Orders

THE SACRAMENT OF ORDERS

Jesus Christ, the only mediator between God and humanity (I Tim 2.5), possesses a unique and absolute priesthood which, while fulfilling the Old Testament priesthood, surpassed it and abolished it (Heb). He exercised his priesthood as Prophet by revealing the Father, as Shepherd by gathering God’s scattered people, and as Priest, by his self-offering on the cross in the Paschal Mystery.
The Church is established by Him as a ‘Kingdom of Priests’ (I Pet 2:9). Consecrated and sent on a mission through baptism and confirmation, every Christian is made to share in Christ’s priesthood; as a member of the priestly people he/she shares in the Church’s mission of representing Christ’s unique mediatory function. However, Christ entrusted a special function to the apostles whom He chose to be His authentic witnesses, the dispensers of His mysteries and the shepherds of His flock. They passed on their ministry to their successors, who in turn shared it with others in various degrees through the Sacrament of Order.
The ministerial priesthood represents Christ’s function as Head in the Church and the Sacrament of Order is intimately linked with the other sacraments and impinges directly on the life and the nature of the Church.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
William Bausch, A New Look at the Sacraments, Mystic, 23rd Publications, 1999.
S. Brislin, The Ministry of Deacons in an African Diocese, Eldoret: Gaba Publications, 1983.
Raymond Brown, Priest and Bishop. New York: Paulist Press, 1970.
Donald Cozzins, The Changing Face of the Priesthood, Liturgical Press, Collegeville, 2000.
Burnette & Gerald Fish, The Kalenjiin Heritage, Africa Gospel Church, Kericho, 1995, Chapter 34, Priests and Elders, pp 262-266
Avery Dulles, The Priestly Office, New York, Paulist, 1997.
Jacques Dupuis & Josef Neuner, The Christian Faith, New York, Alba House, 2001.
Jean Galot, Theology of the Priesthood, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1986.
J Lang, Ministers of Grace: Women in the early Church, Slough: St Paul’s, 1989.
Paul Philibert, Stewards of God’s Mysteries, Liturgical Press, Collegeville, 2004.
Joseph Martos, Doors to the Sacred, Missouri, Liguori, 2001.
Richard McBrien, Catholicism, San Francisco, Harper, 1994.
Kevin McNamara, ed., Vatican II, The Constitution on the Church, London, Chapman, 1968.
Aidan Nichols, Holy Order, Veritas: Dublin, 1990.
Kenan B Osborne, Orders and Ministry, Orbis, New York, 2006.
Geoffrey Robinson, Confronting Power & Sex in the Catholic Church, Liturgical, Collegeville, 2008.
Len Sperry, Sex, Priestly Ministry, and the Church, Collegeville, Liturgical Press, 2003.
Susan Wood, Sacramental Orders, Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2000.
Lumen Gentium, Presbyterorum Ordinis, Optatum Totius, Vatican Council II, Austin Flannery, ed., Dublin, Dominican, 1975.
John Paul II, Pastores Dabo Vobis, 1992; Christifidelis Laici, 1988.
Interdicasterial Instruction, Ecclesia de Mysterio, 1997.
Congregation for the Clergy, The Priest and the Third Christian Millennium, 1999; The Priest, Pastor and Leader of the Parish Community, 2002.
Code of Canon Law and Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Chapter One OLD TESTAMENT
Early Israel
• No distinct priesthood – Father of Family & Head of Clan functions as priest.
• National Leaders sometimes led people in worship.
• Clan of Aaron and the tribe of Levi (Ex 28-29; 32:25-29).
• Priests to lead holy and exemplary lives (Lev 19:2; 21:8).
• Whole nation was considered a “kingdom of priests”, a chosen people, called to holiness (Lev 19, 21).
Intermediary
Deuteronomy 33:8-10 suggests three basic priestly functions:
• Discernment of God’s will through the casting of sacred lots (1 Sam 14:41-42)
• Teaching and interpreting the Mosaic Law, the Torah (Dt 33:10).
• Sacrifice and cultic offering (Dt 33:10).
Prophets replace priests as spokespeople for God.
Scribes and rabbis assume tasks of preserving and teaching the traditions of Judaism.
Priests - Temple Ministry.
Elders
Groups of elders organised and governed the Jewish communities.


Chapter Two JESUS CHRIST
Pattern for Ministry
1. Call from God: Not self-initiated, not from community. Jn 4.34 – My food is to do the will of the one who sent me.
2. Servant
• The Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many – Mk 10:45. Paul urges the same notion of service in Phil 2:5-8.
• Jesus is remembered by his disciples in the washing of feet as giving them an example to serve others. A Christian in any ministry is a servant.
3. Priest
Jesus loved us to the very end, that he gave his life for us; he offered himself as a sacrifice so that we may have life. Jesus was a priestly person because he acted as mediator for those who believed in him interceding for them with the Father and because he offered his life for all. Ministry in the pattern of Jesus is bound to demand self-giving and sacrifice. When Jesus spoke of service, he spoke of giving his life as a 'ransom for many' (Mk 10:45), and as the good shepherd of laying down his life for the sheep (Jn 10:15). Paul writes to one of his Churches, almost as if he were conferring a favour, ‘To you it is given, on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake’ (Ph 1:29). Suffering, then, not for its own sake, but to be utilised to serve and enrich others by associating it with the sufferings of Christ, who offered his life out of love for all.
4. Shepherd
'I am the good shepherd; I know my own, and my own know me; and I lay down my life for the sheep' (Jn 10:14-15). Attitude of shepherding seen especially in his leadership and compassionate care. As a leader, he spoke out for justice for the poor and he formed a community of followers around him, sharing his insights with them, and instructing them how to behave (Mt 10). As a compassionate care, Jesus healed people who were wounded, sick, possessed and in pain and reconciled the ‘lost’ with God. He is the shepherd who leaves the ninety nine and goes in search of the lost one (Lk 15.4).
5. Prophet
Jesus was a prophet, proclaiming the will and message of Yahweh for his people. He taught and interpreted the scriptures with an impressive authority: 'They were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one that had authority’ (Mk 1:22). He claimed what appeared to be a sacrilegious closeness to God whom he addressed intimately as Abba (Mk 14.36). He did not hesitate even to revise the law of Moses and he spoke out against religious leaders of his day. His primary message was: the “Kingdom of God is among you,” (Lk 17:21). God is present in the here and now, not in the above or in the future. God is a loving and compassionate presence in our lives and always overcomes the power of evil. Jesus taught that the good news of God’s love for the marginalised and the outcasts of society. Priests carry this good news to the far ends of the earth, especially to those who are weary and to those who have no hope (PO 4, CCC 1565, PdV 15)
Transmission of Ministry
• The Call of the Twelve Disciples. Jesus chose ‘those he wanted’ – Mk 3.13.
• The Apostles: The leaders of the early Christian community.
• Peter exercises Primacy (Mt 16.18, Lk 22.32, Jn 21.15.19).
• The Seventy Two – Lk 10.1-12.
• The Mandate and the Holy Spirit – Jn 20:21-22.


