St.Maria | Sacraments

Serving Lynnfield and Wakefield, MA

112 Chestnut Street
Lynnfield, MA 01940
781-334-2367

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"My sheep hear my voice;
I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. "
Jn 10:27-28

Sacraments
Jesus keeps his promise to stay with us until the end of time through sacraments. Sacraments are more than ceremonies. The ceremony and ritual create settings for the sacrament. Each sacrament is an encounter with the Risen Christ acting through His Church. He engages part of our sensory reality to reveal His deeper world of Grace.
Christ gave His Church seven sacraments. In each of these sacraments, Christ comes into our reality to do something; particularly He comes to initiate, to heal and to serve.
There are three sacraments of initiation. In Baptism, Christ gives new life through water. In Confirmation, Christ strengthens the Spirit through anointing with the oil of Chrism and the laying on of hands. In Eucharist, Christ initiates an ever deepening relationship by feeding us Himself through the bread and wine changed into His Body and Blood.

Christ gave His Church two sacraments of healing. In Penance or Confession, Christ heals the wounds of sin through His acceptance of sorrow for sin and the spoken words of absolution. In Anointing of the Sick, Christ gathers his Church to pray for the sick and He strengthens the sick and the dying through the anointing with oil.

Christ continues to serve His Church through the sacraments of Holy Orders and Marriage.

In Holy Orders, Christ consecrates men for service of God's Holy People through the laying on of hands and anointing hands with oil. In Marriage, Christ acts through the enduring and irrevocable consent of a woman and a man to create a community of life and love. In doing so, each spouse reveals a part of Christ to the other; to their children and to His Church. Moreover each married couple conveys a genuine dimension of Christ’s own love for His Church.

Sacraments are not rewards. They are remedies. They fill our need for Christ in the places and spaces where we need him most.