Sacraments

The sacraments celebrated by the Church serve as vital conduits of grace, deepening our connection to divine realities. Through these sacred rites, we encounter Christ’s transformative presence within our church community, prompting us to extend his love through active, mission-driven service in the world.

To understand how to participate in and receive the sacraments within our parish, please click on the appropriate language link: SACRAMENTS (ENGLISH) or SACRAMENTOS (ESPAÑOL). These links provide specific guidance and instructions tailored to our parish community of St. Maximilian Kolbe.

The sacraments celebrated by the Church are signs of grace that make a deeper reality present to us. One reality we encounter through the sacraments is Christ’s presence in the Church community, his Body. This recognition of Christ’s presence in the community should lead to a stronger awareness of being sent on mission to engage in love-inspired action in the world.

We recognize that the Sacraments have a visible and invisible reality, a reality open to all the human senses but grasped in its God-given depths with the eyes of faith. When parents hug their children, for example, the visible reality we see is the hug. The invisible reality the hug conveys is love. We cannot "see" the love the hug expresses, though sometimes we can see its nurturing effect in the child.

​The visible reality we see in the Sacraments is their outward expression, the form they take, and the way in which they are administered and received. The invisible reality we cannot "see" is God's grace, his gracious initiative in redeeming us through the death and Resurrection of his Son. His initiative is called grace because it is the free and loving gift by which he offers people a share in his life, and shows us his favor and will for our salvation. Our response to the grace of God's initiative is itself a grace or gift from God by which we can imitate Christ in our daily lives.

The saving words and deeds of Jesus Christ are the foundation of what he would communicate in the Sacraments through the ministers of the Church. Through the Sacraments, God shares his holiness with us so that we, in turn, can make the world holier. Guided by the Holy Spirit, the Church recognizes the existence of Seven Sacraments instituted by the Lord.

Sacraments of Initiation
1212 The sacraments of Christian initiation—Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist—lay the foundations of every Christian life. “The sharing in the divine nature given to men through the grace of Christ bears a certain likeness to the origin, development, and nourishing of natural life. The faithful are born anew by Baptism, strengthened by the sacrament of Confirmation, and receive in the Eucharist the food of eternal life. By means of these sacraments of Christian initiation, they thus receive in increasing measure the treasures of the divine life and advance toward the perfection of charity.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church)

• Baptism: Incorporated into Christ’s Body, Sent on Christ’s Mission
• Confirmation: Strengthened by the Spirit, Called to Action
• Holy Communion (Eucharist): Body of Christ, Broken for the World

Sacraments of Healing
1420 Through the sacraments of Christian initiation, man receives the new life of Christ. Now we carry this life “in earthen vessels,” and it remains “hidden with Christ in God.” We are still in our “earthly tent,” subject to suffering, illness, and death. This new life as a child of God can be weakened and even lost by sin.

1421 The Lord Jesus Christ, physician of our souls and bodies, who forgave the sins of the paralytic and restored him to bodily health, has willed that his Church continue, in the power of the Holy Spirit, his work of healing and salvation, even among her own members. This is the purpose of the two sacraments of healing: the sacrament of Penance and the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick. (Catechism of the Catholic Church)

• Reconciliation (Confession): Reconciled to Right Relationship, Called to Heal and Restore
• Anointing of the Sick: Joined to Christ, Witnesses of Hope and Healing

Sacraments at the Service of Communion
1533 Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist are sacraments of Christian initiation. They ground the common vocation of all Christ’s disciples, a vocation to holiness and to the mission of evangelizing the world. They confer the graces needed for the life according to the Spirit during this life as pilgrims on the march towards the homeland. (1212)

1534 Two other sacraments, Holy Orders and Matrimony, are directed towards the salvation of others; if they contribute as well to personal salvation, it is through service to others that they do so. They confer a particular mission in the Church and serve to build up the People of God.

1535 Through these sacraments those already consecrated by Baptism and Confirmation1 for the common priesthood of all the faithful can receive particular consecrations. Those who receive the sacrament of Holy Orders are consecrated in Christ’s name “to feed the Church by the word and grace of God.” On their part, “Christian spouses are fortified and, as it were, consecrated for the duties and dignity of their state by a special sacrament.” (784) (Catechism of the Catholic Church)

• Matrimony: United in Love, Strengthened for Service
• Holy Orders: Ordained to Serve, Gather, Transform, and Send

Source: usccb.org