Chapter Three NEW TESTAMENT COMMUNITIES
The Twelve
• Elders in a Jewish Christian Community – Represented Jewish Group and Proclaimed Christ.
• Peter, James and Consensus Leadership.
• Twelve: Representing the New Israel and Universality of Church.
• Retention of Ministry: The Election of Matthias – Acts 1.15-26. The retention of apostolic ministry must be regarded as the essence of early Christianity.
• The Church remains forever based on the witness of the Apostles – Rev 21.14. The Church is Apostolic because she has kept the connection with the original Apostles and because her faith is based on the faith of the Apostles. Apostolic Succession: Bishops link with Apostles and Fidelity to Apostolic Faith.
Acts: Chapter Six
• Development of ministry: Seven men chosen for ministry.
• The Twelve: 1) feel a genuine need for assistance; 2) propose a solution; “select seven men filled with the Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint”; 3) win community acceptance for their proposal; 4) let the community choose the candidates; and 5) present them to the Twelve; 6) who pray and impose hands on them; 7) and the word of God continues to spread. As the first account of what the Apostles do when they need help in ministry, this NT passage becomes a model in choosing new ministers to continue the mission of Jesus, (Noll, pp. 98-99).
• First indication of diversity of ministries.
• Deacon: Philippians 1:1 and I Tim 3:8-13. Deaconess Phoebe – Romans 16:1-2.
Missionary Apostles
Besides the Twelve, there were other “apostles”, bringing the words of Jesus Christ to the world. Paul of Tarsus, Barnabas, (Acts 14:14), Andronicus, Junias (or possibly Junia), Rom 16:7. To be fit for this ministry a person had to have seen the risen Lord so that he could bear witness to what he himself had experienced (I Cor 9:1; Acts 1:22). They were itinerant evangelists who travelled from one city to another making converts, establishing communities, placing others in charge, and then moving on. While Paul claims to be an apostle (Rom 11.13) and he uses the term ‘apostle’ for Silvanus, Timothy (I Th 2.7) and Barnabas (I Cor 9.5), it seems that after a certain development the name of apostle was reserved in a privileged way for the restricted circle of the Twelve.
Flexible Structures & Variety of Ministries
The disappearance of the twelve, the seventy-two and the seven meant that no structure was carved in stone. Any structure was viable that kept the gospel alive, the tradition firm, and the community intact. In the early Church documents, we discover a fluidity in ministry, leadership, form, and structure. Note I Cor 12:4-7, 27-31, 1 Tim 5:9-13, Eph 4.4-7, 11-12, I Pet 4:10-11. There were many gifts of ministry, and these gifts were distributed among many people. They were exercised by gift, inspiration, consensus, or appointment and were prompted by the needs of the community. All the members are responsible in solidarity. Each makes his or her contribution to the progress of the whole. Each utilise his/her charisms, so that the community is built and grows in love. The Spirit is given to each for the good of all. The key feature in this structuring of the community is ‘service’.
Paul seems to tell us in I Cor 12.28 that the original group of ministers, Apostles and disciples, are gradually being replaced in the Church by a second level of ministers called apostles, prophets and teachers.
Presbyters
The Elders, the presbyteroi, derived from Judaism’s traditional category, were men of distinction appointed by the laying on of hands to oversee local affairs. They were chosen in a variety of ways and for the same reasons we choose leaders today for their natural talent or their connections. Paul refers to them as “those who labour for the community” or “those who are over you.” Some places seem to be ruled by a local committee of elders. Others seem to be ruled by one of the missionary apostles. Other communities are ruled by a single person in concert with his council of elders and, later, all by himself. In speaking of elders, the plural is always used. To be an elder is to be a member of a group, a ‘college’, the members of which seem to have corporate responsibility for directing the life of the community. Note I Peter 5.2 and Acts 20.17-36. The word, presbyeteros, is not part of sacerdotal vocabulary and does not say anything about the possibility of exercising a sacred function. However, elders exercise the presidency, preach and teach (I Tim 5.17) and anoint the sick oil (Jms 5.14).
Titles: The names of activities and the groups who performed them became titles in a more organised Church. Apostoloi means “emissaries”. Deacon is from diakonia, meaning “ministry” or “service”. The titles bishops and priests come from the activities of overseeing, episkopoi, and being elders, presbyteroi, respectively.
The Pastoral Epistles
• Episcopos: Designates the presiding elder or council president. To perform their administrative task well, supervisors and elders were supposed to have the same qualities as a good head of a family (I Tim 3:1-7, Tit 1:6-9).
• Deacons and deaconesses served the internal needs of the community.
• Probable Development: Apostles & Disciples → apostles, prophets, & teachers → presbyter-bishops & deacons. The structured leadership of a supervising committee of presbyter-bishops assisted by deacons evolved.
Priesthood
In the NT communities, there were no specific Christians who were called priests. Nowhere in the entire NT is the word priest used of a Christian individual, even of any of the apostles. The reasons for this are as follows. First, the word priest was associated with the pagan priesthood and their animal sacrifices, and so the early Christians avoided the term. Second, the first Jewish Christians already had priests in the temple and went there, so there was no need to duplicate the office nor confuse it. However, when the Jewish temple was destroyed in 70 A.D., and the Jewish priesthood with it, considerable doubt was left in the minds of both Jews and Jewish Christians as to whether the concept of priesthood was even valid anymore. The Epistle to the Hebrews tried to answer this and to comfort the bewildered by saying there was now no need for a priesthood. The crucifixion and death of Jesus replaced forever any need for a temple, a sacrifice, or a priesthood. Jesus, the high priest, rendered a once-and-for-all sacrifice, superseding all others and making all future sacrifices and priestly offices superfluous. So, again, there was no reason for early Christianity to think in terms of priests.
Then, too, the attitude of early Christians, inherited from Jesus, manifested a disinterest in priests, priesthood, and temple. According to Jesus, God could be encountered anywhere. They recalled that he said as much to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well (Jn 4:20-24), that God would be worshipped in spirit and in truth and that where two or three are gathered in his (Jesus’) name he would be in their midst (Mt 18:20). Indeed, Jesus seems to be quite critical of all cultic acts, took a dim view of the dietary laws, was liberal about the Sabbath, and spoke of destroying the temple. Therefore, the early Christians took their clue from such words. They did not need temple, sacrifice, or priests. If there is to be any temple at all, it is to be one constructed of “living stones” of people who offer up “spiritual” sacrifices to God through Jesus (1 Pet 2:4).
So, leaders in the Christian community did not consider themselves priests. Rather they perceived themselves as stewards of the mysteries of God (1 Cor 4:1), arousing the faith of a priestly people. Moreover, it is not clear that anyone in particular was commissioned to preside over the Eucharist in the beginning. The most that can be said is that those who presided did so with the consent of the local Church and that this consent was tantamount, but not always equivalent, to ordination.
Priestly People
However, the baptised are perceived as a priestly and a holy people (I Pet 1:2). The term is applied to Christians collectively in 1 Peter 2:10 and in Revelation 1:6; 5:10; 20:6. No one is excluded from the Lord or given special status or privilege since the Spirit is poured out on all (Acts 2:17). The Church is therefore a new Israel with a new priesthood and a new High Priest ‘of the order of Melchizedek and forever,’ who by his perfect life and sacrificial death had become the perfect mediator between God and humanity (Heb 3). The link between Jesus and Melchizedek is mentioned in Heb 5:6, 6:20, 7.1, 7:10, 7:15. In Gen 14:17-20, Melchizedek gains prominence because of his meeting with Abraham. There is no mention of his ancestors or descendents which suggests the idea of an eternal priesthood. He is seen as superior to Abraham because he was offered a tithe of everything by Abraham; so, he is superior to all the descendents of Abraham, including the Levites. He is King of Salem, that is, Jerusalem, the place where Yahweh lives. He offers the bread and wine, giving us the image of the Eucharist. Ps 110:4, represents him as a figure of the Messiah, and implies that when the Christ comes he will replace the levitical priesthood.
Other early writers took up this notion that what Christians did through their worship and their daily lives was a priestly activity of a holy people (I Pet 2:1-10). They were a nation of priests who served God and who would reign with Christ at the end of time (Rev 1:6; 5:10; 20:6). So by the end of the first century, Christians had developed an understanding of priesthood that was based on but went beyond their Jewish heritage. There were no specific Christians who were called priests, but Christ himself was regarded as the high priest of the new religion and in a spiritual sense all believers were part of a priestly people called to honour God by praise and self-sacrifice.


