ISLAM MUST KNOW: ST. PAUL LIFE

ST. PAUL

 
Paul's Conversion on the Way
to Damascus by Caravaggio St. Paul (A.D. 10? to A.D. 64?) was one of the most important major figure of the early Christian period. Regarded as a fiery, charismatic orator and a passionate and tireless activist, he helped spread Christianity along with other missionaries and wrote the earliest known documents on Christianity. Paul’s first letters, written between A.D. 49 and 62, are the earliest New Testament texts.
Some believe that Paul was more important than even Jesus in establishing Christianity as a great religion. He transformed what had been a been a fringe movement of Jews into a religion that embraced all peoples that spread through the Roman Empire, one of the largest political domains the world has ever known. Paul is given credit for shaping Christianity’s Orthodoxy and shaping the way the Gospels have been interpreted.
Paul is closely associated with Damascus, Syria. On Street Called Straight in the Old City of present-day Damascus, according to the New Testament’s Book of Acts, Saul of Tarsus regained his sight and became St. Paul, the Apostle. According to the Bible, Saul began his career terrorizing Christians in Jerusalem and later was blinded by a vision from God outside of Damascus. He was led into the city and cured of his blindness by a man named Ananias, who received a vision from the Lord and told Paul: "Arise and go into the street which is called Straight.” Along the former Roman road is St. Paul’s Chapel, where Paul was lowered in basket to flee a mob of Jews; the House of Ananias, said to be original house of the man who helped Paul; and Hanania Chapel, an ancient church built on the site where St. Paul was converted to Christianity with the help of Hanania.

St. Paul’s Life

Paul by Durer Originally named Saul of Tarsus, Paul was born into a Greek-speaking Jewish family that had attained Roman citizenship in the city of Tarsus in southern Turkey. He was born between A.D. 7 and 10 (his 2000th birth year declared a jubilee year by the Catholic church) and was educated in Jerusalem “at the feet of Gamaliel,” grandson of the great Jewish sage Hillel. Paul learned how to make tents when he was young. During his travels he often supported himself as a tentmaker.
In Corinthians Paul wrote about a “thorn in the flesh” that he said was sent by “a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated.” Scholars have suggested that may have a been a reference to epilepsy, malaria or some other malady.
Paul is believed to been a member of a radical, violent Jewish sect called the Shammaite Pharisees, followers of a Jewish sage that advocated a strict interpretation of Jewish law and harsh treatment of non-Jews. Describing himself as a “Hebrew of Hebrews,” Paul regarded Christianity as blasphemous and was a persecutor of Jesus’s followers before his conversion. He is believed to have been involved in beating, imprisoning and even executing Christian men, women and children.

St. Paul's Conversion and Writings

Paul converted to Christianity around A.D. 32 to 35, about five year's after the death of Jesus, while traveling on the road from Galilee and Jerusalem to Damascus to take prisoner as many Christians as he could find. According to Acts IX in the New Testament, Paul was suddenly blinded by a radiant light, and a voice spoke to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Shaken and lying on the ground, Paul (Saul) said, “Who art thou, Lord?” The voice answered, “I am Jesus, who thou persecute.”
Trembling and still blinded, Paul made his way to Damascus, where he changed his name from Saul to Paul, regained his sight and was baptized. He was “filled withe the Holy Spirit” and “straightaway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God.” Afterwards, Paul mediated alone for months and then sought out Peter to learn how Jesus lived. Jesus later appeared to Paul in other visions.
The Epistles (Letters) of Paul, including Thessalonians and Corinthians, are the earliest known Christian documents. The earliest were written around A.D. 50. They were written before the Gospels and make up a considerable part of the New Testament. These letters were written over the years to his friends and to churches. The Book of Acts describes the early history of the Christian Church and Paul’s life and works.

St. Paul Work as a Missionary

Paul Addresses a Crowd_ Paul was not a theologian or a scholar but was a missionary. He helped spread Christianity along with other missionaries mainly to Gentiles or quasi-Jews who rejected Jewish laws like circumcision. He founded the first Gentile Christian communities (up until that time nearly all Christians were Jewish converts) and established many churches in Asia Minor and Greece.
Paul used the same tactics wherever he went. After arriving in a town he spoke at the local synagogue. When the congregations would get aroused and angry he retreated and organized a church in Gentile districts. By doing this, Paul is credited with taking the first steps to make Christianity a world religion open to anyone, rather than one previously open only to Jews.
In his wake, Paul left behind self-supporting assemblies called ekklesiani , an extension and transformation of a Galilean movement of protest in which the crucifixion of Jesus and coming Kingdom of God were seen as events meant "to deliver us from the present evil age." Some scholars believe that Paul was not trying to establish Christianity but rather was trying to reform and expand Judaism.

St. Paul’s Travels and Converts

Paul preached for three years in Arabia and Damascus and then began his career as a missionary after receiving a call to “witness to all the world.” He spent 15 years on the road, traveling throughout the Roman empire, spreading the word of Jesus.

Paul's First Voyage Paul passed through Galatia and Achaia. He was shipwrecked on Malta and stopped in places like Pisidian, Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe in southern Asia Minor. He stayed for two or three years and spoke before thousands and provoked a riot in Ephesus in western Asia Minor.
Paul also traveled to the Macedonian city of Thessalonika in present-day northern Greece (source of the New Testament book Thessalonians) and Corinth in present-day southern Greece (source of the New Testament book Corinthians). Corinth was the center of Roman administration of Greece and the greatest metropolis in Roman Greece.
Although the majority of his early followers were Jews, Paul recruited many uncircumcised non-Jews. The conversion of Gentiles went against the beliefs of some of the other Apostles who felt that Christian converts should be circumcised as well as baptized and that Jewish Christians were superior to non-Jewish Christians. St. Paul's acceptance of non-Jews was so unpopular that he was nearly beaten to death when he visited the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.
Many of Paul’s converts were upwardly urban and mobile traders and professionals. In his book The First Urban Christians , New Testament scholar Wayne Meeks, concluded that "it was in the cities of the Roman Empire that Christianity, though born in village culture of Palestine, had its greatest success until well after the time of Constantine.”

Teaching of St. Paul

Paul's Second Voyage Paul never met Jesus, he claimed his authority from a revelation by Jesus. He briefly met St. Peter and James, but otherwise appeared to have little contact with the Apostles. Many of his views conflicted with those of the Apostles. Paul had no problem with this because he believed his views were revealed directly to him by Christ through his visions.
Paul has been credited with defining and expressing the significance of the Christian position on redemption, Jesus’s death and resurrection. He also: 1) described salvation as something that comes “by grace...rough faith” not from following the laws of Moses; 2) worked out the logic of Christ dying for the sins of mankind; and 3) portrayed redemption as emancipation from sin rather in the Old Testament concept of freedom from slavery and oppression.
Two other important contributions made by St; Paul were finding a place for the Old Testament law in Christianity and exploring the relationship between the Jews and Christians. On the former he asserted that the yes the Old Testament laws were holy but were not complete and new laws could be added and serve as a “tutor to bring us into Christ.” As to the latter he basically said the Jews had been given chance but blew it and now it was the turn of the “righteous remnant”—the Christians—to forge a new path. Christians were the ones whom “the end of the ages has come” and delivered “out of the darkness and translated...into the kingdom of the Son.”
Paul was a fervid believer in end of the world scenarios and thought that the second coming of Jesus was imminent. The hard tone of some of his teachings was intended to get sinners off their butts and repent before the second coming occurred. The teachings were not meant to be church dogma for the next 2,000 years.

St. Paul, Women and Sex

Paul's Third Voyage Many of Christianity’s strong positions against women’s rights and sexuality can be traced back to Paul, not Jesus. Although Paul encouraged Christians to be celibate, many scholars believe that he had a wife that he divorced before his conversion at the age of 30.
Paul was less tolerant for sexual deviancy and sinning in general than Jesus. Reacting to the “unbridled passion” and “sexual addiction” he observed in the Roman Empire, he wrote: “Make no mistake: no fornicator or idolater, none who are guilty either of adultery, or homosexual perversion, no thieves or grabbers or drunkards or slanders or swindlers, will possess the kingdom of God.”
On homosexuals, Paul added: “God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural...Men committed shameless acts with men and received their own persons the due penalties for their error.”
Some of Paul’s more unpopular views must be seen in the context that he was spreading the word in a pagan Roman world that “deified violence and exploitation” and where keeping slaves, exploiting women and even raping young boys were common practices.

St. Paul Arrest and Death

Christian catacomb in Rome
with image of Paul the philosopher Paul was arrested in Jerusalem on the request of local Jewish leaders in A.D. 58 for trying to convert Jews to Christianity. He was sent to the port city of Caesarea, where he was imprisoned for two years. He invoked his Roman citizenship and was sent to Rome where he was kept under house arrest for another two years.
It is not exactly clear what happened to him but it is believed that he was martyred in A.D. 64, the year that Nero blamed the great fire of Rome on the Jews. Before he was killed St. Paul invoked his right as a Roman citizen to be beheaded. His wish was granted. According to some, Paul was martyred at the site occupied by the Monastery of the Three Fountains in Rome. The Cathedral of St. John Lateran, the oldest Christian basilica in Rome, founded by Constantine on A.D. 314, contains reliquaries said to hold the heads of St. Paul and St. Peter and the chopped off finger doubting Thomas stuck in Jesus' wound.
In June 2009, the Vatican announced that testing of remains believed to be St. Paul’s “seems to confirm” that they indeed belonged to the saint. Carbon dating of bone fragments found in a tomb said to be St Paul’s determined the fragments date to the A.D. first or second century. A few days before that Vatican officials said they found the oldest known icon of an a Apostle, a fresco of St, Paul. found in another tomb.

