On The Way Back Home - Chapter 25

CONFIRMATION, HOLY ORDERS,
EXTREME UNCTION

Let me remind you, these are intended to be simple chapters. In them it is not my intention to give either a lengthy discussion or a complete proof of the doctrines of the Church. If, however, these chapters open your eyes to the necessity of further investigation of the Catholic Church, a more lengthy discussion and a complete proof may be had from any standard work on Catholic doctrine. So I need say little regarding the remaining Sacraments of the Church beyond mentioning them briefly.

By the Sacrament of Confirmation Christ gives His followers special strength by which they become steadfast in the faith, soldiers of Christ as it were, ready to confess Him before all the world.

By the sacrament of Holy Orders, Christ ordains His priests. He selects them from among men and He puts a special mark upon them, giving them special graces by which they may be assisted in living up to the obligations of their high calling.

By the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, Christ gives His followers special graces at the most solemn moment, the moment of death. He anoints their hands, their feet, their eyes, their lips, their ears as they set out upon the last stage of their journey back to the Hand that created them. He prepares them before they are ushered into His presence to stand before the judgment seat of God.

These are the seven Sacraments of the Church, Sacraments Christ instituted for you and meant for you. They follow you through life to be your comfort and your strength. They meet you in Baptism and make you a child of God. They are ready if you sinned with a pardon for your sinning. They give you strength to lead the Christian life. They offer you spiritual nourishment. They sanctify your married life. They ordain priests that shall administer these same sacraments to you and worship for you at God's altar. They comfort and console your dying hour. They are seven deep channels by which grace shall flow into your soul, once you re-enter that Church Christ established for you, in order that you would have all the helps you would be so desperately in need of to work out the salvation of your immortal soul. They are like hidden springs of the waters of life, ready to gush forth with the waters of everlasting life once you have tapped the rock of Christ with the rod of faith. Hence the universal testimony of converts to the Catholic Church is, that once they entered it, what they found there far exceeded their fondest expectations.