Chapter Four EARLY DEVELOPMENT
The Second Century
Monarchical Episcopate: Around 110 AD we find evidence for the so-called monarchical episcopate, a local city or town Church presided over by one bishop, in the writings of Ignatius of Antioch.
Bishop’s emergence:
• Apostles died
• Persecution
• No Second Coming
• Internal strife & Heresies
This led to a need for a firm, solid, stable leadership.
By the end of the second century, the tripartite ministry of bishop, presbyter, and deacon becomes universal in the Church (Clement of Rome & Didache).
The title, Pope (father), is reserved for Bishop of Alexandria in the East, but in the West it is used for important bishops and only in the 11th Century it comes to be limited to the Bishop of Rome. The title Patriarch (father who rules) is reserved for the bishops of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem (Pentarchy).
Other Ministries: “Subdeacons” helped the deacons in their practical ministries, “exorcists” assisted at rituals of initiation and repentance, “lectors” were appointed to read the scriptures loud and clear during worship, “porters” were assigned janitorial and guard duties, “acolytes” accompanied the bishop and acted as secretaries and messengers, “widows” and “virgins” were appointed to pray for the Church or to take care of the sick and needy, “teachers” were assigned to instruct catechumens, and those with exceptional ability were sometimes allowed to preach to the faithful.
President. The one who presides over the community presides over the Eucharist. One is ordained to gather, build, and celebrate the Christian community, and flowing from this to preside at that community’s Eucharist. One is not ordained to preside at the Eucharist and then, as a side effect, to preside over the community. What seems to have been the operative principle was that whoever was recognised as the community’s leader was accepted as the presider at Eucharist, whether that was an apostle, a prophet, a teacher, or a bishop. This principle reminds us that the early Church saw no separation between its worship and its daily life. Worship was the expression of the Church’s life, and so the leader of the community was the leader of worship.
By the second century two roles that were probably once separated are joined together: the role of the presbyter-bishop and the role of the presiding minister of the Eucharist. Presiding eventually became the exclusive privilege of bishops and presbyters. Significantly, not until the year 1208 is there an official declaration that priestly ordination is necessary to celebrate the Eucharist (Pope Innocent III) (CF, n. 1703, p. 720).
Third To Tenth Centuries
Order and Ordination.
In the Greco-Roman political and social world, there were indeed well-defined orders, the order of senators, the order of decurions, and the order of knights. In the view of Christians, the term "order" indicated the exact opposite of service. Order indicated power and prestige; service, however, reflected Jesus himself. However, Tertullian (160-225), began to use a version of these political and social orders for the church structures themselves. He began writing about an order of bishops, an order of priests, and an order of deacons, probably also under the influence of Psalm 110:4 and Hebrews 5-7, which refer to the priesthood “according to the order of Melchizedek”. Only gradually did other Christian communities take over the use of the term for their Christian leadership. By the third century, the terms ‘order’ and ‘ordination’ were accepted by the Church and they were used especially to denote the clerical aspect of ministry, the sacred functions fulfilled by typical priests. Cleric is derived from the Greek, kleros, meaning lot or heritage as in Acts 1:26, the lot falling to Matthias. The Greek ritual was referred to as the laying on of hands, cheirothesia. Both ordination and cheirothesia gave a certain distinctive and officially acknowledged role to someone for specific ministries within the local community. Now the leadership of the Church was recognised and set apart through a liturgy of ordination.
Hippolytus (d. 235)
The Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus sketches a picture of the third-century Church and contains a detailed description of an ordination liturgy. The bishop is elected by the people, but he receives the imposition of hands from another bishop. The presbyter, or priest, is ordained by the bishop with other priests joining in with the laying on of hands. According to the rite of ordination, presbyters were compared with the elders whom Moses had chosen (Num 11:17-25). With the bishop’s permission a presbyter could replace him as the presiding eucharistic minister. For centuries the approval of two groups was required for this ordination: by the community and by the pastoral group he was joining. There was an intimate connection between a community and its bishop with the former having its free choice of the latter.
Cyprian (210-258), Bishop of Carthage.
In the early Church there was an avoidance in using priestly language in relation to ministry. But now because the Eucharist is clearly linked to the sacrifice of Jesus, Jesus is seen as the great high priest, the community as a priestly people and of the highly sacral culture, the bishop begins to be perceived as a priest, especially in the Didache, the writings of Clement, Ignatius, and Hippolytus. Then Cyprian repeatedly calls the bishop a high priest and applies the priestly language of the OT to the Church order of his day. The terms presbyter and bishop contain a clear reference to the role of those ministries in leading the community. The term priest, in contrast, seems to define the office solely in terms of worship. Thus, instead of understanding the cultic role as a result of being the community’s leader, people began to see the priest more and more as primarily a cultic figure, ordained for sacramental ministry and doing other things in the community only secondarily. As Christianity moved out into the rural areas, the bishops, city men, wondered who was going to take care of the Christians there. Eventually, they turned to the presbyters. Cyprian delegates his presbyters to go out and celebrate the Eucharist in the outlying villages; a genuine departure from the tradition that only the bishop presided at the Sunday Eucharist. These presbyters took over the eucharistic presidency in the outlying districts. The city bishops kept all other powers except baptism. They kept control over confirmation, jurisdiction, and official teaching. This left the presbyter identified and associated with the Eucharist. He became the priest.
More Development
Moreover, the diaconate as a separate ministry was gradually disappearing. Bishops needed assistants who could officiate at the liturgy, and deacons were not empowered to do this. To provide more priests for the people, some bishops took to ordaining deacons as presbyters, thereby making the presbyterate look like a higher rank rather than a different type of ministry. By the fifth century the diaconate was beginning to be viewed as a step toward the priesthood and after the sixth century the permanent diaconate all but vanished. The humble origin of the priest as basically an inferior cleric from the countryside remained intact throughout the centuries. Priests remained largely uneducated and from a lower social strata than the bishops, who were educated, often aristocratic and from the ruling class.
The emergence of the bishop as the main community leader had two consequences. First, the charismatic figure, so influential in the early Church, tended to disappear or to be absorbed into the bishop’s role. The second consequence of needed centralisation was that the momentum continued. Eventually all ministries became absorbed into the bishop’s office. Anyone outside his office who did ministry came to be seen as extensions of him. In fact, after the twelfth century there came the distinction between the ‘major’ orders, subdeacon, deacon, and priesthood, and the ‘minor’ orders, acolyte, porter, exorcist, and lector. The clergy gradually took over the various ministries that had been relatively autonomous in earlier decades, absorbing them all into “the pastoral office,” which was possessed fully only by the bishops.
Finally, these bishops, presbyters and deacons, came to be viewed as “sacred.” Ordination made these ministers members of a distinct “order” within the Church. They therefore began to be regarded as “clergy,” as persons who were set aside for sacred functions like the Roman priests or the Jewish Levites. As “clergy” they became distinguished from “laity.” The sacralisation of Church leadership takes place.
Celibacy & Clerical Dress
Soon ordination came to be understood as something more than a sacred ritual initiating a person into a sacred ministry. When bishops ordained presbyters they transmitted to them the power to be priests of the new covenant, sharing the priesthood of Christ in the order of Melchizedek, the priesthood which supplanted and was superior to the priesthood of Aaron and Levi because it offered to God the perfect sacrifice. But if the Christian priesthood were a newer and greater priesthood than that of the Jewish priests and Levites, then it seemed logical that Christian clerics would be called to a greater holiness than the priests of the old covenant. Holiness in the ancient world was closely connected with purity, and purity among other things meant sexual abstinence. St Ambrose (d. 397) argued that since Christian priests served at the altar all their lives (unlike their Jewish predecessors, who served only periodically), they should live in a state of perpetual continence. However, the ideal of sexual of continence was not always seen as requiring an unmarried clergy. It was more often taken to mean that married clerics should stop living with their wives, or at least stop having a sexual relationship with her. Thus with the evolution of Christian ministry into a cultic priesthood came a demand for sexual purity and ultimately for celibacy.
In the fifth century clerics took to wearing a long robe as a sign of their status in society rather than the short tunic that was worn by ordinary people. It was the beginning of a distinctive style of clerical dress. Today the priest is expected to wear clerical garb as a witness of his dedication to his people and his faithful service to Jesus. Pope John Paul II wrote in 2000, “The priest should always conform (to the clerical garb) since it is a public proclamation of his limitless dedication to the brethren and to the faithful in his service to Jesus Christ.” Canon Law 284 states: “Clerics are to wear suitable ecclesiastical dress, in accordance with the norms established by the Bishop’s Conference and legitimate local custom.”
The Middle Ages
Most Christians in the early Middle Ages were probably served by married clergy, and they were probably unaware of the canons which forbade priests to have intercourse with their wives. The one group of clerics that usually did not marry were the monks, who lived in monastic communities rather than alone and vowed to remain celibate. The eleventh century was an important period of reform. With Gregory VII in 1073, celibacy became a condition for entering the presbyteral ministry. The monk became an ideal.
The Lateran Councils
The First Lateran Council prohibited those in holy orders from marrying at all and ordered all married priests to renounce their wives and do penance. The Second Lateran Council declared that marriages of clerics were not only illegal but also invalid. Three other important developments take place: the distinction between power and authority, the distinction between validity and liceity, the rediscovery of Augustine’s idea of the priestly character. The Third Lateran Council transformed community power into personal power by making ordination a ritual for giving spiritual power personally to the priest. The distinction between the power of orders and the power of jurisdiction was introduced. So ordination became a ceremony to designate a man as totally apart from the community instead of totally identified with it. The Fourth Lateran Council asserted that no one could preside at the Eucharist except a priest or bishop who had been validly ordained.
• Priests and people: ‘ex opere operato sacraments’.
• Priests: Poorly educated, low credibility with people and a great burden on them.
• Popes, Cardinals, Bishops: Princes - eager to increase wealth and maintain power.
• Council of Florence, 1439 – Ordination a sacrament, & explains it matter and form.


