Sacraments

Winner of a 2018 Catholic Press Association Award: Sacraments. (First Place).

How can Christians grow spiritually in the midst of our sinfulness? How can we transform our lives in a way that allows us to share in the resurrection of Jesus?

God has already given us the perfect solution--the sacraments.

Whether it is the wound of past hurts, the strain in our relationships, or the stress of daily life, we all need to be comforted and made whole by Christ. In this follow-up to his bestselling Be Healed, Bob Schuchts explains how the sacraments can fuel your emotional and spiritual healing and bring you closer to God.

Based on more than thirty-five years of experience as a therapist and decades spent in parish ministry, Schuchts demonstrates how each of the seven sacraments can be a life-changing encounter with Christ, communicated through the power of the Holy Spirit. He pairs each healing sacrament with one of the seven deadly wounds that emanated from original sin in the Garden of Eden. We perpetuate and deepen those wounds each time we sin, but the sacraments are God's remedy for sin. They give us a way to restore us to wholeness in Christ.

In Be Transformed, You'll discover how each sacrament can help you heal from wounds that can impede your relationships and sense of self-worth. With Schuchts's help, you'll learn how:

Be Transformed offers all of the tools you need for a fresh understanding of the sacraments, including reflection questions, scripture meditations, prayers, and inspiring stories. You'll come away hungry for the sacraments in a way you never knew possible.

Doors to the Sacred has endured as an indispensable account of the sacraments of the Catholic Church. Used in hundreds of university and seminary courses and full of critical acclaim, it details their historical and cultural evolution and the rituals and practices associated with them. This Vatican II Golden Anniversary Edition explains the liturgical changes found in The Roman Missal, Third Edition, and provides extensive resources for students and seekers alike, including:

But what if the problem is much more fundamental? What if the problem goes to the very foundations of who we are as human beings in relationship with God?

In The First Society: The Sacrament of Matrimony and the Restoration of the Social Order, Scott Hahn makes the startling claim that our society's ills and its cures are rooted in whether we reject or accept the divine graces made available through the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.

Man, he argues, is social in his very nature. We were created for community. As it was in the beginning, so it remains today. The family, formed through the Sacrament of Matrimony, is the most basic building block of every societywhether we like it or not. We've corrupted marriage, and so we have a corrupt society. If we get marriage right, our society, through God's grace, will flourish.

This is so because Matrimony, like all the sacraments, heals and elevates human nature. Without marriage, our ambitions toward a just social order will remain forever foolhardy. With it, the seemingly impossible, a truly peaceful and humane civilization, becomes possible.

Confession is somewhat daunting for many of us; yet Farren argues, "Our understanding of the sacrament reveals our image of God. If our image of God is one of an uncompromising judge, then the sacrament can fill us with dread." Instead of coming to confession to avoid judgment and hellfire, Father Farren paints a picture of the Sacrament of Reconciliation which presents a loving God who longs for a restored relationship with His children. It is an inspirational picture and one that is presented compellingly.

Countless graces flow from the use of Holy Water when you understand its role in God's plan of salvation, and how it brings new graces into your life.

In clear, convincing language, Father Theiler lays out for Christians countless surprising, but long-forgotten truths about Holy Water, and explains the interior acts and dispositions that are necessary for this blessed gift of God to have the sanctifying effect our Lord intends for you.

Read these pages attentively; consider them thoughtfully; incorporate their truths and suggestions into your daily spiritual life. In these pages, you'll also learn: The time that God Himself commanded the use of Holy Water (Do you know where the Bible tells this story?) Why God chose water as the means to impart so many blessings even before He created man and woman! What you should and should not expect from the graces conferred by Holy Water