Sacraments Alive

An extremely helpful and clearly written book for understanding and celebrating the sacraments. Explains the shift in focus as history and culture impact our value systems.

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the editor of the monumental Catechism of the Catholic Church, a worldwide best seller, provides a brief and profound commentary on the second part of the Catechism, the sacraments. Schönborn gives an incisive, detailed analysis of the sacraments, providing a specific meditation for each week of the year on how to better live the Catholic faith with the aid of the sacraments and the Mass, and explained in the Catechism. Through these 52 meditations, Schönborn's hope is for the reader to not just have a better grasp of the Catholic doctrine and belief, but especially to grow in a greater love of and devotion to the person of Jesus Christ. "Faith is a whole. It has only one heart, one center, Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. Christ must therefore also be the center of catechesis whose object is 'putting people...in communion...with Jesus Christ; only He can lead us to the love of the Father in the Spirit". -Cardinal Christoph Schönborn

Guiding readers through the rites of Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist, Understanding the Sacraments of Initiation explores the way in which the sacraments of Initiation affect and influence one’s daily Christian life.

BLISS is a faith-provoking book. Scripture says in Ephesians 2: 8, By the grace of God you have been saved through faith. Faith is the activator and receptor of the graces of salvation; without faith we are at the risk of losing the grace of salvation. Romans 10: 17 says, Faith comes by hearing the word of Christ. The quality of a believers faith is proportional to the amount of Gods Word heard, believed, and practised. The sacraments are treasures and containers of the powers of salvation; they contain power for forgivingness, healing, deliverance, freedom, victory, breakthrough, and sundry favours. Faith is the ability and disposition to receive and enjoy these blessings. Faith is necessary for the experience of the awesome powers of the sacraments. Faith releases the sacraments from habitual and conditioned confinement to mere ritual to a life-giving cistern of reality. BLISS is a handy, helpful, and practical book of faith that leads all Christians to tap the abundant powers in the sacraments. BLISS is about getting more and all out of the sacraments as it ought to be.

Why Sacraments? explores the Christian sacraments in relation to the Bible and the theological tradition, presenting solid theology in an accessible and popular manner. The book looks at the place of the sacraments in the worship of the church and the life of the Christian. The reader will find both a discussion of the seven rites called sacraments and an investigation of what it means for something to be sacramental. Contents: Foreword 1 Why sacraments? 2 Baptism 3 Sacramental character 4 The Eucharist 5 The anatomy of the sacraments I: signs, matter and form 6 How many sacraments? 7 Confirmation 8 Ordination 9 The anatomy of the sacraments II: setting, intention, minister and recipient 10 Marriage 11 Anointing 12 Confession 13 The sacraments and the Holy Spirit Conclusion: Sacraments and the incarnation

Cooke reflects on the sacramental liturgies and their relation to love and freedom, reconciliation and concerned service to one another. Includes discussion questions, a bibliography, and an index.

What are the sacraments, really? For centuries, the religious lives of Catholics and other Christians have revolved around church rituals with generally accepted individual and social effects. What, precisely, are those effects, and how are they produced? Traditional theology used Greek philosophy to understand the sacraments and how they work. But is there no other way to understand them? In fact, there are a number of ways, and this book invites you to look at the sacraments through a variety of lenses: psychology, sociology, anthropology, history, theology, morality, and spirituality. As the introduction to this volume challenges, "If you read this book, and especially if you engage in the interactive study to which it invites you, your understanding of sacraments will be changed forever." To help personalize your investigation, the author has created a web site with thought-provoking questions that encourage you to interact with the ideas being proposed in this volume. To engage these topics more deeply, see www.TheSacraments.org.