BLOG: Sacraments
Deacon Pedro continues his exploration of the sacrament of Confirmation by looking at its connection with Baptism. ...read more
Last week we saw that Confirmation is not just about being mature enough to know that we want to be Catholic, and we reviewed the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, but we didn’t really explain what Confirmation is really about. Perhaps now is the time to speak about Pentecost. You can’t talk about confirmation without ...read more
Next week is the Feast of Pentecost and we enter the season of Confirmations. Most of us are confirmed, but if you are at all like me, you probably have no real understanding of the meaning of the Sacrament. You think that it has to do something with being of age and “confirming” that you ...read more
Last week we looked at the significance of Jesus being the bread of life. I think most of us get the nourishment part. There is so much spiritual hunger in the world. But the Eucharist is feeding a lot more than what we think. How many of us really recognize all the fruits of receiving ...read more
Last time we saw why Jesus used bread and why He referred to himself as the “bread of life.” In John chapter 6, in what is known as the “Bread of Life Discourse”, Jesus pretty much lays it all out. It was a hard teaching, because at the end of the chapter, John tells us ...read more
Last time we saw how the Eucharist is rooted in the Jewish celebration of Passover. Christ is the new Passover Lamb that was sacrificed in atonement for our sins. We also looked at how the Eucharist is not just a Sacrament in that it makes Christ present, but in the Eucharist, Christ is truly present. ...read more
We have begun the Easter Season and what a better time to explore the meaning of the source and summit of our Christian life: The Eucharist. We’ve just come out of a time of repentance and conversion and have gone through Holy Week and the Easter Triduum and that’s a good lead into speaking about ...read more
Last time we concluded that Baptism welcomes us into the family of God and after Baptism we belong to God. Now let’s look at the baptism ritual. All Sacrament ritual includes three moments: anamnesis (remembering), epiclesis (coming of the Holy Spirit), doxology (praise). In Baptism we remember the healing waters, we remember Christ’s death and ...read more
Why do we baptise babies? How can a baby decide to become a Christian? Where does this tradition come from? Deacon Pedro explains. ...read more
I remember about 5 years ago when we went to the Easter Vigil Mass for the first time in about 12 years (that’s what happens when you have kids) how amazed I was at the beauty and meaning behind this the greatest of all liturgies. I guess I’d forgotten; or never realized it. In particular, ...read more