Roman Legal System and the Apostle Paul

Nero coin The Romans established Mirnada-like laws to protect the rights of accused criminals. One of the most famous to invoke these laws for his protection was the Apostle Paul. Chapter 22 of Acts, describes how Paul is charged by a Roman magistrate for the crime of something similar to inciting a riot. Just as he is about to be carted away to jail, he tells the authorities he is a Roman citizen, which means that he is allowed to remain free pending a trial.
After the chief priest of Jerusalem complained to the Roman governor Festus that Paul was still running loose, Festus replied in Chapter 25 of Acts: "It's not the Roman custom to hand over any man before he has faced his accusers and has had the opportunity to defend himself against their charges."
Paul later won his freedom for a couple of years by invoking his legal right to have his trail in Rome. Paul finally ends up in Rome, but the Book o Acts ends without saying anything about the final outcome of the case. Some Christians contend he was crucified or fed to the lions by Nero, but scholars believe that the charges were likely dropped because there are no other records of the case.



Text Sources: World Religions edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); Encyclopedia of the World’s Religions edited by R.C. Zaehner (Barnes & Noble Books, 1959); Symbols of Catholicism by Dom Robert Le Gall, Abbot of Kergonan (Barnes & Noble, 2000); Encyclopedia of the World Cultures edited by David Levinson (G.K. Hall & Company, New York, 1994); Newsweek, Time and National Geographic articles about Jesus, the Bible and Christianity. Also the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Times of London, The New Yorker, Reuters, AP, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.

CATHOLIC TEACHING : THE SACRAMENT OF MATRIMONY

THE SACRAMENT OF MATRIMONY
 
1601 "The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament."⁸⁴
 
I. MARRIAGE IN GOD'S PLAN
1602 Sacred Scripture begins with the creation of man and woman in the image and likeness of God and concludes with a vision of "the wedding-feast of the Lamb."⁸⁵ Scripture speaks throughout of marriage and its "mystery," its institution and the meaning God has given it, its origin and its end, its various realizations throughout the history of salvation, the difficulties arising from sin and its renewal "in the Lord" in the New Covenant of Christ and the Church.⁸⁶
Marriage in the order of creation
1603 "The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own proper laws. . . . God himself is the author of marriage."⁸⁷ The vocation to marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the hand of the Creator. Marriage is not a purely human institution despite the many variations it may have undergone through the centuries in different cultures, social structures, and spiritual attitudes. These differences should not cause us to forget its common and permanent characteristics. Although the dignity of this institution is not transparent everywhere with the same clarity,⁸⁸ some sense of the greatness of the matrimonial union exists in all cultures. "The well-being of the individual person and of both human and Christian society is closely bound up with the healthy state of conjugal and family life."⁸⁹
1604 God who created man out of love also calls him to love the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being. For man is created in the image and likeness of God who is himself love.⁹⁰ Since God created him man and woman, their mutual love becomes an image of the absolute and unfailing love with which God loves man. It is good, very good, in the Creator's eyes. And this love which God blesses is intended to be fruitful and to be realized in the common work of watching over creation: "And God blessed them, and God said to them: 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.'"⁹¹
1605 Holy Scripture affirms that man and woman were created for one another: "It is not good that the man should be alone."⁹² The woman, "flesh of his flesh," his equal, his nearest in all things, is given to him by God as a "helpmate"; she thus represents God from whom comes our help.⁹³ "Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh."⁹⁴ The Lord himself shows that this signifies an unbreakable union of their two lives by recalling what the plan of the Creator had been "in the beginning": "So they are no longer two, but one flesh."⁹⁵
Marriage under the regime of sin
1606 Every man experiences evil around him and within himself. This experience makes itself felt in the relationships between man and woman. Their union has always been threatened by discord, a spirit of domination, infidelity, jealousy, and conflicts that can escalate into hatred and separation. This disorder can manifest itself more or less acutely, and can be more or less overcome according to the circumstances of cultures, eras, and individuals, but it does seem to have a universal character.
1607 According to faith the disorder we notice so painfully does not stem from the nature of man and woman, nor from the nature of their relations, but from sin. As a break with God, the first sin had for its first consequence the rupture of the original communion between man and woman. Their relations were distorted by mutual recriminations;⁹⁶ their mutual attraction, the Creator's own gift, changed into a relationship of domination and lust;⁹⁷ and the beautiful vocation of man and woman to be fruitful, multiply, and subdue the earth was burdened by the pain of childbirth and the toil of work.⁹⁸
1608 Nevertheless, the order of creation persists, though seriously disturbed. To heal the wounds of sin, man and woman need the help of the grace that God in his infinite mercy never refuses them.⁹⁹ Without his help man and woman cannot achieve the union of their lives for which God created them "in the beginning."
Marriage under the pedagogy of the Law
1609 In his mercy God has not forsaken sinful man. The punishments consequent upon sin, "pain in childbearing" and toil "in the sweat of your brow,"¹⁰⁰ also embody remedies that limit the damaging effects of sin. After the fall, marriage helps to overcome self-absorption, egoism, pursuit of one's own pleasure, and to open oneself to the other, to mutual aid and to self-giving.
1610 Moral conscience concerning the unity and indissolubility of marriage developed under the pedagogy of the old law. In the Old Testament the polygamy of patriarchs and kings is not yet explicitly rejected. Nevertheless, the law given to Moses aims at protecting the wife from arbitrary domination by the husband, even though according to the Lord's words it still carries traces of man's "hardness of heart" which was the reason Moses permitted men to divorce their wives.¹⁰¹
1611 Seeing God's covenant with Israel in the image of exclusive and faithful married love, the prophets prepared the Chosen People's conscience for a deepened understanding of the unity and indissolubility of marriage.¹⁰² The books of Ruth and Tobit bear moving witness to an elevated sense of marriage and to the fidelity and tenderness of spouses. Tradition has always seen in the Song of Solomon a unique expression of human love, insofar as it is a reflection of God's love - a love "strong as death" that "many waters cannot quench."¹⁰³
 
Marriage in the Lord
1612 The nuptial covenant between God and his people Israel had prepared the way for the new and everlasting covenant in which the Son of God, by becoming incarnate and giving his life, has united to himself in a certain way all mankind saved by him, thus preparing for "the wedding-feast of the Lamb."¹⁰⁴
1613 On the threshold of his public life Jesus performs his first sign - at his mother's request - during a wedding feast.¹⁰⁵ The Church attaches great importance to Jesus' presence at the wedding at Cana. She sees in it the confirmation of the goodness of marriage and the proclamation that thenceforth marriage will be an efficacious sign of Christ's presence.
1614 In his preaching Jesus unequivocally taught the original meaning of the union of man and woman as the Creator willed it from the beginning permission given by Moses to divorce one's wife was a concession to the hardness of hearts.¹⁰⁶ The matrimonial union of man and woman is indissoluble: God himself has determined it "what therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder."¹⁰⁷
1615 This unequivocal insistence on the indissolubility of the marriage bond may have left some perplexed and could seem to be a demand impossible to realize. However, Jesus has not placed on spouses a burden impossible to bear, or too heavy - heavier than the Law of Moses.¹⁰⁸ By coming to restore the original order of creation disturbed by sin, he himself gives the strength and grace to live marriage in the new dimension of the Reign of God. It is by following Christ, renouncing themselves, and taking up their crosses that spouses will be able to "receive" the original meaning of marriage and live it with the help of Christ.¹⁰⁹ This grace of Christian marriage is a fruit of Christ's cross, the source of all Christian life.
1616 This is what the Apostle Paul makes clear when he says: "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her," adding at once: "'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one. This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church."¹¹⁰
1617 The entire Christian life bears the mark of the spousal love of Christ and the Church. Already Baptism, the entry into the People of God, is a nuptial mystery; it is so to speak the nuptial bath.¹¹¹ which precedes the wedding feast, the Eucharist. Christian marriage in its turn becomes an efficacious sign, the sacrament of the covenant of Christ and the Church. Since it signifies and communicates grace, marriage between baptized persons is a true sacrament of the New Covenant..¹¹²
 
Virginity for the sake of the Kingdom
1618 Christ is the center of all Christian life. The bond with him takes precedence over all other bonds, familial or social.¹¹³ From the very beginning of the Church there have been men and women who have renounced the great good of marriage to follow the Lamb wherever he goes, to be intent on the things of the Lord, to seek to please him, and to go out to meet the Bridegroom who is coming.¹¹⁴ Christ himself has invited certain persons to follow him in this way of life, of which he remains the model:

"For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to receive this, let him receive it."¹¹⁵

1619 Virginity for the sake of the kingdom of heaven is an unfolding of baptismal grace, a powerful sign of the supremacy of the bond with Christ and of the ardent expectation of his return, a sign which also recalls that marriage is a reality of this present age which is passing away.¹¹⁶
1620 Both the sacrament of Matrimony and virginity for the Kingdom of God come from the Lord himself. It is he who gives them meaning and grants them the grace which is indispensable for living them out in conformity with his will.¹¹⁷ Esteem of virginity for the sake of the kingdom¹¹⁸ and the Christian understanding of marriage are inseparable, and they reinforce each other:

Whoever denigrates marriage also diminishes the glory of virginity. Whoever praises it makes virginity more admirable and resplendent. What appears good only in comparison with evil would not be truly good. The most excellent good is something even better than what is admitted to be good.¹¹⁹

II. THE CELEBRATION OF MARRIAGE
1621 In the Latin Rite the celebration of marriage between two Catholic faithful normally takes place during Holy Mass, because of the connection of all the sacraments with the Paschal mystery of Christ.¹²⁰ In the Eucharist the memorial of the New Covenant is realized, the New Covenant in which Christ has united himself for ever to the Church, his beloved bride for whom he gave himself up.¹²¹ It is therefore fitting that the spouses should seal their consent to give themselves to each other through the offering of their own lives by uniting it to the offering of Christ for his Church made present in the Eucharistic sacrifice, and by receiving the Eucharist so that, communicating in the same Body and the same Blood of Christ, they may form but "one body" in Christ.¹²²
1622 "Inasmuch as it is a sacramental action of sanctification, the liturgical celebration of marriage . . . must be, per se, valid, worthy, and fruitful."¹²³ It is therefore appropriate for the bride and groom to prepare themselves for the celebration of their marriage by receiving the sacrament of penance.
1623 According to Latin tradition, the spouses as ministers of Christ's grace mutually confer upon each other the sacrament of Matrimony by expressing their consent before the Church. In the tradition of the Eastern Churches, the priests (bishops or presbyters) are witnesses to the mutual consent given by the spouses,¹²⁴ but for the validity of the sacrament their blessing is also necessary.¹²⁵
1624 The various liturgies abound in prayers of blessing and epiclesis asking God's grace and blessing on the new couple, especially the bride. In the epiclesis of this sacrament the spouses receive the Holy Spirit as the communion of love of Christ and the Church.¹²⁶ The Holy Spirit is the seal of their covenant, the ever available source of their love and the strength to renew their fidelity.

III. MATRIMONIAL CONSENT
1625 The parties to a marriage covenant are a baptized man and woman, free to contract marriage, who freely express their consent; "to be free" means:
- not being under constraint;
- not impeded by any natural or ecclesiastical law.
1626 The Church holds the exchange of consent between the spouses to be the indispensable element that "makes the marriage."¹²⁷ If consent is lacking there is no marriage.
1627 The consent consists in a "human act by which the partners mutually give themselves to each other": "I take you to be my wife" - "I take you to be my husband."¹²⁸ This consent that binds the spouses to each other finds its fulfillment in the two "becoming one flesh."¹²⁹
1628 The consent must be an act of the will of each of the contracting parties, free of coercion or grave external fear.¹³⁰ No human power can substitute for this consent.¹³¹ If this freedom is lacking the marriage is invalid.
1629 For this reason (or for other reasons that render the marriage null and void) the Church, after an examination of the situation by the competent ecclesiastical tribunal, can declare the nullity of a marriage, i.e., that the marriage never existed.¹³² In this case the contracting parties are free to marry, provided the natural obligations of a previous union are discharged.¹³³
1630 The priest (or deacon) who assists at the celebration of a marriage receives the consent of the spouses in the name of the Church and gives the blessing of the Church. The presence of the Church's minister (and also of the witnesses) visibly expresses the fact that marriage is an ecclesial reality.
1631 This is the reason why the Church normally requires that the faithful contract marriage according to the ecclesiastical form. Several reasons converge to explain this requirement:¹³⁴
- Sacramental marriage is a liturgical act. It is therefore appropriate that it should be celebrated in the public liturgy of the Church;
- Marriage introduces one into an ecclesial order, and creates rights and duties in the Church between the spouses and towards their children;
- Since marriage is a state of life in the Church, certainty about it is necessary (hence the obligation to have witnesses);
- The public character of the consent protects the "I do" once given and helps the spouses remain faithful to it.
1632 So that the "I do" of the spouses may be a free and responsible act and so that the marriage covenant may have solid and lasting human and Christian foundations, preparation for marriage is of prime importance.
The example and teaching given by parents and families remain the special form of this preparation.
The role of pastors and of the Christian community as the "family of God" is indispensable for the transmission of the human and Christian values of marriage and family,¹³⁵ and much more so in our era when many young people experience broken homes which no longer sufficiently assure this initiation:

It is imperative to give suitable and timely instruction to young people, above all in the heart of their own families, about the dignity of married love, its role and its exercise, so that, having learned the value of chastity, they will be able at a suitable age to engage in honorable courtship and enter upon a marriage of their own.¹³⁶

Mixed marriages and disparity of cult
1633 In many countries the situation of a mixed marriage (marriage between a Catholic and a baptized non-Catholic) often arises. It requires particular attention on the part of couples and their pastors. A case of marriage with disparity of cult (between a Catholic and a non-baptized person) requires even greater circumspection.
1634 Difference of confession between the spouses does not constitute an insurmountable obstacle for marriage, when they succeed in placing in common what they have received from their respective communities, and learn from each other the way in which each lives in fidelity to Christ. But the difficulties of mixed marriages must not be underestimated. They arise from the fact that the separation of Christians has not yet been overcome. The spouses risk experiencing the tragedy of Christian disunity even in the heart of their own home. Disparity of cult can further aggravate these difficulties. Differences about faith and the very notion of marriage, but also different religious mentalities, can become sources of tension in marriage, especially as regards the education of children. The temptation to religious indifference can then arise.
1635 According to the law in force in the Latin Church, a mixed marriage needs for liceity the express permission of ecclesiastical authority.¹³⁷ In case of disparity of cult an express dispensation from this impediment is required for the validity of the marriage.¹³⁸ This permission or dispensation presupposes that both parties know and do not exclude the essential ends and properties of marriage; and furthermore that the Catholic party confirms the obligations, which have been made known to the non-Catholic party, of preserving his or her own faith and ensuring the baptism and education of the children in the Catholic Church.¹³⁹
1636 Through ecumenical dialogue Christian communities in many regions have been able to put into effect a common pastoral practice for mixed marriages. Its task is to help such couples live out their particular situation in the light of faith, overcome the tensions between the couple's obligations to each other and towards their ecclesial communities, and encourage the flowering of what is common to them in faith and respect for what separates them.
1637 In marriages with disparity of cult the Catholic spouse has a particular task: "For the unbelieving husband is consecrated through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is consecrated through her husband."¹⁴⁰ It is a great joy for the Christian spouse and for the Church if this "consecration" should lead to the free conversion of the other spouse to the Christian faith.¹⁴¹ Sincere married love, the humble and patient practice of the family virtues, and perseverance in prayer can prepare the non-believing spouse to accept the grace of conversion. 
 
IV. THE EFFECTS OF THE SACRAMENT OF MATRIMONY
1638 "From a valid marriage arises a bond between the spouses which by its very nature is perpetual and exclusive; furthermore, in a Christian marriage the spouses are strengthened and, as it were, consecrated for the duties and the dignity of their state by a special sacrament."¹⁴²
The marriage bond
1639 The consent by which the spouses mutually give and receive one another is sealed by God himself.¹⁴³ From their covenant arises "an institution, confirmed by the divine law, . . . even in the eyes of society."¹⁴⁴ The covenant between the spouses is integrated into God's covenant with man: "Authentic married love is caught up into divine love."¹⁴⁵
1640 Thus the marriage bond has been established by God himself in such a way that a marriage concluded and consummated between baptized persons can never be dissolved. This bond, which results from the free human act of the spouses and their consummation of the marriage, is a reality, henceforth irrevocable, and gives rise to a covenant guaranteed by God's fidelity. The Church does not have the power to contravene this disposition of divine wisdom.¹⁴⁶
 
The grace of the sacrament of Matrimony
1641 "By reason of their state in life and of their order, [Christian spouses] have their own special gifts in the People of God."¹⁴⁷ This grace proper to the sacrament of Matrimony is intended to perfect the couple's love and to strengthen their indissoluble unity. By this grace they "help one another to attain holiness in their married life and in welcoming and educating their children."¹⁴⁸
1642 Christ is the source of this grace. "Just as of old God encountered his people with a covenant of love and fidelity, so our Savior, the spouse of the Church, now encounters Christian spouses through the sacrament of Matrimony."¹⁴⁹ Christ dwells with them, gives them the strength to take up their crosses and so follow him, to rise again after they have fallen, to forgive one another, to bear one another's burdens, to "be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ,"¹⁵⁰ and to love one another with supernatural, tender, and fruitful love. In the joys of their love and family life he gives them here on earth a foretaste of the wedding feast of the Lamb:

How can I ever express the happiness of a marriage joined by the Church, strengthened by an offering, sealed by a blessing, announced by angels, and ratified by the Father? . . . How wonderful the bond between two believers, now one in hope, one in desire, one in discipline, one in the same service! They are both children of one Father and servants of the same Master, undivided in spirit and flesh, truly two in one flesh. Where the flesh is one, one also is the spirit.¹⁵¹

