The sacramental life from Incarnation Parish GOF Adult class

1. Generations Of Faith
The Magnificent Seven:
The Sacraments
The Sacramental Life
October 10, 11, & 13 2018

2. Opening Prayer: Our Father
This session on Sacraments will:
1. Overview the seven sacraments.
2. Underscore our call to live a “sacramental life”.
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3. Our Journey Together
• We are each on a journey from this world to the next.
• We each proceed at our own pace determined by our
“readiness to learn”:
– Our past learnings from experience,
– Our openness to current learnings, and
– Our current situation – whatever provides us learning today.
• We are not alone since there are many opportunities for
grace:
– The Church assists us on this journey through its liturgical calendar
and set readings.
– The Spirit of God wants us to be happy, content, and at peace.
– We receive grace through the sacraments
– We walk along with our faith community here at Incarnation Parish. 3

4. Grace
Grace is the free and undeserved help that God gives us to
respond to his call to live as children of God … to love God
and to love everyone else.
• Last year’s GOF focused on the “Liturgical Calendar:
The Year of Grace”.
• This year’s GOF focuses on another aspect of grace
giving “The Magnificent Seven: The Sacraments”.

5. The Seven Sacraments
The three sacraments of Initiation
1.
2.
3.
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Baptism
Eucharist
Confirmation
The two sacraments of Healing
4.
5.
Reconciliation
Anointing of the Sick
The two sacraments of Service
6.
7.
Matrimony
Holy Orders

6. Baptism: Sacrament of Initiation
Outward Sign(s)
• Water & Chrism
• Word
• Candle
• White Garment
Instituted by Christ/Church Administered
• Jesus Baptized in the Jordan
• Mt 28:19 Jesus says “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit.”
Gives Grace
• Indwelling of the Holy Spirit
• Entrance into the Faith Community

7. Sacramental Life
We are called to live a “sacramental life”. The three parts of
this life are:
1. To be an outward sign by the life we live,
2. By following the teachings of Jesus,
3. In order to be an instrument of God’s grace for others as
a means of helping them meet life’s challenges.
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8. Sacramental Life: An Outward
Sign
Saint Francis of Assisi told his followers to preach always
and when necessary use words.
Actions speak louder than words … here is why:
What do we mean when we say that someone is
“grounded”?
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9. Head
“My thoughts expressed and
unexpressed”
Heart
“are aligned to what I value and hold
dear”
Hands
“and are expressed in what I do or avoid
doing.”
Sacramental Life: An Outward
Sign … Being Grounded

10. Sacramental Life: By Following
the Teachings of Jesus
The two central components of Jesus’ teachings are:
1. "Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with
all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and
greatest commandment.
2. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as
yourself.
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two
commandments."
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11. Sacramental Life: By Following
the Teachings of Jesus
Matthew 22:34-40 34Hearing that Jesus had silenced the
Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35One of them, an
expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36"Teacher,
which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37Jesus
replied: "'Love the LORD your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38This is the first
and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it:
'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40All the Law and the
Prophets hang on these two commandments."
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12. Sacramental Life: By Following the
Teachings of Jesus
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How do we as a faith community demonstrate our love for:
1. God
2. Our neighbors
•
•
•
•
•
•

13. Sacramental Life: Instruments of
Grace to Others in Our Daily Life
In the course of our daily lives we connect with a large
number of people and experiences. We might not:
• realize the impact we have had on these people, or
• we may underestimate our impacts.
To help us bring this to our conscious awareness, think of
some examples when you have been an instrument of
God’s grace to others in the last seven days.
Pick a partner and share some of these examples … what
this might look and sound like?
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14. Our Call to Live a Sacramental Life
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As Catholics, we are called:
• To love God and
• To love everyone else,
• By striving to be the best that we can be,
• So we can be of service to others (instruments of God’s
grace to others).
• We are on a journey to heaven by acting as if we are
already there!

15. Gifts of the Spirit
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Gifts of the Spirit
• Peace • Wisdom • Knowledge
• Patience • Understanding • Reverence
• Kindness • Counsel • Desire
• Goodness • Right Judgment • A Clean Heart
• Self-control • Courage • Gentleness
• Faith • Hope • Love
• Healing
If you need one, some, or all of these gifts all you need do is
pray for God’s Spirit to fall anew on you!

16. Living a Sacramental Life: Is This
so Far out of Our Reach?
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We can get there by:
• Continuously putting our effort into being “saintly” – being
the best that we can be.
• Focusing on improving/being better each day.
• Not be deterred if we stumble … but get up and try again.

17. Another Help to Live a
Sacramental Life Comes from
the Psychology of Motivation
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The Task at hand is made easier if we use the right motivation:
• Avoiding a bad thing is actually harder as it
creates a “have to” in us (e.g., trying not to
eat apple pie when trying to lose weight).
• Striving after a good thing is easier as it
creates a “want to” that attracts us to the
goal.
The New Testament changes the “have-tos” of the Old
Testament into the “want-tos” of love!

18. A Second Help Comes from the
Fact that We are not Alone
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In our journey to be the best that we can be:
• We have each other as supports. We can
deepen our shared learning with each other
and can rely on each other to do good.
• We have the Spirit of God who only wants
us to be at peace and to be content.

19. Living a Sacramental Life:
The Spirit is There to Help Us
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Saint Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits, was a bit of a mystic
and came to the conclusion that:
• The Spirit of God wants us to live in the light … to be
happy, content, and at peace.
• Anything that causes us unrest or discontent is used by
the Evil One to keep us in the darkness.
• When faced with this, we should drag the issue kicking
and screaming into the light by talking it over with
someone.

20. A Quote to Remind Us of Our
Calling to Live a “Sacramental
Life”
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" Sometimes I wish to ask God why He allows hunger,
poverty, famine, hurt and injustice in the world when He
could do something about it, …
but then I realize that He could ask me the same question."

21. Our Collective Work
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“Holding faithfully to the gospel and exercising her mission
in the world, the Church (meaning all of us as the people of
God) consolidates peace among men (and women) to
God’s glory. For it is her task to uncover, cherish, and
ennoble all that is true, good, and beautiful in the human
community.”*
* Vatican II, Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, 1965:76

22. What We Attempted To Do
This session on Sacraments:
1. Overviewed our understanding of the seven sacraments.
2. Underscored our call to live a “sacramental life”.
You can decide how well we accomplished this by what you do
from here!
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23. October 10, 11, & 13 2018
Thank you for being with us today!
Generations Of Faith
The Magnificent Seven:
The Sacraments
The Sacramental Life