THE MEANING OF SACRAMENT IN GENERAL
The word sacrament comes from Latin word Sacramentum the Greek word mysterion is equivalent to Sacramentum and it is used by Paul in Ephesians when he is speaking about marriage. “This is a great foreshadowing Mysterion; I mean that it refers to Christ and the church.” In later usage, the term Sacramentum emphasizes the visible sign of the hidden reality of salvation which was indicated by the term Mysterium. In this case, Christ himself is the mystery of salvation For there is no other mystery of God, except Christ Jesus. “The synonymous of the word Sacramentum in the Bible is Mysterion, Orthodox Church uses the word mystery to mean sacrament.”
The saving work of Jesus and sanctifying humanity is the
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“A sacrament properly speaking is that which is ordained to signify our sanctification. In which three things may be considered, the very cause of our sanctification, which is Christ’s passion. The form of our sanctification, which are grace and the virtues, and the ultimate end of our sanctification, which is eternal life. And all these are signified by the sacraments. Consequently, a sacrament is a sign that is both a reminder of the past that is the passion of Christ and an indication of that which is effected in us by Christ’s passion. That is grace and a prognostic that is a foretelling of future.” St Augustine has a different way of explaining the sacraments, “for him the sacraments are visible words and relationship with Christ and the Church when He identifies them as visible words to be received in faith. Sacraments are visible signs of invisible reality. Sacraments both reveal and veil their inner …show more content…
Sacraments are identified with the church, power of sacraments, something remains and Christ is the minister.” The signs and symbols are used to explain the sacraments because the words are not clear to the minds of a human being. But this is the way Jesus uses to communicates His divine love to the human being. The sacrament as a mystery is communicated to us for the salvation of the souls. The Code of Canon Law states “The sacraments of the New Testament were instituted by Christ, the Lord and entrusted to the Church. As actions of Christ and of the Church, they are signs and means which express and strengthened faith, render worship to God and effect the sanctification of humanity and thus contribute in the greatest way to establish. Thus they contribute in the most effective manner to establish, strengthen and manifest ecclesiastical
Confirmation complements the symbols of Baptism. The historical origins of the symbols of Confirmation are many and diverse. One source of the rituals for the Sacrament of Confirmation can be found in the bathing customs of the Roman Empire. The water ritual (Baptism) came to mean the washing away of sin, and the oil ritual (Confirmation) was interpreted to mean the sweet fragrance of God's presence: sanctifying grace. In the same way God's grace fills us with redemption and salvation.
In the book of confessions Saint Augustine had two visions in the story. The first vision was before he understood the concept of God he had a vision of God that changed how he viewed God. “ But you, Lord, abide and for ever and will not for ever be angry with us, for you have taken pity on us who are earth and ashes; and so it was pleasing in your sight to give new form and new for to my deformity.” (Conf.VII.VIII.12). The second vision was Augustine and Monica together in a garden who had a vision together in Ostia while they were discussing how the eternal life of the saints would be like. “And this my God has granted me more lavishly than I could have hoped , letting me see you even spurning earthly happiness to be his servant.” (Conf.IX.X.26). These two visions had many similarities and differences.
In Augustine’s Confessions, he confesses many things of which we are all guilty; the greatest of which is his sadness of not having a relationship with God earlier in his life. He expressed to us that to neglect a relationship with God is far worse than the pity he felt for Dido. In reviewing his life, he had come to examine life and how there are temptations in this world that can keep us distracted. He tells to us how he became aware of this fact; everything is negligible except love for God, and his own guilt at not having found this truth sooner.
Young Augustine weeps for the woman who dies for her love, as an older Augustine weeps over his complete ignorance and incontinence. Young Augustine is ignorant of the presence of God in his life, and is compelled not to weep for his own spiritual distance from God, but instead for a tragedy that, in the mind of the older Augustine, is incomparable to the tragedy of being without God. The older Augustine is compelled by his advanced knowledge of the Lord’s proximity to lament his previous lack of control over his habits, proclaiming “I had no love for you and ‘committed fornication against you’ (Ps. 72:27); and in my fornications, I heard all round me the cries ‘Well done, well done’ (Ps. 34:21; 39:16) … I abandoned you to pursue the lowest things of your creation.” (Conf. 16). This reveals that Young Augustine lives an entirely habitual life, never thinking of God or his importance, instead concerned with material and worldly concerns such as reputation and honor. This state of pure habit does not leave space for Young Augustine to have continence, and leaves him to act out his life according to passion and emotions.
For years, when we have our Communion service, we announce that we are going to prepare for Communion or the Lord’s Supper and the word sacrament is not used so, somehow I got it in my mind that sacrament was bread and wine.
