SUMMARY

1. Jesus gave the blessing of health to people’s bodies, and spiritual blessings to their souls, by saying something to them or by touching them.

2. Jesus told his Apostles to pass on his gifts of health of body and soul in the same kind of way – through the Seven Sacraments of the Church.  So God’s Holy Spirit was given by the water of Baptism and by the laying on of hands in Confirmation, and Our Lord’s own Presence under the form of Bread and Wine in the Eucharist.

3. We receive these same gifts today from Our Lord at the hands of bishops and priests.

Reference

1. Church of England (1662) The Book of Common Prayer.  A Catechism.  Available from: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/worship/liturgy/bcp/texts/catechism.html  (Accessed 23 August 2010) (Internet).