Sacrament of Baptism

Sacraments

• Baptism• Eucharist• Confirmation• Reconciliation• Anointing of the Sick / Extreme Unction• Matrimony• Ordination

Initiation

Healing

Service

What Are the Sacraments?

• Primordial Sacrament is Christ• “Human Practices that Encounter God”

What are the Sacraments?

• “From the beginning, God desired to share his friendship and his divine life with his people. Although our first parents lost this intimate communion with their Creator, God did not abandon them. Rather, he promised a Redeemer, who would one day reconcile God and man.” • (Archbishop Paprocki, Auxiliary of Chicago)

The Catechism

• “The Sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions.” (CCC 1131)

Baptism in the Old Testament

• Jewish Rite• Greek baptizein meaning “to plunge”• First Passover in Exodus• Priestly laws in Leviticus • Regulations in Numbers

Baptism in the New Testament

• Acts 2:38-39• Peter instructs those wishing to join the

Church• Requirement to belonging

Other New Testament References

• Precedent of Christ’s baptism• Mark 1, Matthew 3, Luke 3• Commissioning in Matthew 28

What does Baptism Do

• Removes Sin• Initiates us into the Church• Allows us to participate in the

Sacrifice of Christ

Baptism in the History of the Church

• Early Church baptized adults• Middle Ages changed this to infant

baptism

Who Can Minister the Sacrament

• Under Ordinary circumstances, an Ordained Minister• In Extraordinary circumstances, anyone