Chapter Five THE COUNCIL OF TRENT
The Reformers
Reacting excessively against a one-sided stress on the ministerial priesthood which did not do full justice to the common priesthood of all (I Pet 2:5) and the increasing alienation of the clergy from the rest of the Church, the Reformers were led to deny the existence of a Sacrament of Order instituted by Christ, and considered the ministry as a function delegated by the Christian community to some of its members. They stressed the priesthood of all believers. Since the Eucharist is not a sacrifice (Calvary cannot, and need not, be repeated), there is no need for a cultic priesthood in the Church.
Martin Luther
Martin Luther complained that the word of God was not being adequately preached, or the sacraments adequately administered. He believed that priesthood was a valid ministry in the Church, but only that and no more. He saw no reason to believe that priests were metaphysically changed into superior Christians with special powers by their ordination. Whatever happened through the sacraments, he argued, happened by God’s power and not man’s, and so all Christians could act as God’s instruments in virtue of their baptism. He saw no scriptural evidence that something like a sacramental character was given to priests, and he took Christ’s words to baptise, preach, and continue the Eucharist as being directed to the Church, not to a privileged group within the Church. Thus any Christian could legitimately do these things, and it was only for reasons of Church order that certain Christians were selected, trained, and commissioned by the community to perform them as ministries in the Church. The only difference between the clergy and other Christians was that they were commissioned by the community to perform certain functions in the Church, and if they failed to perform them they could be removed from their office and their ministry given to others. He even allowed bishops in his model of the church, not as rulers or bestowers of supernatural powers on the clergy, but as supervisors of the church’s ministries much as he envisioned they had been in the first centuries of Christianity. Later, however, the Lutheran lords of Germany decided that the office of bishop was a superfluous one, and today only a few Lutheran churches still have bishops (Sweden, South Africa, USA, Canada). (Cf, Doors to the Sacred pp 501-503, See ‘A Lutheran perspective of ministry’, G Wenz, TD 51:1, 2004, pp 41-46).
John Calvin
John Calvin, likewise, included liturgical and sacramental functions in his understanding of ministry, but he refused to call the Church’s ministers “priests” because he rejected the idea of the Eucharist as a sacrifice and he insisted that only Christ himself and Christians in general had a scriptural right to the title “priest.” Moreover, his reading of the NT led him to distinguish a variety of ministries in the Church, not all of which had to be performed by the same person. Pastors were to be primarily preachers of the gospel of salvation. Teachers were called to explain the scriptures and show how they applied to daily life. Elders and deacons were to be supervisors of the Church and administrators of practical affairs, thus freeing pastors and teachers to be full-time ministers of the word. The Churches that were founded in the Calvinist tradition had no use for bishops and simply eliminated the episcopacy as a distinct office. Presbyterians created senates of elected elders or presbyters with administrative jurisdiction over clusters of local Churches. Congregationalists went even further and insisted that the elders of each individual congregation had the ultimate authority, subject only to the authority of the Bible as the Spirit led them to interpret it.
The Anglican Church
At the other extreme, the Anglican Church kept the episcopal model of Church organisation almost entirely intact. When Henry VIII proclaimed himself head of the Church in England, his motives were political rather than religious, and almost every bishop in the House of Lords agreed that he had the right to do so. Their motives were also political, to free the English Church from foreign domination, and they felt no pressure to alter the traditional form of Church government in which they played an integral part. Likewise their understanding of orders and the powers that they conferred remained essentially Catholic. In the years that followed Henry’s death, however, the more radical ideas of the continental reformers began to influence the English Church. Opinions were divided between those who held to the traditional Catholic view of priesthood and orders, especially in regard to the power of consecrating the Eucharist, and those who accepted the Protestant view of ministry as primarily pastoral and the Eucharist as a memorial rather than a sacrifice. In the end, both views were tolerated and the episcopal structure of the Church in England remained as it was. Officially, ordination is still regarded as a sacrament and Anglican bishops continue to ordain priests to a sacramental ministry. Not all Anglican bishops and priests accept the Catholic doctrine on the Eucharist. So, from a Catholic viewpoint, this cast doubt upon the validity of their priesthood since they are not necessarily ordained with the intention of “doing what the Church does” in celebrating the Eucharist. Moreover, for more than a century Anglicans were ordained using the rites of the Edwardine Ordinal (1552). In this ordinal the rites of the Roman Pontifical were changed by Thomas Cramner. So Anglican orders has the double defect of form and intention from the Catholic perspective (Catholic Faith, p. 727) (Martos, Doors to the Sacred, pp. 438-441).
Objections.
They discounted the notion that authority in the Church was funnelled from Christ through the pope to the bishops to the priests, and they rejected the claim that this was divinely ordained. They found little evidence in the Scriptures that ranks of holy orders existed in the early Church, and they objected to the way that men were ordained to ministries (such as the diaconate) that they never really performed. They observed that the law of celibacy was more often a cause of scandal than edification in the Church, and since they abandoned the idea of the Eucharist as a priestly sacrifice they saw no grounds for applying the OT rules of ritual purity to Christian ministers.
In place of the priestly ministry of cult and ritual, the reformers substituted a pastoral ministry of preaching and teaching, because they conceived salvation as coming through conversion and faith in God’s word. So Christians had a right to hear the scriptures and ministers had a duty to explain them. In a way, then, the Bible was introduced as a verbal sacrament replacing the ritual sacraments of traditional Christianity. Through it, the Holy Spirit entered one’s heart and enlightened one’s mind. Preaching itself was expected to be sacramentally inspiring and uplifting. Explaining God’s teachings was a means of deepening faith and commitment, and exhorting people to follow his commandments was supposed to be an effective protection against sin.
Protestants did not do away with sacramental ordination but they changed the form and meaning of ordination to fit their new interpretation of ministry. They recognised the need for some sort of ceremonial initiation into the ministry and for a ritual to express and symbolise the meaning of the office and service.
The Council of Trent
Trent rejected these views of the Reformers, declaring that the ordained priesthood, separate from and superior to the priesthood of all believers, is conferred through one of the seven sacraments, that the Mass is a true sacrifice, and that there is a true hierarchy in the Church consisting of bishops, priests, and deacons and that these ministers do not depend on the call of the community for their authority and powers. The Council chose to define a priest in terms of two personal powers, namely to offer the eucharistic sacrifice and to remit sins. The bishops were successors of the apos¬tles in a special way in that they had authority to rule over the Church. So only they could confirm, ordain, and perform other sacred functions. Under the impact of Trent, the Catholic Church launched a reform of the clergy. Seminaries for the education and training of future priests were established, and greater emphasis was placed on priestly spirituality.
In the succeeding period, the ideal priestly life-style was portrayed as a very monastic one, even when priests had to live alone in country parishes and was seen as one that revolved around the mass and the sacraments. Priests were holy ministers concerned with holy things, sacramental persons as well as administers of sacra¬ments, and they were expected to be completely dedicated to their work. The reform of the clergy was made possible by the general acceptance of the belief that government in the Church was a divinely established hierarchy.

