The Catholic Sacraments

When the Church began at the first Pentecost (Whitsunday) it had, besides Our Lady, only 12 members, the Apostles.  By the same evening, however, there were 3,000.  These had become members of the Church by being baptised (christened), and that is still the way by which we join the Church today.  Sunday by Sunday they attended the Eucharist, the great Christian act of worship which Jesus himself gave to the Apostles the evening before he was crucified.  And ever since then the Eucharist, which he commanded them to celebrate, has been the central service of the Church at which we should be present every Sunday.  Baptism and the Eucharist are what we call Sacraments.

There are seven Sacraments altogether in the Church.  The other five are Confirmation, Reconciliation (also called the Sacrament of Penance or Confession), Holy Matrimony (Christian Marriage), Holy Order (Ordination to the Ministry), and Holy Unction (Anointing of the Sick with oil).

The Catholic Scriptures

Eyewitnesses

When the Apostles were teaching the people about Jesus, they were able to tell them what they had actually seen and heard with their own eyes and ears. So St John would have been able to say, “I stood beneath the Cross of Jesus with his mother”.

The need for a written record

But as time went on a written record was needed of Our Lord’s teaching and especially of his life, death and resurrection in order that the details should not be forgotten.  So the four Gospels were written.  At the same time there were also other writings by the Apostles or by men who knew the Apostles.  And the Church chose these and put them with the Gospels to form what we call the New Testament.  The New Testament and the Old Testament were together called the Scriptures.