V. THE GOODS AND REQUIREMENTS OF CONJUGAL LOVE
1643 "Conjugal love involves a totality, in which all the elements of the person enter - appeal of the body and instinct, power of feeling and affectivity, aspiration of the spirit and of will. It aims at a deeply personal unity, a unity that, beyond union in one flesh, leads to forming one heart and soul; it demands indissolubility and faithfulness in definitive mutual giving; and it is open to fertility. In a word it is a question of the normal characteristics of all natural conjugal love, but with a new significance which not only purifies and strengthens them, but raises them to the extent of making them the expression of specifically Christian values."¹⁵²
The unity and indissolubility of marriage
1644 The love of the spouses requires, of its very nature, the unity and indissolubility of the spouses' community of persons, which embraces their entire life: "so they are no longer two, but one flesh."¹⁵³ They "are called to grow continually in their communion through day-to-day fidelity to their marriage promise of total mutual self-giving."¹⁵⁴ This human communion is confirmed, purified, and completed by communion in Jesus Christ, given through the sacrament of Matrimony. It is deepened by lives of the common faith and by the Eucharist received together.
1645 "The unity of marriage, distinctly recognized by our Lord, is made clear in the equal personal dignity which must be accorded to man and wife in mutual and unreserved affection."¹⁵⁵ Polygamy is contrary to conjugal love which is undivided and exclusive.¹⁵⁶
* The fidelity of conjugal love
1646 By its very nature conjugal love requires the inviolable fidelity of the spouses. This is the consequence of the gift of themselves which they make to each other. Love seeks to be definitive; it cannot be an arrangement "until further notice." The "intimate union of marriage, as a mutual giving of two persons, and the good of the children, demand total fidelity from the spouses and require an unbreakable union between them."¹⁵⁷
1647 The deepest reason is found in the fidelity of God to his covenant, in that of Christ to his Church. Through the sacrament of Matrimony the spouses are enabled to represent this fidelity and witness to it. Through the sacrament, the indissolubility of marriage receives a new and deeper meaning.
1648 It can seem difficult, even impossible, to bind oneself for life to another human being. This makes it all the more important to proclaim the Good News that God loves us with a definitive and irrevocable love, that married couples share in this love, that it supports and sustains them, and that by their own faithfulness they can be witnesses to God's faithful love. Spouses who with God's grace give this witness, often in very difficult conditions, deserve the gratitude and support of the ecclesial community.¹⁵⁸
1649 Yet there are some situations in which living together becomes practically impossible for a variety of reasons. In such cases the Church permits the physical separation of the couple and their living apart. The spouses do not cease to be husband and wife before God and so are not free to contract a new union. In this difficult situation, the best solution would be, if possible, reconciliation. The Christian community is called to help these persons live out their situation in a Christian manner and in fidelity to their marriage bond which remains indissoluble.¹⁵⁹
1650 Today there are numerous Catholics in many countries who have recourse to civil divorce and contract new civil unions. In fidelity to the words of Jesus Christ - "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery"¹⁶⁰ the Church maintains that a new union cannot be recognized as valid, if the first marriage was. If the divorced are remarried civilly, they find themselves in a situation that objectively contravenes God's law. Consequently, they cannot receive Eucharistic communion as long as this situation persists. For the same reason, they cannot exercise certain ecclesial responsibilities. Reconciliation through the sacrament of Penance can be granted only to those who have repented for having violated the sign of the covenant and of fidelity to Christ, and who are committed to living in complete continence.
1651 Toward Christians who live in this situation, and who often keep the faith and desire to bring up their children in a Christian manner, priests and the whole community must manifest an attentive solicitude, so that they do not consider themselves separated from the Church, in whose life they can and must participate as baptized persons:

They should be encouraged to listen to the Word of God, to attend the Sacrifice of the Mass, to persevere in prayer, to contribute to works of charity and to community efforts for justice, to bring up their children in the Christian faith, to cultivate the spirit and practice of penance and thus implore, day by day, God's grace.¹⁶¹

* The openness to fertility

1652 "By its very nature the institution of marriage and married love is ordered to the procreation and education of the offspring and it is in them that it finds its crowning glory."¹⁶²

Children are the supreme gift of marriage and contribute greatly to the good of the parents themselves. God himself said: "It is not good that man should be alone," and "from the beginning [he] made them male and female"; wishing to associate them in a special way in his own creative work, God blessed man and woman with the words: "Be fruitful and multiply." Hence, true married love and the whole structure of family life which results from it, without diminishment of the other ends of marriage, are directed to disposing the spouses to cooperate valiantly with the love of the Creator and Savior, who through them will increase and enrich his family from day to day.¹⁶³

1653 The fruitfulness of conjugal love extends to the fruits of the moral, spiritual, and supernatural life that parents hand on to their children by education. Parents are the principal and first educators of their children.¹⁶⁴ In this sense the fundamental task of marriage and family is to be at the service of life.¹⁶⁵

1654 Spouses to whom God has not granted children can nevertheless have a conjugal life full of meaning, in both human and Christian terms. Their marriage can radiate a fruitfulness of charity, of hospitality, and of sacrifice. 

VI. THE DOMESTIC CHURCH

1655 Christ chose to be born and grow up in the bosom of the holy family of Joseph and Mary. The Church is nothing other than "the family of God." From the beginning, the core of the Church was often constituted by those who had become believers "together with all [their] household."¹⁶⁶ When they were converted, they desired that "their whole household" should also be saved.¹⁶⁷ These families who became believers were islands of Christian life in an unbelieving world.

1656 In our own time, in a world often alien and even hostile to faith, believing families are of primary importance as centers of living, radiant faith. For this reason the Second Vatican Council, using an ancient expression, calls the family the Ecclesia domestica.¹⁶⁸ It is in the bosom of the family that parents are "by word and example . . . the first heralds of the faith with regard to their children. They should encourage them in the vocation which is proper to each child, fostering with special care any religious vocation."¹⁶⁹

1657 It is here that the father of the family, the mother, children, and all members of the family exercise the priesthood of the baptized in a privileged way "by the reception of the sacraments, prayer and thanksgiving, the witness of a holy life, and self-denial and active charity."¹⁷⁰ Thus the home is the first school of Christian life and "a school for human enrichment."¹⁷¹ Here one learns endurance and the joy of work, fraternal love, generous - even repeated - forgiveness, and above all divine worship in prayer and the offering of one's life.

1658 We must also remember the great number of single persons who, because of the particular circumstances in which they have to live - often not of their choosing - are especially close to Jesus' heart and therefore deserve the special affection and active solicitude of the Church, especially of pastors. Many remain without a human family often due to conditions of poverty. Some live their situation in the spirit of the Beatitudes, serving God and neighbor in exemplary fashion. The doors of homes, the "domestic churches," and of the great family which is the Church must be open to all of them. "No one is without a family in this world: the Church is a home and family for everyone, especially those who 'labor and are heavy laden.'"¹⁷²

 

IN BRIEF

1659 St. Paul said: "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church. . . . This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church" (Eph 5:25, 32).

1660 The marriage covenant, by which a man and a woman form with each other an intimate communion of life and love, has been founded and endowed with its own special laws by the Creator. By its very nature it is ordered to the good of the couple, as well as to the generation and education of children. Christ the Lord raised marriage between the baptized to the dignity of a sacrament (cf. CIC, can. 1055 § 1; cf. GS 48 § 1).

1661 The sacrament of Matrimony signifies the union of Christ and the Church. It gives spouses the grace to love each other with the love with which Christ has loved his Church; the grace of the sacrament thus perfects the human love of the spouses, strengthens their indissoluble unity, and sanctifies them on the way to eternal life (cf. Council of Trent: DS 1799).

1662 Marriage is based on the consent of the contracting parties, that is, on their will to give themselves, each to the other, mutually and definitively, in order to live a covenant of faithful and fruitful love.

1663 Since marriage establishes the couple in a public state of life in the Church, it is fitting that its celebration be public, in the framework of a liturgical celebration, before the priest (or a witness authorized by the Church), the witnesses, and the assembly of the faithful.

1664 Unity, indissolubility, and openness to fertility are essential to marriage. Polygamy is incompatible with the unity of marriage; divorce separates what God has joined together; the refusal of fertility turns married life away from its "supreme gift," the child (GS 50 § 1).

1665 The remarriage of persons divorced from a living, lawful spouse contravenes the plan and law of God as taught by Christ. They are not separated from the Church, but they cannot receive Eucharistic communion. They will lead Christian lives especially by educating their children in the faith.

1666 The Christian home is the place where children receive the first proclamation of the faith. For this reason the family home is rightly called "the domestic church," a community of grace and prayer, a school of human virtues and of Christian charity.

CATHOLIC TEACHING: AFTER LIFE

AFTER LIFE
 

In Catholic Christian understanding, all of human history is geared toward salvation. Humans are trapped by their own sinfulness in bondage to death, but God became incarnate in Jesus and broke the bondage, allowing those who believe in Christ to be saved from their fate of death. Salvation is a gift from God, given not as payment for good actions but as freely given grace.
Unlike some Christian groups who focus on individual election, the idea that God chose in the beginning of time those persons who would be granted salvation, Catholics believe in corporate salvation. This refers to the belief that God grants salvation through the medium of the Church to all who participate in it. Catholics have long affirmed that there is no salvation outside the Church and traditionally this has been understood to mean that all those who are not in communion with the Catholic Church cannot be saved. More recently, though, the understanding of what is means to be outside the Church has shifted: Catholics believe that the Church is the sign of God's presence in the world, that all those who come to God do so through the medium of the Church even when they themselves do not recognize the Catholic Church's role in their salvation.
Catholics see a close connection between salvation and atonement, which is the way that God comes to forgive human sin through the actions of Jesus the Christ. Many theories have been proposed about how this happens, but the two most influential in Catholic understanding are that Christ paid a ransom to Satan and that Christ offered himself as a substitute to God. A number of writers in the early Church, especially Origen (185-254), talked about the atonement as a ransom; they believed that humans were in bondage to Satan, deserving death because of their sins. Since Jesus lived a perfect and sinless life, he owed nothing to Satan but allowed himself to suffer death anyway, ransoming the souls of all of humanity by breaking Satan's claim to own them due to sinfulness. St. Anselm (1033-1109) gave the classic formulation of the substitution theory. He said that humans owe God a perfect life but are unable to deliver it because of their sinfulness. God became incarnate in Jesus and lived a perfect life, meaning that he owed nothing more to God, but he freely chose to accept death. With this action he created such a surplus of obedience and honor that he repaid to God all that humans had been or would be unable to pay. Thus he substituted his obedience for their sinfulness.
Atonement allows God to grant salvation to humans who are not in themselves worthy of it. Salvation is experienced in this life as a reweaving of the human-divine relationship that was broken with sin, and beyond death as a new life lived in communion with God in heaven.
In traditional Catholic understanding, the human retains individuality beyond death and goes on to experience one of three states of being: heaven, purgatory, or hell. Heaven is the place of perfect peace and joy, a place where humans join the angels in having direct knowledge of God and praising God through eternity. It is the hope and desire of all Catholics to reach heaven and exist in this perfection, but they generally believe that most souls are not cleansed enough of sin in this lifetime to be ready for heaven and instead will enter an interim state called purgatory.