Chapter Six RECENT TIMES
Pope Pius XII
Episcopalis Consecrationis, 1944, the two bishops who assist the main consecrator in an episcopal ordination are co-consecrators and must act as such.
Sacramentum Ordinis, 1947, the matter is the imposition of hands, and the form the words determining its meaning.
Second Vatican Council
Participation in the Priesthood of Christ.
LG speaks first of Christ’s unique priesthood which is communicated by Him to His Church and is shared by the entire people of God (LG 10-13). Ministerial priesthood, which differs from the common priesthood “in essence and not only in degree” (LG 10), is essentially related to it; it is viewed as a service to the people of God. It consists of three degrees: the episcopate conferred on the bishops as successors of the apostles (LG 20-27), the presbyterate (LG 28) and the diaconate (LG 29).
Ministerial Priesthood
Episcopate:
• A Sacrament (LG 21) which confers the fullness of the Sacrament of Order.
• Successors of the Apostles (CD 2)
• Entrusted with the care of a diocese
• A duty which they must exercise in communion with the Pope (LG 21)
• United with the Pope, they constitute an Apostolic College (LG 22)
• Have solicitude for whole Church (LG 23-24)
• Have authority in their dioceses, but also collegially in their regions and in the whole world
• Union of bishops symbolises the communion of Churches (23).
• Bishops “enjoy the fullness of the sacrament of orders,” whereas priests and deacons are dependent upon them in the exercise of authority (CD 15).