Catholics go through a cycle of events in their spiritual lives known as the seven sacraments. Although all Catholics can not partake in each sacrament, the majority receive the Holy Eucharist and are baptized as children. The sacraments are the rites of passage in the Catholic faith. Some of the sacraments require proper preparation and knowledge of the one’s faith. The seven sacraments include Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation, Reconciliation, Marriage, Anointing of the Sick, and the Holy Orders. Faith ties the people of God together. We are united through our belief in faith. I see the sacraments as the acceptance of faith in God and of our faith. With all the diversity that exists among God’s people,
However, Augustine has another agenda- his confessions are also meant to show his praise and love for God. He says this in the fifth book with: "Accept the sacrifice of my confessions by the agency of my tongue, which Thou has formed and quickened, that it may confess to Thy name... But let my soul praise Thee, that it may love Thee; and let it confess Thine own mercies to Thee, that it may praise Thee." This is a clear declaration of his praise to God, and almost another underlying message of the text to the audience. So as he is writing about his life, he is trying also to set an example to the audience about how his choices were not always the best and use this as a guide to their own lives. And finally through his story, use his conversion and change as a way to praise God to show that even someone who "strayed off" the path was able to redeem themselves and how merciful and good God is to accept someone even as sinful as he was.
John Wesley wrote in his Sermon 16 that the means of grace are understood as “outward signs, words, or actions ordained by God… to be the ordinary channels whereby (God) might convey to men preventing, justifying, or sanctifying grace.” Means are what happen outside of oneself and the grace is what does the work inside of ourselves or another way to say this is to say the ways we receive and experience grace. When we speak of the sacraments we refer to them as outward signs of an inward and spiritual grace. The means of grace in the sacraments, means are the bread and cup of communion and the water of the baptism and the liturgy spoken. These act in an outward and physical way, but the real work is that of the invisible grace we receive.
In this paper I will write about Augustine and his thoughts and ideas on sin in the Confessions, where sin originates and whether or not I believe that Augustine’s conception of sin has a place in modern society. From all of this I will conclude that through Augustine's work and findings, Augustine’s conception of the human person and their human actions are somewhat relevant today, due to the fact Augustine set a standard for what human nature is, known as the ability to desire, think and do, yet, people see the human differently today than Augustine did. At the same time his ideas of original sin and how the evil nature of humans is associated with original sin are still very relevant today.
Next, McMinn (2007) acknowledges the Christian Theology perspective on confession. According to the author (2007), there are two kinds of relations to confession and Christian Theology, which are confession and the sacrament of penance and confession and Scripture. McMinn (2007) points out that the Christian church has constantly been engrossed in confession, but the way of confession has altered during the past two millennia (p 221). According to the author (2007), numerous Spiritual leaders, such as Saint Augustine and Saint Patrick writing of their confessions of faith and sin have severed as a partial foundation for scholasticism, which is a crusade that attempted to examine faith academically (211-212). As scholasticism grew thought out time it birth the doctrine and sacrament
At the time of Augustine, there was four major movements that threatened the apostolic faith and the Church livelihood as a whole. Firstly, he wrestled with the Donatists, which insisted that the sacraments, in order to be valid, must be given by a personal holy minister. Augustine refused this view, stating that the minister of the sacraments was Christ himself, therefore ensuring their validity. Against Donatism, Augustine directed two works, On Baptism and On the Correction of the Donatists, in which he formulated the idea that the church's authority is the guarantee of the Christian faith, as the Christian faith's own guarantee is the apostolic succession.
Christianity and Hinduism each have their own form of practices and rituals. Christians have rituals that are called sacraments. There are seven sacraments throughout life that a Christian can devote themselves to. Baptism is the ritual cleansing with water, which is an ancient form of purification, which traditionally happens shortly after birth. Eucharist is the next sacrament which represents Lord’s Supper. The Eucharist represents the body and blood of Jesus. Confirmation is the blessing of believers after baptism in the
The book expresses three main concerns. One is Augustine’s frank and detailed acknowledgment of his personal sinfulness and the power he came to recognize as God’s provident grace—protective, creative, salvific—in every moment of his life. He also wrote in order to confess his own Christian faith and clearly repudiate any supposed lingering connections on his part with Manichaeism. Finally, The Confessions are a heartfelt paean of praise and thanksgiving in honor of God’s glory.
The Lord gave us the sacrament of communion on Holy Thursday at the Last Supper. After first washing the feet of the disciples, he then did the breaking of the bread. Jesus said “Take, eat, this is my body” after Jesus said this he did the same for the wine saying “Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins”. This shows us how Jesus himself is the bread and wine us Catholics receive at Holy Communion. The sacrament of Communion is the only one of the seven sacraments that we are actually receiving Jesus directly, along with having a grace bestowed upon us.
The Communion Christians have always regarded the Holy Communion as being one very important element towards achieving discipleship since the very beginning. However, the question in every Christian’s mind is “what are we doing?” it is, therefore, important to discuss what the holy communion means about theology. The Holy Communion has several names given to it. Among them are: the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, Divine Liturgy, and the Mass. Inside the New Testament, there are also varying details given there concerning what entails the Holy Communion on accounts given by Christ himself.[1] The Holy Communion does not compare to Baptism which is another sacrament that is non-repeatable. It is repeatable to some certain degrees as it can be done on a daily basis such as those performed by the Catholic Church. In other instances, it can be conducted on a much infrequent celebration such as the ones that happen in Reformed Churches. Referring to Baptism, there are differences in the practice and its significance, and sometimes the understanding of what it means to be baptized. This has gone ahead to become e a hindrance to churches having a common celebration, but at the same time, there is some spiritual benefit that accrues to the people that partake in it. In the same way, the Eucharist possess the same characteristics. Nature of the Union of Christ and Church The Holy Communion is not just a matter of people ingathering in unity. The purpose of having the communion is so