Life After Life: What Do We Do for an Encore?

When I was first ordained, I had to give a homily on the Ascension. I wanted to say something really new, so I sat down and meditated.

My imagination got me so realistically into that scene I felt the dust between my toes and smelled the other apostles' sweat. Jesus took us up a hill, said goodbye, and began to rise—about 50 feet in the air (where artists capture it). Nothing new there. So something impelled me to let him keep going—up, up, like a rocket in slow gear.

At that point, the left lobe of my brain (where I stored my reasoning equipment and knowledge of science) began asking unsettling questions of my right lobe (where I stored my imagining tools and knowledge of religion).

Did Jesus go through the Van Allen Belt? Was he radioactive? Did he sail through the endless cold of space till he finally came to the thinnest membrane between the universe and heaven and go through (boop!) like through a self-sealing tire? And there he was in this great golden city—like the ogre's castle atop the beanstalk? Beyond time and space, where do they mine all that gold? (Not to mention all the coal to keep the hell fires burning.) And if Jesus went "up" to heaven from Jerusalem, an Australian would go "up" in exactly the opposite direction. And never the twain shall meet. Back to the drawing board.

What Do We Know?

We know so much more about the cosmos than the scripture writers. We know now the earth isn't really an island floating on the waters, covered by the great crystal bowl of firmament, beyond which lies heaven. We know that, if God pre-existed the universe of time and space, God dwells in a dimension of reality where everything temporal and physical has no meaning or purpose. God has no genitals and thus is not male. Angels don't need wings to get about. Devils don't sport tails and use pitchforks.

But how do we deal with realities like heaven, hell, purgatory and God himself when the only tools we have are our space- and time-bound experiences?

Maybe Hindus and Buddhists have the right idea. In their view, the Ultimate Reality does exist, but in such an unimaginably different way from our existence we can say nothing true about "It" or Its environs. Anything we say about such a Being is so far from the actuality as to be closer to a lie than to the truth. You can't even legitimately use the word "is" about such a Being in any remote sense like the way we use it about anything else we know.

Still, God gave us complex intelligence for a purpose: to try to understand things, even if our approximations are "straw," as Aquinas reputedly said, compared to the Reality. That's why God made us symbol-spinners, metaphor-makers, trying to make realities we can't actually see: tiny solar-systems for atoms, a wedding ring for commitment, a parchment for intellectual achievement (or endurance). None of the symbols is the reality (thus Jews and Muslims forbid them), nor even in the remotest sense much like the reality. But they're a helpful placebo for the inquiring mind. And if Jesus used analogies to help explain his message, we're in good company when we try them, too. They help us understand a bit better something we don't really understand in terms of things we do. Symbols are (to use a metaphor) like the Ace bandages the Invisible Man wrapped around himself to be seen. Like trying to "explain" color to a blind person. "Red is like the burning sensation of sucking a hot cinnamon jawbreaker." That's not "it," but better than nothing at all.

The Hebrew Scriptures try that in the Book of Daniel (7:9-14), about as close as they get to a "picture" of God, clad in snow-white clothes on a fiery throne, sitting upon the clouds of heaven. And the whole Book of Revelation pictures heaven as "the New Jerusalem," the most opulent city the author could conceive. On the very rare occasions hell arises, the analogy is to Gehenna, where Jerusalem burned its trash. Again and again, Jesus used metaphor to describe the Kingdom of Heaven as a wedding banquet where (presumably) no one has too much to eat or drink, the conversations are never dull, and everybody dances like Fred and Ginger.

Literary Afterlife

Unfortunately, because we still carry a reptilian brain stem, hell is much more interesting than heaven (to say nothing of its usefulness to preachers to panic us to piety). But we owe our "understanding" of hell far more to the imagination (and prejudices) of Dante and the fervor of Irish Jansenist preachers than to the meager evidence of the scriptures. The atheist Jean-Paul Sartre has, for me, a far better re-imaging of hell than Dante: three people who detest one another forced to share a hotel room for all eternity, without the possibility of murder or suicide. I can think of at least 20 people I'd do just about anything required to avoid sharing that fate.

The best re-imaging of the afterlife I know is C. S. Lewis's series of vignettes called The Great Divorce. It begins in a Grey Town where everything is grim and everyone surly. But at any time you can take a bus that lands in a beautiful meadow, a kind of staging-area for heaven, up in the beautiful mountains. Each one is greeted by a shining Solid One, someone from their past, who tries to coax them to jettison their self-absorption, be utterly honest, stop telling lies to themselves about themselves—and believing them, and yield center-stage to the only One who deserves it: God. Some do, and for them their sojourn in the Grey Town has been purgatory. Others cling to their narcissism, get back on the bus and return. For them, the Grey Town is hell. Not the fascinating sadistic punishments of Dante, just plain boredom, mean-spiritedness, frustration. But, as Milton says, "Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven."

Even if the scriptures say nothing much (that I can find) about purgatory, I think plain common sense dictates there must be such a "place." There must be some purgation (not fire, but like the slow anguish of self-discovery in a psychiatrist's office) for those who die incapable of joy. People who have spent lives insulated from others, self-protective and self-delusive, hearts as hard and pitted as the seeds of peaches. The cranks, the faint-hearted too afraid of being hurt to love, those who buried their thousand talents rather than risk losing them. How disoriented would they be in heaven? Like Laplanders suddenly transported to the Sahara. And common sense also impels me to believe there must be a hell, for those who simply don't want to be with anyone more important than themselves. If heaven were a place of light and music and laughter, you could set them square in the middle of it, and they'd be wretched. "Stop those damn harps!" And the saved would be so loving they would drive the unworthy batty. "Stop hugging me!" Even in heaven, they'd be in hell.

Ah, But What of Heaven?

My mom used to say, "Billy, all I want to do is catch hold of the edge of heaven with my fingernails." After the life she led, if that's all Mom got, if she didn't get first-class accommodations, I'm not too sure I want to go there. An alcoholic old Jesuit who had failed some godawful exam back in the seminary and was thus allowed only a kind of second-class—kind-of final vows said to me once, weeping, "Father, to think after I've tried so hard all my life, I'll have a lower place in heaven than the fully-professed." Again, if rule makers have the keys of the kingdom, I suspect heaven is a rather sparsely populated and sterile state of being.

In Alice Sebold's wonderful novel The Lovely Bones, the narrator tells her story from heaven where, if she chooses to frolic in the rain, it rains; if she wants to cavort in the fields, the sun radiates warmth. But she seems to have an "inordinate" preoccupation with what's still going on back at home and the capture of her murderer. In Thornton Wilder's Our Town, the dead sit placidly in straight-backed chairs in the cemetery, gradually letting go of the world, as the people they love let go of them. Perhaps that's true, that the recently dead hover around trying to interfere, but I hope that's not the way it is.

Whatever it is, I find it hard to accept that heaven is static, that we just sit there with the fussbudgets fine-tuning the triangle of the Beatific Vision. God has so conditioned us to growth, to evolution, to looking for something better, that I have a notion (a hope) heaven will be a place of learning more and more. I'd really like to be able to do all the things I "never had time for" here, like understanding classical music. I'd like to learn patience and shed myself of workaholism in order to just sit and fish. (Perhaps that would be purgatory.) I'd really like to talk to God (or some trustworthy assistant) about a lot of mysteries I've spent a lifetime trying, vainly, to erode, like why God created a world in which innocents can suffer, why the Holy Spirit allowed the Church to be so manifestly imperfect, why my mother took eight years to die. And both my Teacher and I will have no impatient rush to closure in unraveling the Truth.

Ignorantly, I used to think the Eastern understandings of the eternal were soul-suicidal, that the purpose of life, to them, was to eliminate the self so totally that it would be ready to be absorbed into the Oversoul. Then I read a sentence that shocked me. In achieving Nirvana, it said, the droplet is not absorbed in the All; the droplet absorbs the All! That's getting closer to less unsatisfying.

Look to the Light

I believe the nearest approximation we can get to the Ultimate, to heaven, has something to do with light. Science says no reality can be faster than light. But science delights in playing "what if." What if there were a Reality faster than light? It would be so hyper-energized, it would be at rest. Like God. So incredibly fast, it would be everywhere at once. Like God. And if you break open the tiniest kernel of matter, what do scientists say you will find? Non-extended energy, like God. When I had my most intense encounter with God, I could describe it only as "like drowning in light." So many who return from near-death experiences describe it as seeing some trusted figure incandescent with light.