Presbyterate: United with bishop in priestly dignity (CD 15, LG 28). Ordination enables priests to act in the person of Christ (LG 28) and to represent Him among their flock as Head of His Body (PO 2). Collaborators with the bishop, constitute a college with him (LG 28; CD 29-30) and are his helpers and counsellors (PC 7). Make the bishop present in the local congregations entrusted to their care (LG 28).
Deacons are ordained for service and ministry to the People of God (CD 15). Council recommends the restoration of the permanent diaconate in the Church (LG 29).
Consecration and Mission are integrated (PO 3).
Threefold Function
Christ is at once Teacher, Priest and Shepherd. These three functions are continued in the Church; hence the Church has a threefold function; prophetic, sanctifying and pastoral, which are shared by the entire people of God; the laity exercise them in their own way (LG 34, 36). The same three functions are indissolubly linked in the ministerial priesthood and exercised in various degrees by bishops, presbyters and deacons.
Priesthood of the Baptised
The Council puts “new” emphasis on the Church as being the entire people, encourages the “universal call to holiness,” reversing the previous view that only those with a special vocation were called to holiness, and opens the door to fuller participation of lay people in the activity of the Church’s life.
Change of Emphasis
Vatican II depicts the priest as a proclaimer of the gospel of God and builder of Christian community. The documents show a preference for presbyter over sacerdos.
Revision of Rites
The Council ordered that the ceremonies and the texts of the ordination rites be revised.
Reform of Structure
In 1972, Pope Paul VI reformed the structure of ministry in the Church. Lector and acolyte were no longer considered ordained ministries, but rather lay ministries into which people could be installed by the bishop. Moreover episcopal conferences may request the creation of other lay ministries, among which the ministry of catechist is mentioned.
Consequences of the Council
• For many who had been ordained to the old minor orders, it came as a bit of a shock that those orders could simply be suppressed by decree. Still this historical overview shows that the Church can and must shape her ministries according to contemporary needs of the Church community.
• A growing awareness of the community base of ordained ministry.
• Diversity: The restoration of the diaconate and lay ministries.
• Bishops – Pastors.
• Priests – Preachers and Community Builders.
• Priests – Loss of Identity




Chapter Seven Ordained Ministry & Priesthood of the Faithful

In virtue of their baptism, all the faithful participate in the priesthood of Christ. I Peter 2:9 explains that the faithful are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation and a people set apart”. The letter goes on to say in 2:12 that Christians are to live among the gentiles so that seeing their good deeds, they will give thanks to God. In NT times, there seems to have been a special stress on offering ones life as a sacrifice for those who have not yet heard of Christ, so that they could see Christian dedication as an invitation to believe.
Vatican II teaches in LG 34 that the baptized faithful share in Christ’s “priestly office of offering spiritual worship for the glory of the father and the salvation of humanity” and that “their prayers and apostolic undertakings, family and married life, daily work, relaxation of mind and body, even the hardships of life if patiently borne… are offered to the Father in all piety along with the body of the Lord. And so, worshiping everywhere by their holy actions, the laity consecrates the world itself to God” (LG 34). Their loving acts of ministry, generosity, justice, and compassion are the visible expression of the living Christ, animating his mystical body.
The CCC asserts that: “While common priesthood of the faithful is exercised by the unfolding of baptismal grace – a life of faith, hope and charity, a life according to the spirit – the ministerial priesthood is at the service of the common priesthood. (1547). The ordained have as their mission to gather, proclaim, explain, heal, nourish, and send the baptised out to engage in the world. Vatican II asserts that the laity are given the special vocation of making the Church present and fruitful in those places and circumstances where it’s only through them that it can become the salt of the earth (LG 33).
We have been so cautioned to remember that the priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial priesthood “differ essentially and not only in degree” (LG 10) that we have tended to lose the missionary focus of the Church and deprive the faithful of any awareness of their priestly identity. The more urgent pastoral problem today is that most Catholics have no idea of the priesthood of all believers and so are not affirmed by it or inspired to action by it. Besides, the statement in LG 10 that the two kinds of priesthood in the Church differ not only in degree but in essence obviously does not mean that the ordained priest undergoes an essential change, thereby ceasing to be a partaker in our common humanity. The distinction is not between two kinds of person but two kinds of priesthood. The Council refuses to attribute a higher grade or degree to the ministerial, as though the common priesthood ranked lower that it on the same scale. Instead it situates the two kinds of priesthood in different categories, like oranges and branches. The ministerial priesthood involves a public representational function rather than a personal giftedness. If anything, the common priesthood is more exalted, for the ministers are ordained for the sake of service toward the whole people of God (Dulles, PO, p.11).
Vobis sum episcopus, vobiscum Christianus – St Augustine.
There are two key texts can help us in our understanding of this relationship, namely, Gen 2:7 and Ezek 37. The images of body, shape and bones represent the ministerial priesthood, while the images of breath and flesh signify the common priesthood. These narratives and images indicate both the interdependence and the difference between ministerial priesthood and the common priesthood of the faithful. As Congar claims there is no Word without Breath and Breath is ineffective without Word. The following table illustrates this even further.


