The Seven Sacraments

"The [seven] sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. 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.

Baptism

By which we are born into the new life in Christ

The fruits of this sacrament are:

• Remission of original sin.
• Birth into the new life by which man becomes an adoptive son of the Father, a member of Christ, and a temple of the Holy Spirit.
• Incorporation into the Church, the body of Christ, and participation in the priesthood of Christ.
• The imprinting, on the soul, of an indelible spiritual sign, the character, which consecrates the baptized person for Christian worship. Because of this character, Baptism cannot be repeated.

Confirmation

By which we are more perfectly bound to the Church and enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit

The fruits of this sacrament are:

• An increase and deepening of baptismal grace.
• A deepening of one's roots in the divine filiation, which makes one cry, "Abba, Father!"
• A firming of one's unity with Christ. 
• An increase of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
• A strengthening of one's bond with the Church and closer association with her mission.
• Special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith by word and action as a true witnesses of Christ, to confess the name of Christ boldly, and to never be ashamed of the cross.
• The imprinting, as in Baptism, of a spiritual mark or indelible character on the Christian's soul.  Because of this character, one can receive this sacrament only once in one's life.

The Holy Eucharist

By which Christ associates his Church and all her members with the sacrifice of the cross

The fruits of this sacrament are:

• An increase in the communicant's union with Christ.
• Forgiveness of venial sins.
• Preservation from grave sins.
• A strengthening of the bonds of charity between the communicant and Christ.
• A strengthening of the unity of the Church as the Mys­tical Body of Christ.

Reconciliation or Penance

By which sins after Baptism are forgiven

The fruits of this sacrament are:

• Reconciliation with God: the penitent recovers sanctifying grace.
• Reconciliation with the Church.
• Remission of the eternal punishment incurred by mortal sins.
• Remission, at least in part, of temporal punishments resulting from sin.
• Peace and serenity of conscience, and spiritual consolation.
• An increase of spiritual strength for the Christian battle.

Anointing of the Sick

By which a special grace is conferred during grave illness or old age

The fruits of this sacrament are:

• Unity with the passion of Christ, for the sick person's own good and that of the whole Church.
• Strength, peace, and courage to endure as a Christian the sufferings of illness or old age.
• Forgiveness of sins, if the sick person was not able to obtain it through the sacrament of Penance.
• Restoration of health, if it is conducive to the salvation of the soul.
• Preparation for entering eternal life.

Holy Orders

By which the task of serving in the name and in the person of Christ is conferred

The fruits of this sacrament are:

• The mission and faculty ("the sacred power") to act in persona Christi.
• Configuration to Christ as Priest, Teacher, and Pastor.
• The imprinting, as in Baptism, of an indelible character that cannot be repeated or conferred temporarily.

Matrimony  

By which a man and a woman form with each other an intimate communion of life and love

The fruits of this sacrament for the spouses are:

• The grace to love each other with the love with which Christ has loved his Church.
• A perfecting of their human love.
• A strengthening of their indissoluble unity.
• Sanctification on their way to heaven.
• The grace to "help one another to attain holiness in their married life and in welcoming and educating their children."
• An integration into God's covenant with man: Authentic married love is caught up into divine love.

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Source: From the Handbook of Prayers, edited by Fr. Jim Socias.

Kidnapped Syrian bishop in need of medicine

Washington D.C., May 1, 2013 / 12:36 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- No news has emerged of the two kidnapped Orthodox bishops in Syria, more than a week since their disappearance, and reports have now surfaced that one is in grave need of medications for his health conditions.

“We still do not know where the two archbishops are or who has taken them,” a spokesman for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Aleppo told Aid to the Church in Need April 29.

Concerns are escalating because one of the men – Archbishop John Ibrahim – requires medicine for high blood pressure and diabetes, the spokesman explained, and “it is a life-threatening problem if he does not receive his medicine.”

Archbishop Ibrahim of the Syriac Orthodox Church and Archbishop Paul Yagizi of the Greek Orthodox Church were kidnapped April 22 near Aleppo by armed men who apparently killed their driver, Deacon Fatha' Allah Kabboud.

It remains unclear who carried out the kidnapping. The Syrian government and rebel groups have both traded accusations over who is to blame.

The bishops were abducted on their way back from the Turkish border, where they were negotiating the release of two priests, Fathers Michael Kayyal and Maher Mahfouz, who had themselves been kidnapped Feb. 9.

“What is so sad about this is that both men were among those working hardest for peace and yet in this time of conflict they are among those paying the highest price,” the spokesman said.

“There are many Christians being kidnapped now and this is the first time where we have absolutely no clue about what has happened, where nobody has taken responsibility for the abduction.”

The Syrian civil war entered its second year a month ago, and the country's Christian minority has been caught in its midst.

Many Syrian Christians live in Damascus, Aleppo and Homs, all of which are cities strongly contested by the government and the rebels. Many have fled to nearby Lebanon.

Pope: 'yes' to Holy Spirit prevents division

Vatican City, May 2, 2013 / 12:33 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis said that Church divisions begin when it does not say ‘yes’ to the Holy Spirit and allow it to work.

“The divisions in the Church begin, the sects, all of these things, when we do not let him work because we are closed to the truth of the Spirit,” he said in the homily for his May 2 morning Mass.

“He always does a nice job, the Holy Spirit, throughout history,” he quipped, as he celebrated Mass with Cardinal Albert Malcolm Ranjith from Colombo, Sri Lanka and staff from the Vatican Museums.

Pope Francis explained that allowing the Holy Spirit to work results in a Church that says ‘yes.’

He noted that this ‘yes’ happens “when a Christian community lives in love, confesses its sins, worships the Lord, forgives offenses, is charitable towards others and manifests love.”

“It feels the obligation of fidelity to the Lord to observe the commandments,” he underscored.

The pontiff also spoke about the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, which relates how the Church “went to the outskirts of faith” to proclaim the Gospel after Pentecost.

In his unscripted homily, the Pope said the Holy Spirit first “pushed and created problems” and then “fostered harmony within the Church.”

He explained that although there were disagreements among the first disciples in Jerusalem on whether or not to allow Gentiles into the Church, some believers were open to it because of their love for Jesus.
 
“There was a ‘no’ Church that said ‘you cannot, no, no, you must not’ and a ‘yes’ Church that said ‘but let’s think about it, let’s be open to this, the Spirit is opening the door to us’,” said Pope Francis.

“The commandments are fulfilled from this ‘yes,’ a community of open doors,” he stated.

The Church teaches that the Holy Spirit is the continual exchange of love between Jesus Christ and God.

The Pope noted that “Jesus asks us to remain in His love.”

He said that that means “carrying a yoke” and is a ‘yes’ that “defends us from the temptation of becoming Puritans, in the etymological sense of the word, to seek a para-evangelical purity and from being a community of ‘no.’”

The pontiff also mentioned James, a Bishop of Jerusalem, who said people “should not impose a yoke on the neck of the disciples that the same fathers were not able to carry.”
 
“When the service of the Lord becomes such a heavy yoke, the doors of the Christian communities are closed and no one wants to come to the Lord,” he remarked.

In contrast, it is from love “that the observance of his commandments is born and this is the Christian community that says yes.”

“This love leads us to be faithful to the Lord … I will not do this or that because I love the Lord,” he said.