Perhaps the dead are something like neutrinos, particles with no discernible mass or electrical charge that whiz all around us, at every moment. They pass through the whole earth without being slowed down. (This is hard science now.) If neutrinos were intelligent and caring and full of joy, perhaps they may be like the dead, zipping around for the sheer zest of it, like children. And if they now live in a dimension unchecked by time and space, where God dwells, they can be anywhere they choose—closer to us now even than they were in this life!

All this is, of course, supposition—imagination working on the facts that heaven, hell, and purgatory exist. But if Dante and Lewis and Sartre can do it, why can't you and I?

But whatever heaven turns out to be, it sure isn't going to be some majestic panoply planned by liturgists or sitting on clouds twanging harps. Whatever gives the best part of you joy, that's what it'll be. If you love babies, you can take care of all the new ones who arrive. If you love to sing and dance, do it and never drop. But what about me? My great joy is to tempt people to really live. But that'll be all taken care of. Maybe I'll just fish, and dream up questions to ask God, like why do we have an appendix, and has there ever been an unkind librarian, and is there a planet somewhere where unicorns gambol in the sun? Or be a purgatory teacher. I'm equipped.

THE CATHOLIC BREVIARY PRAYER

The Breviary
(Liturgy of the Hours, Divine Office)

 

This is a guide to help individuals start praying the Liturgy of the Hours with minimal confusion. Please don't regard these instructions as authoritative (like if you're under obligation to pray the Liturgy of the Hours or something). I don't have that much experience with the Liturgy of the Hours, but as a computer scientist I'm supposed to be good at writing instructions with mechanical precision! So I've tried to reformulate the official instructions as clearly as possible, with as few distracting options as possible. I hope it's helpful to someone.

What day and hour is it?

The rules for figuring out the liturgical day are complicated—it might be easiest to refer to a precomputed liturgy calendar .
On a saint's day, you may see a rank indicated: solemnities are the most important, then feasts, and then memorials. If no rank is indicated, it's an optional memorial: you may use it or ignore it. (UK edition: if no rank is indicated, it's a feast.) Remember this rank; you will need it later. Memorials during Lent and Dec 17–31 (sometimes called commemorations) are done in a special way, if they are done at all. The simplest rule is: during Lent and Dec 17–31, ignore all memorials.
There are seven hours each day:

• Invitatory: not an hour but always stuck to the front of the first hour (Office of Readings or Morning Prayer)
• Office of Readings: can be any time of day, but traditionally first; can be stuck to the front of the hour following
• Morning Prayer
• Daytime Prayers: these are designed so that if you only pray one of the three, you won't miss much
• Midmorning
• Midday
• Midafternoon
• Evening Prayer
• Night Prayer

If you only have time to pray two, make them Morning and Evening Prayer. Sundays and solemnities have two Evening Prayers: Evening Prayer I on the day before and Evening Prayer II on the day itself. Similarly, there are two Night Prayers. Usually this means that the day before loses its Evening Prayer and Night Prayer:

Day before	Sunday/Solemnity
Invitatory	Invitatory
Office of Readings	Office of Readings
Morning Prayer	Morning Prayer
Daytime Prayers	Daytime Prayers
Evening Prayer I	Evening Prayer II
Night Prayer after Evening Prayer I	Night Prayer after Evening Prayer II

Occasionally the diagram above is not correct, because a day will only give up its Evening Prayer (and Night Prayer) to a more important day. If you really want to figure it out, you will have to consult the hairy Table of Liturgical Days.

What does each hour look like?

Invitatory	Office of Readings	Morning/Evening Prayer	Daytime Prayers	Night Prayer
*Lord, open my lips. And my mouth will proclaim your praise.	+God, come to my assistance. Lord, make haste to help me. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. (Alleluia.)
Psalm 95
[The invitatory is always joined to the first hour.]	Hymn	Hymn	Hymn	Examination of conscience
				Hymn
	Psalm	Psalm	Psalm	Psalm
	Psalm	OT Canticle/Psalm	Psalm	(Psalm)
	Psalm	Psalm/NT Canticle	Psalm
	Verse	Reading	Reading	Reading
	First reading
	Second reading
	(Te Deum)	+Gospel canticle		+Gospel canticle
		Intercessions and Our Father
	Concluding prayer	Concluding prayer	Concluding prayer	Concluding prayer
	Let us praise the Lord. And give him thanks.	May the Lord bless us, protect us from all evil and bring us to everlasting life. Amen.	Let us praise the Lord. And give him thanks.	May the all-powerful Lord grant us a restful night and a peaceful death. Amen.
				Marian antiphon

* Make the sign of the cross on the mouth.
+ Make the large sign of the cross. To join two columns together (the invitatory with the Office of Readings or Morning Prayer, or the Office of Readings with any other hour): remove the red portion from the first column and blue portion from the second, and join. Also, you need only sing one hymn in a sitting; move the hymn from the second hour to the first.

Where do you find each part?

There are five main sections in the breviary:

• The Proper of Seasons goes through the liturgical seasons, plus special days tied to the seasons. Most of the time you will go in order through this section, but there are a few during Ordinary time that you should watch out for: Trinity Sunday, Corpus Christi, Sacred Heart, and Christ the King. In some editions these are in a separate section for Solemnities. The Sundays after Christmas can also be tricky.
• The Ordinary is the master plan.
• The Psalter contains:
  • A four-week cycle for all the hours but Night Prayer. The Proper of Seasons will tell you what week to use (you might have to look back to Sunday of that week). The general rule is that whatever the current week of the current season is, divide that by four and take the remainder: remainder 1 = week 1, etc., but remainder 0 = week IV. Count Ash Wednesday and the three days following as "week 0" of Lent, so use Psalter week IV. Similarly, if Christmas falls on Sunday, then the following Sunday you would use Psalter week II; but otherwise, the weekdays after Christmas are like "week 0" and the following Sunday would use Psalter week I.
    
  • A one-week cycle for Night Prayer. Solemnities are treated like Sunday.
  • Another one-day cycle for Daytime Prayers, called the Complementary Psalmody. There are three series for the three Daytime hours.
• The Proper of Saints has the rest of the special days. Again, most of the time you will go in order through this section, because these are all on fixed dates, except for one: Immaculate Heart of Mary, which is listed between May 31 and June 1.
• The Commons contain material that is shared by various saints' offices.

These sections can be thought of like layers of a cake:

		Proper of Saints
	Proper of Seasons
Psalter
Ordinary

The Ordinary provides the foundation, but with some empty slots. The Psalter fills all the slots in, but may be overridden by the layer above it (which may be overridden by the next layer above). So find the most specific page for the day (in one of the Propers, or else the Psalter). Then, for each part listed in the Ordinary, look for it starting with the page for the day. But what if you don't see a particular part?

• Sometimes you will be told where to go (or be given a couple of choices). For example, the Proper of Saints usually refers you to one of the Commons.
• Sometimes the breviary doesn't tell you where to go (or it will say something vague like "from the weekday"). In that case, drop to the next layer down in the cake.
• However, sometimes you will be referred to the Common but in fact you shouldn't use all of it. The reason for this (as far as I can tell) is that a memorial or a feast might get upgraded to a higher rank (for example, for the patron of your diocese), and the breviary has to provide texts just in case, though normally you don't use them. Thus:
  • On memorials, you will be told to use the Common. But there are parts of the Common you shouldn't use, and the rest is optional. So the simplest rule is: on memorials, don't use the Common at all. This applies very frequently.
  • A rarer case is Daytime Prayers on feasts. Sometimes you will see unhelpful instructions like, "from the weekday and the common of X." In this case the rule is (I think): on feasts, don't use the Daytime Prayer antiphons from the Common. Look instead in the next layer down in the cake.
• There are three Daytime hours but only one set of psalms (or none) is given. If you pray more than one of the Daytime hours, then use the given set of psalms (if any) for one of them, and use the Complementary Psalmody (in the Psalter) for the rest.

How do you say each part?

Psalms and canticles

These occur in many places, and always have the same form:

• The antiphon,
• The psalm (skip the first line if it's identical to the antiphon),
• Glory Be,
• The antiphon again.

Often a psalm has a title and a quote in front of it. Look at them, but don't read them out loud. The psalm-prayers are supplemental; you don't need to say them, and I don't know where to insert them.
Often during Daytime Prayer there is only one antiphon given for all three psalms. Then it would seem the most consistent thing to do is:

• The antiphon,
• First psalm,
• Glory Be,
• The antiphon,
• Second psalm,
• Glory Be,
• The antiphon,
• Third psalm,
• Glory Be,
• The antiphon.

Readings and responsories

The responsories have a few different forms. The most common one (at Morning/Evening/Night Prayer) looks like this:

A, B
—A, B
C
—B
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
—A, B

(UK edition: there is a single response, not split into A and B). In individual recitation, you don't have to repeat so much. For example, you could leave out the responses A, B after the first time.

Intercessions

The intercessions always have the following form:

V: R
A1—B1; R
A2—B2; R
etc.

(UK edition: the versicles are not split into A and B.) You don't have to repeat the R each time.

Concluding prayer

Sometimes the ending of the prayer is not written out, but says something like, "We ask this...." At Morning/Evening Prayer and the Office of Readings, the rest is:

...through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

At Daytime/Night Prayer, the rest is just:

...through Christ our Lord.

