of the vision and at the
same time causes the vision. The perfection of the blessed also
demands that the body be restored to the soul as something to be
made perfect by it. Since blessedness consist in operation, it is made
more perfect in that the soul has a definite opcralio with the body.
Although, the peculiar act of blessedness (that is, the vision of God)
has nothing to do with the body.

9. • The Church teaches that the effect of a
sacrament comes ex opere operato, by the
very fact of being administered, regardless of
the personal holiness of the minister
administering it
• A recipient's own lack of proper disposition to
receive the grace conveyed can block the
effectiveness of the sacrament in that person.
• The sacraments presuppose faith and through
their words and ritual elements, nourish,
strengthen and give expression to faith

10. Sacraments of Christian Initiation

11. Baptism
• Baptism is the first and
basic sacrament of Christian
initiation
• The ordinary minister of the
sacrament is a bishop or
priest
• The sacrament frees from
original sin and all personal
sins, and from the
punishment due to them.
• Baptism makes the person
share in the Trinitarian life
of God through "sanctifying
grace"

12. • marks the baptized person with a spiritual seal
or character that indicates permanent
belonging to Christ
• Baptism is the foundation of communion
between all Christians

13. Symbols of Baptism
• White garment
– innocence and purity
• Candle
- Light of Christ
• Oil of Chrism
- used to anoint the baby or candidate
(catechumen) being baptised
• Water
- cleansing and the washing away of sin

14. Confirmation
• Chrismation is the
second sacrament of
Christian initiation
• It is called Chrismation
(in the Eastern
Churches: anointing
with holy myron or
chrism) because the
essential rite of the
sacrament is anointing
with chrism.

15. • It is called Confirmation because it confirms
and strengthens baptismal grace
• It is conferred by "the anointing with Sacred
Chrism which is done by the laying on of the
hand of the minister who pronounces the
sacramental words proper to the rite
• Through this sacrament, the grace given in
baptism is "strengthened and deepened”.
• confirmation may be received only once, and
the recipient must be in a state of grace
(meaning free from any known unconfessed
mortal sin) in order to receive its effects

16. Eucharist
• The sacrament by which
Catholics partake of the
Body and Blood of Jesus
Christ and participate in
his one sacrifice.
• The first of these two
aspects of the
sacrament is also called
Holy Communion

17. • The bread and wine used in the Eucharistic rite
are, in Catholic faith, transformed in all but
appearance into the Body and Blood of Christ, a
change that is called transubstantiation.
• Only a bishop or priest is enabled to be a minister
of the Eucharist, acting in the person of Christ
himself
• The Eucharist is seen as "the source and summit"
of Christian living, the high point of God's
sanctifying action on the faithful and of their
worship of God, the point of contact between
them and the liturgy of heaven.

18. “So important is it that
participation in the
Eucharistic celebration is seen
as obligatory on every Sunday
and holy day of obligation
and is recommended on other
days.”

19. Sacraments of healing

20. Penance and Reconciliation
• Is the first of two
sacraments of healing
• The Cathecism of Catholic
Church also refer this as a
sacrament of conversion,
confession, & forgiveness.
• It is the sacrament of
spiritual healing for a
baptized person from the
distancing from God
resulting from sins
committed.

21. 4 Elements of Reconcilation
1. Contrition - the Penitent's sincere remorse
for wrongdoing or sin, repentance (without
which the rite has no effect).
2. Confession to a Priest with the faculty to hear
confessions – only a Priest has the power to
administer the sacrament
3. Absolution by the Priest
4. Satisfaction or Penance

22. • The priest is bound by the "seal of
confession", which is inviolable
• it is absolutely wrong for a confessor in any
way to betray the penitent, for any reason
whatsoever, whether by word or in any other
fashion
• A confessor who directly violates the
sacramental seal incurs an automatic
excommunication

23. Anointing of the Sick
• Is the second sacrament of
healing
• In this sacrament a priest
anoints the sick with oil
blessed specifically for that
purpose.
• The anointing of the sick
can be administered to any
member of the faithful who,
having reached the use of
reason, begins to be in
danger by reason of illness
or old age

24. • In the Western Church, the sacrament was
conferred only on those in immediate danger of
death, it came to be known as "Extreme
Unction", or "Final Anointing", administered as
one of the "Last Rites“
• The other "Last Rites" are Confession (if the dying
person is physically unable to confess, at least
absolution, conditional on the existence of
contrition, is given), and the Eucharist, which
when administered to the dying is known as
"Viaticum", a word whose original meaning in
Latin was "provision for a journey".

25. Sacraments at the service of
communion

26. Holy Orders
• Holy Orders is the
sacrament by which a
man is made a bishop, a
priest, or a deacon, and
thus dedicated to be an
image of Christ
• A bishop is the minister
of this sacrament

27. • Ordination as a bishop confers the fullness of
the sacrament, making the bishop a member
of the body of successors of the Apostles, and
giving him the mission to teach, sanctify, and
govern, along with the care of all the Churches
• Aspirants to the priesthood are required by
canon law to go through a seminary program
that includes, as well as graduate level
philosophical and theological studies, a
formation program that includes spiritual
direction, retreats, apostolate experience, etc.

28. Matrimony
• Marriage, like Holy Orders,
is a sacrament that
consecrates for a particular
mission in building up the
Church, and that provides
grace for accomplishing that
mission
• This sacrament, seen as a
sign of the love uniting
Christ and the Church,
establishes between the
spouses a permanent and
exclusive bond, sealed by
God

29. • a marriage between baptized people, validly
entered into and consummated, cannot be
dissolved
• The sacrament confers on them the grace they
need for attaining holiness in their married life
and for responsible acceptance and
upbringing of their children
• As a condition for validity, the sacrament is
celebrated in the presence of the local
Ordinary or Parish Priest or of a cleric
delegated by them and at least two other
witnesses.

30. • For a valid marriage, a man and a woman
must express their conscious and free consent
to a definitive self-giving to the other,
excluding none of the essential properties and
aims of marriage

31. REMEMBER!
• If one of the two is a non-Catholic Christian,
their marriage is licit only if the permission of
the competent authority of the Catholic
Church is obtained. If one of the two is not a
Christian (has not been baptized), the
competent authority's dispensation is
necessary for validity.