Ordained Faithful
Church Head of Christ Body of Christ
Represent Christological Pneumatological
Provide Form, Definition Life
Mission Express, Formulate Execute
Focus Church World
Charism Apostolic Prophetic
Loyalty Past Future
Attitude Collaboration Respect
Task Leader Witness
Symbol Unity Diversity
Ethos Service Service
Style Institutional Charismatic

In this great field of complementary activity, there exists a more restricted area namely, the sacred ministry of the clergy. In this ministry the lay faithful are called to assist. In the years since Vatican II the faithful through their baptismal calling have successfully undertaken many lay ecclesial ministries, and so are participating in the ordained ministry. When lay people realise their vocation through a ministry for the Church, they are participating in the apostolate of the Church in a very direct and specific manner. This apostolate entails a mission that consists of a call and a mandate with the requisite authority assigned to it. The faithful are not all called or obliged to participate in this apostolate, because their general mission is personal, spiritual and ex spiritu as distinct from being social, juridical and ex officio. This form of apostolate comprises formal and public types of ministries, like preaching, eucharistic minister, minister of the word, teaching, liturgical co-ordinating, leading Sunday celebrations, catechising, theological work, missionary work, founding new ecclesial communities, maintaining ecclesial communities, social and youth ministries, administration of parishes and so on. These ministries and others associated with this apostolate are essential for invigorating the Church’s life and are, undoubtedly, required to ensure the smooth running of the ecclesial community. "When necessity and expediency in the Church require it, the Pastors, according to established norms from universal law, can entrust to the lay faithful certain offices and roles that are connected to their pastoral ministry but do not require the character of Orders" (CL 23). The laity should not assigned duties for reasons of convenience or the ambiguous ‘advancement of the laity’ (EdM 4) or to facilitate the expression of solidarity with the other laity of the parish. The following table presents some of the chief functions of the ordained, the baptised and those collaborating in ecclesial ministry.

1 Ordained Priesthood 2 Common Priesthood 3 Collaboration in Ministry
Priest 1 Presiding & Administering the Sacraments, Prayer 2 Romans 12:1, Participating in Sacraments, Prayer. 3 LG Eucharistic Ministry, Ministry of Word
Prophet 1 Preaching, Teaching 2 Example, Reading the ‘Signs of Times,’ Presenting way forward. 3 Catechising, theological work, missionary work,
King 1 Pastor, Leader 2 Compassion, Engagement in the World, Work Marriage: Love Spouse, family and community. Be Sacrament of God’s love 3 Administration of parishes, founding new ecclesial communities, social & youth ministries, maintaining ecclesial communities,

As baptised and confirmed members of the Church, lay ministers, by virtue of their personal call, can exercise apostleship ex officio and can participate in the apostolate of the hierarchy but they do not enjoy a right to do so (EdM, Art 4). They have to wait to be mandated or delegated by the hierarchy to discharge their individual missions (CCL 228, 230). "The exercise of such tasks does not make Pastors of the lay faithful, in fact, a person is not a minister simply in performing a task, but through sacramental ordination. Only the Sacrament of Orders gives the ordained minister a particular participation in the office of Christ (EdM 2). The task exercised in virtue of supply takes its legitimacy formally and immediately from the official deputation given by Pastors, as well as from its concrete exercise under the guidance of ecclesiastical authority" (CL 30).
Therefore lay activity remains subordinate to the hierarchy and it does not extend to sharing in hierarchical powers but is effective in the practical order of Church life. ‘It is unlawful for the non-ordained faithful to assume titles such as "pastor", "chaplain", "coordinator", " moderator" or other such similar titles which can confuse their role and that of the Pastor, who is always a Bishop or Priest’ (EdM, Art 1). Every ministry that is exercised publicly in the Christian community needs some kind of recognition from the local Church leader. All apostolic activity which involves participation in the hierarchical apostolate requires a formal mandate, since this apostolate derives from the mandate of Jesus and is a public activity in the Church. This dialectic of autonomy and dependence shows that lay people, though directors in a certain sense, continue to be directed. Lay ministries co-operate and collaborate with the hierarchical ministry in forming the ecclesial community.
This collaborative apostolate of the laity does not become an ‘apostolate of the hierarchy’; the laity are not turned into curates without cassocks. At the present time, however, circumstances are such that it is possible to overcome the danger of "clericalizing" the laity and of "secularizing" the clergy. The generous commitment of the laity in the areas of worship, transmission of the faith and pastoral collaboration, in the face of shortages of priests, has tempted some sacred ministers and laity to go beyond that which is permitted by the Church and by their own sacramental capacities. This results in a theoretical and practical under estimation of the specific mission of the laity to sanctify the structures of society from within. This same crisis of identity has also brought about the "secularization" of some sacred ministers by obscuring their absolutely indispensable specific role in ecclesial communion.
So, Pope John Paul II has warned against the clericalisation of lay elites (CL 23) and was concerned that the talent and enthusiasms of the most gifted lay faithful are drawn into liturgical ministries. This may be to the detriment of their lay witness and committed political action in the world. The hoped-for lay presence in the world has seldom received the theological development, catechesis, or implementation consistent with its importance as a major theme of the Council. It must be remembered that "collaboration with" does not mean "substitution for”. Moreover, the exceptional and provisional nature of such arrangements require the promotion of an awareness of the absolute need for priestly vocations in these parish communities. The seeds of such vocations should be encouraged in them; community and personal prayer for vocations should be promoted and well as prayers for the sanctification of priests. (Note The Priest & the 3rd Mill, C of Cl, Ch 3, No 3)

Chapter Eight CHARACTER & PERSONAL IDENTITY

CHARACTER: Jesus Christ is said to be the 'express image of God's person’, the 'very stamp of his nature' (Heb 1:3). It is derived from the Greek word for an engraving tool or a die stamp. Moral character indicates the consistent conduct of a personal agent whose mind and will are fixed on a supreme good, so that moral action comes to him or her almost as second nature. The priestly character is the personal reality corresponding to the outward matter and form of ordination. Mysterium Ecclesiae of 1973, states that the rite of ordination confers “on priests not only an increase of grace for carrying out ecclesiastical duties in a holy way, but also a permanent designation by Christ, or character, by virtue of which they are equipped for their work and endowed with the necessary power that is derived from the supreme power of Christ”. Priestly character is a gift, indelibly marked on the soul at ordination, and a task to be achieved through continuous personal formation. When a priest’s mind and heart are fixed on being fully a priest, then his conduct will be consistent with priestly living and ministry and eventually this priestly activity will come to him almost as second nature. Then we can say he has a priestly character that is effective in his personal life and is truly indelible.