Marian antiphon

There are several options for this closing hymn, but the traditional scheme is as follows:

Season	Latin name	English name
Advent to Presentation	Alma Redemptoris Mater	Loving mother of the Redeemer
After Presentation to Holy Saturday	Ave Regina Caelorum	Hail, O Queen of heaven
Easter to Pentecost	Regina Caeli	Queen of heaven, rejoice
After Pentecost to before Advent	Salve Regina	Hail, holy Queen

Some editions don't have Ave Regina Caelorum. Here it is:

Hail, O Queen of Heav'n enthroned,
Hail, by angels Mistress owned,
Root of Jesse, Gate of morn,
Whence the world's true light was born.
Glorious Virgin, joy to thee,
Loveliest whom in Heaven they see,
Fairest thou where all are fair!
Plead with Christ our sins to spare.

SIGNS OF GOD'S LOVE

The Seven Catholic Sacraments

    

The Latin word sacramentum means "a sign of the sacred." The seven sacraments are ceremonies that point to what is sacred, significant and important for Christians. They are special occasions for experiencing God's saving presence. That's what theologians mean when they say that sacraments are at the same time signs and instruments of God's grace.

The Catholic Church further groups them in this way:

-The Sacraments of Initiation (Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist)
-Sacraments of Healing (Penance/Reconciliation and Anointing of the Sick)
-Sacraments at the Service of Communion (Holy Matrimony and Holy Orders)

THE SEVEN SACRAMENTS

"For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all" First Letter of Paul to Timothy 2:5


A sacrament is an outward efficacious sign instituted by Christ to give grace. Jesus Christ himself is the sacrament, as he gave his life to save mankind. His humanity is the outward sign or the instrument of his Divinity. It is through his humanity that the life of the Trinity comes to us as grace through the sacraments. It is Jesus Christ alone who mediates the sacraments to allow grace to flow to mankind.

Christ sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to inspire his Apostles and his Church to shepherd his flock after his Ascension into heaven. "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you" (John 17:18, 20:21). Jesus is the Head of his Body the Church (Colossians 1:18). The Church itself is a sacrament instituted by Christ to give grace. Jesus gave us his Body the Church to continue the works he performed during his earthly life. Grace given to us through the sacraments will help us lead a good life in this world and help save us for the Kingdom of Heaven.

The sacraments were instituted by Christ and were part of the Liturgical Tradition of the early Christian Church. The Church celebrates in her liturgy the Paschal mystery of Christ, his Sacrifice on the Cross, Death and Resurrection. The Greek word μυστήριον or mystery in the Greek New Testament is translated into sacramentum in the Latin Vulgate Bible, from which we derive our English word sacrament (examples: Ephesians 1:9, Ephesians 3:9, Colossians 1:27). The saving effects of Christ's Redemption on the Cross are communicated through the sacraments, especially in the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist. The sacraments to this day are called mysteries in the Eastern Churches.

Roman Catholic, Eastern Catholic, as well as Eastern Orthodox Churches all recognize the seven sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Penance, the Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony. The three sacraments of Christian Initiation are Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist. The two sacraments of Healing are Penance and the Anointing of the Sick, and the two sacraments of Vocation are Holy Orders and Marriage. Three sacraments, Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders, are given once, as they render a permanent seal or character upon one's soul (2 Corinthians 1:21-22, Ephesians 4:30, Revelations 7:3).

The Gospel of Mark 5:25-34 describes a woman afflicted with hemorrhage who touched the cloak of Jesus and was immediately healed. There is a fourth century fresco painting in the catacomb of Sts. Marcellinus and Peter depicting this event, which serves as an apt symbol of Sacrament - the power that flows out from the body of Jesus, in order to effect both remission of sin and new life in Christ. The fresco image frames Part II of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on the Liturgy and the Sacraments, The Celebration of the Christian Mystery. St. Thomas Aquinas, in the Summa Theologica, has written the standard exposition on the Seven Sacraments.

Each sacrament consists of a visible external rite, which is composed of matter and form, the matter being the action, such as the pouring of water, and the form being the words spoken by the minister. Each sacramental rite confers a special ecclesial effect and sacramental grace appropriate for each sacrament. The sacraments occur at pivotal events and give meaning to a person's life.

The sacraments act ex opere operato, by the very fact of the action being performed, independent of the minister. The effect on the person receiving the sacrament is called ex opere operantis, and depends on the interior disposition of the receiver.

Grace is a favor, the free and undeserved gift from God through Christ Jesus, to help us respond to his call to become children of God, to become partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life. Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is a participation in the life of God and is necessary for salvation.

This page will include a brief introduction and some Scriptural sources for each Sacrament, followed by general references.

"And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father's only Son,
full of grace and truth. Gospel of John 1:14

They are justified freely by his grace
through the redemption in Christ Jesus,
whom God set forth as an expiation, through faith, by his blood,
to prove his righteousness because of the forgiveness of sins previously committed,
through the forbearance of God -
to prove his righteousness in the present time,
that he might be righteous and justify the one who has faith in Jesus. Letter of St. Paul to the Romans 3:24-26

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens,
as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world,
to be holy and without blemish before him.
In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ,
in accord with the favor of his will,
for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved.
In him we have redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of transgressions,
in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us.
In all wisdom and insight, he has made known to us the mystery
of his will in accord with his favor that he set forth in him
as a plan for the fullness of times, to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth. Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians 1:3-10

BAPTISM
Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, as we are born of the water and the Spirit. Baptism is necessary for salvation (John 3:5), and conveys a permanent sign that the new Christian is a child of God. Jesus himself was baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist (Mark 1:9-11). The martyr St. Ignatius of Antioch, in his Letter to the Ephesians written about 100 AD, stated that Jesus "Christ was baptized, that by himself submitting he might purify the water." Baptism is prefigured in the Old Testament through the saving of Noah and his family during the Flood (Genesis 7:12-23, 1 Peter 3:20-21), and Moses crossing of the Red Sea during the Exodus, leaving captivity for the Promised Land (Exodus 14:1-22).

The Greek word baptizein means to "immerse, plunge, or dip." The infant or candidate is anointed with the oil of catechumens, followed by the parents, godparents, or candidate making the profession of faith. The essential rite of Baptism consists of the minister immersing the baby or person in water or pouring water on his head, while pronouncing "I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." The infant or candidate is then anointed with sacred chrism.

What has taken place in Baptism is indicated by the rites that follow it, the clothing in the white garment and giving of the lighted candle: the baptized person has "put on Christ" and has now become light. Here are three Scriptural sources in the New Testament (See also Matthew 3:13-17, Luke 3:21-22; Acts 1:21-22; Romans 6:3-4; Ephesians 4:5; Colossians 2:11-13, I Peter 3:21):

"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." Gospel of Matthew 28:19-20

"In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee
and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opened
and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove;
and a voice came from heaven,
"Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased." Gospel of Mark 1:9-11

Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit,
he cannot enter the kingdom of God." Gospel of John 3:5

CONFIRMATION
Confirmation (or Chrismation) is the sacrament of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit whom Christ Jesus sent (John 7:37-39, 16:7). Jesus instructed his Apostles that they "will receive the power of the Holy Spirit" and called upon the Apostles to be his "witnesses to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). At the Pentecost, the Apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4), and began to spread the Word of God. The Acts of the Apostles is often called the Gospel of the Holy Spirit. St. Cyril of Jerusalem wrote of the Mysteries of Baptism, Eucharist, and Chrism in the mid-fourth century AD.

The rite of Confirmation is anointing the forehead with chrism, together with the laying on of the minister's hands and the words, "Be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit." The recipient receives the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2-3). On occasion one may receive one or more of the charismatic gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:7-11).

The ecclesial effect and sacramental grace of the sacrament give the recipient the strength and character to witness for Jesus Christ. The East continues the tradition of the early Christian Church by administering the sacrament with Baptism. Confirmation in the West is administered by the Bishop to children from age 7 to 18, but generally to adolescents, for example, to a graduating class of grade school children. Key Scriptural sources for Confirmation are the following (See also Acts 1:4-5, 2:1-4, 2:38, 10:44-48):

"Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away,
for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you;
but if I go, I will send him to you. Gospel of John 16:7

"Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John,
who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit;
for it had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit." Acts of the Apostles 8:14-17

"While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples.
And he said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?"
And they said, "No, we have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit."
And he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" They said, "Into John's baptism."
And Paul said, "John baptized with the baptism of repentance,
telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus."
On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spoke with tongues and prophesied." Acts of the Apostles 19:1-6

THE EUCHARIST
Eucharistia means thanksgiving, and the Eucharist is the "source and summit of the Christian life." St. Justin Martyr described the Eucharistic Liturgy in 155 AD in his First Apology. The Paschal mystery of Christ is celebrated in the liturgy of the Mass. The Mass is the Eucharist or principal sacramental celebration of the Church, established by Jesus at the Last Supper, in which the mystery of our salvation through participation in the sacrificial death and glorious resurrection of Christ is renewed and accomplished. The word "Mass" comes from the Latin missa, as it refers to the mission or sending forth of the faithful following the celebration, so that they may fulfill God's will in their daily lives.

The essential signs of the sacrament are wheat bread and grape wine, on which the blessing of the Holy Spirit is invoked during the Sacrifice of the Mass, and the priest pronounces the words of consecration spoken by Jesus at the Last Supper: "This is my body...This is the cup of my blood..." (Matthew 26:26-28, Mark 14:22-24, 1 Corinthians 11:23-26).

