Pastor’s Letter: August 31, 2025

Pastor’s Letter: August 31, 2025

29 Aug 2025 | Posted by: chadmin

Blessings and peace to you all this weekend! Now that I’m an adjunct faculty member of Mundelein Seminary [If you missed it, last week’s bulletin column will fill you in =) ], I thought it would be good to get another series of columns going. Perhaps it is fitting, since we are now back into the full swing of school, as well as kicking off our OCIA classes for the year. If you haven’t seen/heard the announcements, OCIA stands for Order of Christian Initiation for Adults. The Church provides us a format and order for those wishing to join our Faith…and part of that process is a series of instruction which covers our core beliefs and teachings. Of course, since it is an overview of Catholic Faith, the classes are a great opportunity for those who wish to learn more or brush up on the Faith. With that backdrop in mind, I thought it might be a good opportunity to review through one of the best ways God shares life with us—through the Sacraments.

What is a Sacrament? Some may recall our Catechism definition…simply said…a Sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace.  Grace is God’s free and loving gift to us, a sharing in His life which is helpful and strengthening to us. One of my favorite things about the Sacraments is that God shares His life and help with us in a way that we can easily receive. We are bodies and souls together and we come to know things through the use of our senses. It is fitting that Jesus chose visible signs (using the body) to give us grace (which perfects the soul) so that we are prepared, both body and soul, for life in Heaven. In order to cover all aspects of the graces we need, Jesus gave us seven sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Holy Matrimony.

Christ instituted these seven Sacraments to supply the various needs of our spiritual life. Baptism is the Sacrament of spiritual rebirth; Confirmation is the Sacrament of spiritual strength and maturity; the Holy Eucharist gives us food for spiritual nourishment; Penance is the cure for the spiritual sickness of sin committed after Baptism; Anointing of the Sick strengthens us when seriously ill or dying; Holy Orders provides for the work of the Church; and Matrimony provides for the social needs of the Church.

The Church teaches that Sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispersed to us. The word efficacious is a description which means successful in producing a result or effective. So, we say that the Sacraments have outward visible rites that are effective—they signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament. In Baptism, for example, the pouring of the water and saying the words are a sign that both represent the cleansing of the soul from sin and actually makes that cleansing occur.

In each Sacrament there is an outward sign called the “matter” and a set formula of words known as the “form.” The matter and form together make up the sign of each Sacrament. In Baptism, the matter is the water and its being poured over a person and the form is comprised by the words: “[the person’s name], I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

We believe that Christ gave us the Sacraments before ascending into Heaven, but he did not specify the form for each sacrament as clearly as he instructed the apostles on Baptism and the Holy Eucharist. Christ gave His Church the power to make certain determinations in the matter and form of some of the Sacraments. For example, in Confirmation, the Church decides what kind of holy oil is used, who applies the oil, how the words are said as the oil is applied, etc.

The Sacraments always give grace if we receive them with the right dispositions, because the power of the Sacrament does not depend on anything human but solely on the will of God. The right dispositions do not produce the grace, but they do remove any obstacles which would prevent the reception of grace. It is important to prepare well for the reception of the Sacraments, because the better we are prepared, the better we receive the graces God bestows upon us.

With this overview in mind, in the weeks ahead we’ll take a closer look at each Sacrament, recalling Bible passages with the background, our belief about the unique graces of each Sacrament, as well as Church teaching which can help us prepare and receive the Sacraments even more fruitfully. Know of my prayers and blessing for you all this coming week!

In Christ,

Father Luke