Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:. Email required Address never made public. Name required. Follow Following. Catholic Mindfulness. Sign me up. Already have a WordPress. Log in now. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! As Christ did not ordain His Apostles by imposition of hands, it would seem that He left to the Church the power of determining by which particular rite the power and grace should be conferred.
The Church determined the simple imposition of hands for the East and added, in the course of time, the tradition of the instruments for the West changing its symbolical language according as circumstances of place or time required. The question of the form of the sacrament naturally depends on that of the matter. If the tradition of the instruments be taken as the total or partial matter, the words which accompany it will be taken as the form.
If the simple imposition of hands be considered the sole matter, the words which belong to it are the form. Thus the form is not contained in these words, but in the longer prayers accompanying the former imposition of hands, substantially the same from the beginning. All that we have said about the matter and form is speculative; in practice, whatever has been prescribed by the Church must be followed, and the Church in this, as in other sacraments, insists that anything omitted should be supplied.
Effect of the Sacrament. The first effect of the sacrament is an increase of sanctifying grace. With this, there is the sacramental grace which makes the recipient a fit and holy minister in the discharge of his office. The dispensation of sacraments requires grace, and the rightful discharge of sacred offices presupposes a special degree of spiritual excellence. The external sacramental sign or the power of the order can be received and may exist without this grace.
Grace is required for the worthy, not the valid, exercise of the power, which is immediately and inseparably connected with the priestly character. The principal effect of the sacrament is the Character q. The sacramental character of order distinguishes the ordained from the laity.
It gives the recipient in the diaconate, e. The Council of Trent defined the existence of a character Sess. VII, can. Its existence is shown especially by the fact that ordination like baptism, if ever valid, can never be repeated. Reordinations do not suppose the negation of the inamissible character of Order—they presuppose an anterior ordination which was null.
The ordinary minister of the sacrament is the bishop, who alone has this power in virtue of his ordination. Holy Scripture attributed the power to the Apostles and their successors Acts, vi, 6; xvi, 22; I Tim. I, can. For the custom said to have existed in the Church of Alexandria see Egypt. No one but a bishop can give any orders now without a delegation from the pope, but a simple priest may be thus authorized to confer minor orders and the subdiaconate.
The diaconate cannot be conferred by a simple priest, according to the majority of theologians. This is sometimes questioned, as Innocent VIII is said to have granted the privilege to Cistercian abbots , but the genuineness of the concession is very doubtful. For lawful ordination the bishop must be a Catholic , in communion with the Holy See , free from censures, and must observe the laws prescribed for ordination. He cannot lawfully ordain any except his own subjects without authorization see below.
Every baptized male can validly receive ordination. Though in former times there were several semiclerical ranks of women in the Church see Deaconesses , they were not admitted to orders properly so called and had no spiritual power. The reality of this Divine call is manifested in general by sanctity of life, right faith, knowledge corresponding to the proper exercise of the order to which one is raised, absence of physical defects, the age required by the canons see Irregularity.
Though clergy and laity had a voice in the election of the candidates, the ultimate and definite determination rested with the bishops. A public inquiry was held regarding their faith and moral character and the electors were consulted. Only such as were personally known to the electing congregation, i. A specified age was required, and, though there was some diversity in different places, in general, for deacons the age was twenty-five or thirty, for priests thirty or thirty-five, for bishops thirty-five or forty or even fifty Apost.
Nor was physical age deemed sufficient, but there were prescribed specified periods of time, during which the ordained should remain in a particular degree. The different degrees were considered not merely as steps preparatory to the priesthood, but as real church offices. In the beginning no such periods, called interstices, were appointed, though the tendency to orderly promotion is attested already in the pastoral Epistles I Tim.
The first rules were apparently made in the fourth century. They seem to have been enforced by Siricius and somewhat modified by Zosimus , who decreed that the office of reader or exorcist should last till the candidate was twenty, or for five years in case of those baptized as adults; four years were to be spent as acolyte or subdeacon, five years as deacon. This was modified by Pope Gelasius , according to whom a layman who had been a monk might be ordained priest after one year, thus allowing three months to elapse between each ordination, and a layman who had not been a monk might be ordained priest after eighteen months.
At present the minor orders are generally conferred together on one day. The bishops, who are the ministers of the sacrament ex officio, must inquire about the birth, person, age, title, faith, and moral character of the candidate. They must examine whether he is born of Catholic parents, and is spiritually, intellectually, morally, and physically fit for the exercise of the ministry.
The age required by the canons is for subdeacons twenty-one, for deacons twenty-two, and for priests twenty-four years completed. The pope may dispense from any irregularity and the bishops generally receive some power of dispensation also with regard to age, not usually for subdeacons and deacons, but for priests.
Bishops can generally dispense for one year, whilst the pope gives dispensation for over a year; a dispensation for more than eighteen months is but very rarely granted. For admission to minor orders, the testimony from the parish priest or from the master of the school where the candidate was educated generally, therefore, the superior of the seminary is required.
For major orders further inquiries must be made. The names of the candidate must be published in the place of his birth and of his domicile and the result of such inquiries are to be forwarded to the bishop.
Testimonial letters are also required from all the bishops in whose dioceses the candidate has resided for over six months, after the age of seven. Transgression of this rule is punished by suspension latae sententue against the ordaining bishop. Holy Orders is one of the seven sacraments. It, along with the Sacrament of Marriage, belongs to a special group of sacraments known as the Sacraments of Commitment. Three Degrees. While all of the baptized share in the universal priesthood, Holy Orders is the sacrament of the ordained ministry.
Holy Orders come in three degrees: deacon, priest or presbyter, and bishop. Only two degrees share the ministerial priesthood, bishops and priests. Priests are co-workers of the bishops, while deacons assist priests. Ordered Ministries. For instance, a deacon can preach and baptize, but cannot offer Mass or hear confessions; a priest can offer Mass and hear confessions, but cannot ordain; a bishop can ordain, but not only can he ordain, a bishop can perform every priestly function because he possesses the fullness of Holy Orders.
The Early Scriptural Foundations. For I am already on the point of being sacrificed; the time of my departure has come. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you. But he who endures to the end will be saved. Matthew and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
What then shall we have? Matthew Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, cf. Lk Mark He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts;. But many that are first will be last, and the last first. Luke , 26 Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of man!
Woe to you, when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets. Mt Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple. Luke No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. John He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
John If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands.
When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all things. I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
What then is my reward? Just this: that in my preaching I may make the gospel free of charge, not making full use of my right in the gospel. For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
So death is at work in us, but life in you. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day.
For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,. I am a better one — I am talking like a madman — with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death.
Five times I have received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I have been beaten with rods; once I was stoned. Three times I have been shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brethren; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches. Philippians But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ. Matthew For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to receive this, let him receive it. But each has his own special gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.
To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain single as I do. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion. Only, let every one lead the life which the Lord has assigned to him, and in which God has called him. I want you to be free from anxieties.
The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord; but the married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. And the unmarried woman or girl is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit; but the married woman is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please her husband.
I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord. John Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
Matthew No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
0コメント