Jesus died once on the cross in sacrifice for our sins (Hebrews 9:25-28). But Jesus is present for all time, as he is the eternal Son of God. What he did once in history also then exists for all eternity. What happened in time goes beyond time. In the heart of Jesus he is always giving himself to the Father for us, as he did on the Cross. When we celebrate the Mass, the sacrifice of the cross, that happened once in history but is present for all eternity, that same reality is made present in mystery.¹

The bread and wine through Transubstantiation become the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, and we receive the Real Presence of Jesus when we receive Holy Communion. Our soul is nourished, helping us to become like Christ. The Eucharist is the heart and source of community within the Church. Receiving Holy Communion with others during the Mass brings unity of the Church, the Body of Christ (I Corinthians 10:16-17).

Then he took the bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them, saying,
"This is my body, which will be given for you;
do this in memory of me."
And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying,
"This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you." Gospel of Luke 22:19-20

"I am the living bread which came down from heaven;
if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever;
and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh." Gospel of John 6:51

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you,
that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread;
and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said,
"This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me."
In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying,
"This cup is the new covenant in My blood;
do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup,
you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians 11:23-26

CONFESSION
Jesus Christ gave his Apostles the power to forgive sins. The Sacrament is also known as the Sacrament of Conversion, Forgiveness, Penance, or Reconciliation.

During the persecution of the Roman Emperor Decius (249-251), many Christians left the Church rather than suffer martyrdom. The martyr St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, allowed apostates the Sacrament of Confession, as recorded in his Letter De Lapsis (The Lapsed) in 251.

The sacrament involves three steps: the penitent's contrition or sorrow for his sins, the actual confession to a priest and absolution, and then penance or restitution for your sins. The experience leads one to an interior conversion of the heart. Jesus describes the process of conversion and penance in the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-24).

The penitent confesses his sins to the priest in the confessional, and the priest then gives absolution to the repentant soul, making the Sign of the Cross, and saying the words " I absolve you from your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." It is Christ Jesus through the priest who forgives your sins. As the penitent must make restitution or satisfaction for his sins, the priest gives a penance to the forgiven one, usually prayer, fasting, or almsgiving (1 Peter 4:8).

Confession gives one a wonderful sense of freedom and peace from the burden of sin. Sorrow, affliction, and a desire for conversion follow the remorse of sin in those with a contrite heart. Some believe we can confess our sins privately to God. But man is a social being. The humbling experience of unburdening your soul to someone, of exposing your weak nature, and then being accepted for who you are and what you have done by having your sins forgiven brings one an incredible sense of relief! The experience brings a sense of gratitude to our generous Lord for his love, compassion and mercy.

As one is to be in the state of grace before receiving Holy Communion, the child makes his first Confession before his first Communion, generally at the age of reason. Here are three Scriptural references on Penance (See also Matthew 16:18-19, Luke 24:46-47, Acts 2:38):

"When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic,
Child, your sins are forgiven..."
"But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth," -
he said to the paralytic, "I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home." Gospel of Mark 2:1-10

"Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father who sent me, even so I send you.
And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them,
"Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven.
If you retain the sins of any, they are retained." Gospel of John 20:21-23

"And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation." The Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians 5:18

THE ANOINTING OF THE SICK
The Anointing of the Sick is the Sacrament given to seriously ill Christians, and the special graces received unite the sick person to the passion of Christ. The Sacrament consists of the anointing of the forehand and hands of the person with blessed oil, with the minister saying, "Through this holy anointing may the Lord in his love and mercy help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit. May the Lord who frees you from sin save you and raise you up."

Origen of Egypt in his Homilies on Leviticus described Anointing for healing the sick and forgiveness of sins in the third century. St. Thomas Aquinas stated that Extreme Unction, as the Anointing of the Sick was once called, is "a spiritual remedy, since it avails for the remission of sins, and therefore is a sacrament" (James 5:15). The ecclesial effect of this sacrament is incorporation into the healing Body of Christ, with a spiritual healing of the soul, and at times healing of the body. The sacramental grace helps us to accept sickness as a purifying cross sent by God, and the grace even to accept death if that is God's will.

Jesus healed the blind and the sick, as well as commissioned his Apostles to do so, such as the following sources.

"So they (the Twelve Apostles) went off and preached repentance.
They drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them." Gospel of Mark 6:12-13

"Is any among you sick? Let him call for the presbyters of the Church, and let them pray over him,
anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord;
and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up;
and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven." James 5:14-15

HOLY ORDERS
The Sacrament of Holy Orders began with the Last Supper, when Christ Jesus commissioned his Apostles to continue the Eucharistic celebration. He also commissioned his Apostles following the Resurrection to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth (Matthew 28:19-20, Acts 1:8). Thomas Aquinas makes the point that only Christ is the true priest, the others serving as his ministers (Hebrews 8:4). St. Ignatius, Bishop of Syria around 100 AD, in his Letter to the Magnesians (6), established the hierarchy of bishop, priest, and deacon for the early Churches, the pattern which still exists today. Bishops are the successors of the Apostles, and priests and deacons are his assistants in rendering service. Men are ordained to the priesthood in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, as the sacrament confers upon the priest the character to act in the person of Christ - in persona Christi.

Holy Orders is the sacrament of Apostolic ministry. As in the Pastoral Epistles, the rite consists of the Bishop's laying on of hands on the head of the priest-candidate with the consecrating prayer asking God for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit for the gifts of the ministry. There are three dimensions to ministry, that of Bishop, Priesthood, and the Diaconate. See Matthew 16:18-19, John 21:15-17, Romans 10:14-15, 2 Timothy 1:6, and Titus 1:5 as well as the following:

"Do this in memory of me." Gospel of Luke 22:19 and 1 Corinthians 11:25

"Now be solicitous for yourselves and for the whole flock in which
the Holy Spirit has appointed you as bishops to pasture the Church of God,
which He purchased with his own blood." Acts of the Apostles 20:28

Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you,
which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance
with the laying on of hands by the presbytery. First Letter of Paul to Timothy 4:14

"Come to him, to that living stone, rejected by men but in God's sight chosen and precious;
and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood,
to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 2:4-5

MARRIAGE
The union of a man and a woman is natural. The natural language of the human body is such that the man gives to the woman and the woman receives the man. The love and friendship between a man and a woman grow into a desire for marriage . The sacrament of marriage gives the couple the grace to grow into a union of heart and soul, to continue  life , and to provide stability for themselves and their children. Children are the fruit and bond of a marriage.

The bond of marriage between a man and a woman lasts all the days of their lives, and the form of the rite consists of the mutual exchange of vows by a couple, both of whom have been baptized. The minister serves as a witness to the couple in the West, but serves as the actual minister of the rite in the East. The matter follows later through consummation of the marriage act.

Sacred Scripture begins with the creation of man and woman in the image and likeness of God, and concludes with a vision of the "wedding-feast of the Lamb" (Revelation 19:7, 9). The bond of marriage is compared to God's undying love for Israel in the Old Testament, and Christ's love for his Church in the New Testament of the Bible.

Jesus stresses the significance of the marriage bond in his Ministry (Matthew 19:6, 8). The importance of marriage is substantiated by the presence of Christ at the wedding feast of Cana, where he began his public ministry at the request of his mother Mary by performing his first miracle (John 2). It is the Apostle Paul who calls matrimony a great sacrament or mystery, and who identifies the marriage of man and woman with the unity of Christ and his Church. The theologian Tertullian, the first Latin Father of the Church at the beginning of the third century AD, wrote on the Sacrament of Matrimony.

"For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh." Genesis 2:24

"(Jesus) said in reply:
"Have you not read that He who made man from the beginning made them male and female?" Matthew 19:4

"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church." St. Paul to the Ephesians 5:25

"This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.
In any case, each one of you should love his wife as himself,
and the wife should respect her husband." St. Paul to the Ephesians 5:32-33

7 Seven Sacraments in brief:

Baptism

For Catholics, the Sacrament of Baptism is the first step in a lifelong journey of commitment and discipleship. Whether we are baptized as infants or adults, Baptism is the Church's way of celebrating and enacting the embrace of God.

Eucharist

Catholics believe the Eucharist, or Communion, is both a sacrifice and a meal. We believe in the real presence of Jesus, who died for our sins. As we receive Christ's Body and Blood, we also are nourished spiritually and brought closer to God.

 

Reconciliation

The Catholic Sacrament of Reconciliation (also known as Penance, or Penance and Reconciliation) has three elements: conversion, confession and celebration. In it we find God's unconditional forgiveness; as a result we are called to forgive others.

Confirmation

Confirmation is a Catholic Sacrament of mature Christian commitment and a deepening of baptismal gifts. It is one of the three Sacraments of Initiation for Catholics. It is most often associated with the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Marriage

For Catholics, the Sacrament of Marriage, or Holy Matrimony, is a public sign that one gives oneself totally to this other person. It is also a public statement about God: the loving union of husband and wife speaks of family values and also God's values.

Holy Orders

In the Sacrament of Holy Orders, or Ordination, the priest being ordained vows to lead other Catholics by bringing them the sacraments (especially the Eucharist), by proclaiming the Gospel, and by providing other means to holiness.

Anointing of the Sick

The Catholic Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick, formerly known as Last Rites or Extreme Unction, is a ritual of healing appropriate not only for physical but also for mental and spiritual sickness.