PERSONAL IDENTITY:
Disciple – Call & Total Response, Cross, Hope
Apostle – Sent.

Disciple – Indentity
Apostle – Maturity, Generativity
Proclaiming Christ – 2 Cor 4.5

In bringing Christ to his people and in leading them to Christ, the priest is generative and becomes the spiritual father of his people.

Chapter Nine Community

A Presence in the Community
1 Symbol Bearer
Through the sacrament of holy orders the person is officially designated to embody the community’s values. Other people may pray, preach, teach, heal, and administer sacraments as well or better than the priest. However, when the priest does these things, he functions as the symbol-bearer for the community, under orders from the community, as the officially recognised, corporately designated person to bear and interpret the community’s shared symbols; he acts in personae ecclesiae. No one can be a priest privately (William Bausch, NLS, pp. 251-252).

2. Living Reminder
A priest must be a living reminder of God’s word to the community. The history and the sociology of communities indicate the need for a specific kind of gesture, one which is more expressive than the written word, one that is more pointed than the day-by-day lives of the community members.

3. Spiritual Personality.
The priest is obliged to complement the objective spiritual authority with a subjective authority deriving from sincerity and holiness of life (The Priest & 3rd Mill, Ch 1, No 2) and to strive for holiness so as to receive the grace to be worthy to represent the person of Christ, Head and Shepherd, and be a living instrument in the work of salvation (The Priest, Pastor & Leader, 10). This is not easy in our world today where our media filled culture tends to promote the unreflective life and gives little space to the inner life. Still, it is important for priests to claim an inner life for themselves through keeping a journal, practicing contemplative prayer, writing poetry, doing retreats, reading and giving time for spiritual nurturing. Otherwise they like most adults in our society will find themselves overwhelmed by the intrusive demands of our consumer and media culture. Many priests benefit from working with a regular spiritual director. Spiritual discretion is a time of accountability, healing, encouragement, enlightening interpretation, and the sacramental ministration of the Holy Spirit’s guidance and love. It cannot be recommended too highly. For many priests, regular support and faith sharing groups complement their reception of individual spiritual direction (Paul Philibert, SGM, p. 38). So, priests are obliged to nourish their inner lives and to seek intimacy with the Lord.

4. Model of Human Authenticity.
Pope John Paul II explains in Pastores Dabo Vobis, 1992 that “human formation is the basis of all priestly formation” (PDV 43). He goes on to say that ‘these qualities are needed for future priests to be balanced people,… capable of bearing the weight of pastoral responsibilities. They need to be educated to love the truth, to be loyal, to respect every person, to have a sense of justice, to be true to their word, to be genuinely compassionate, to be men of integrity and especially to be balanced in judgment and behaviour’ (PDV 43). Priests are to have a mature capacity to relate to others. To be responsible for a community and to be a ‘man of communion’ it is necessary that such a person be affable, sincere, generous, and ready to serve.
And yet, many priests and seminarians have been wounded emotionally or even abused physically in their younger lives. So, there is need for great self-care and for engagement in personal formation and healing to facilitate the capacity to minister to others. In the words of Henri Nouwen, priests are wounded healers; to be healers they need to tend to their own wounds. This care is helped by catering for their needs for affection, friendship and companionship. Friendship is a reality that bestows great riches and makes great demands. The toil of friendship (and deep and lasting friendships are a kind of toil) is essential to a healthy authentic life. This involves constantly respecting their public choice to remain celibate. The powerful emotions that accompany deep friendship sometimes tempt the best of men to violate or compromise their commitment to chastity. Yet the safeguards of prayer, spiritual direction, and trusting openness in peer support groups can protect priests from losing perspective and breaking their vows. Friendship teaches us that celibacy is not about renouncing love, but precisely about imitating the universal love of the one whose disciples we are, Jesus Christ. The full humanity of the priest, which emanates from self-care and responsible growth, gives him the zeal and strength of character to lead, serve, challenge and support his pastoral associates and his people.

B. Active for the Community
1. Preacher and Prophet
“It is the first task of priests as co-workers of the bishops to preach the Gospel of God to all people” (PO 4) Also Pope Paul VI, Pope Benedict XVI and Congregation for Clergy. Evangelizing activities may be shared by others, but the stewardship of this ministry belongs by right to priests in cooperation with their Bishops. As St Paul says, I should be punished if I did not preach (I Cor 9.16), so it is also for priests. In the vision of Church as Herald, the priest is a preacher, an evangelizer, a proclaimer of the Word of God and a herald for the coming of the Kingdom of God. Preaching the Sunday homily, the priest inspires the liturgical gathering to a real participation in transforming their lives and the lives of others. (Note II Tim 4:1-5). Canon 528 asserts that the parish priest has the obligation of ensuring that the word of God is proclaimed in its entirety to those living in the parish and it mentions explicitly that this has to done especially during the homily on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation.
There is a wider prophetic call to which priests must be attentive as well. It is the heritage of Catholic social teaching. Our faith calls us to work for justice; to serve those in need; to pursue peace; and to defend the life, dignity, and rights of all our sisters and brothers. This is the call of Jesus, the challenge of the prophets, and the living tradition of our Church teaching going back to the great encyclical of Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, of May 1891 (A Century of Social Teaching, US Bishops, No 1). So, priests need to be advocates of justice for the poor and underprivileged. This takes courage: it is not easy to stand up to a bishop or a political leader even when there is a need to bring attention to issues of justice that are affecting the lives of ordinary people. He can also offer leadership and encouragement to others who are engaged in initiatives for justice and peace within the parish and larger community. Especially, he can offer a real fraternity of support for prophets in the presbyteral order. Priests who exercise a special prophetic role in the church need special support from their fellow priests. At the very least, the priest can fulfil this role of prophet by disseminating the excellent pastoral statements on social issues and political responsibilities that are regularly published by the local episcopal conference (Philibert, SGM, pp. 42-44).
The role of the priest in proclaiming God’s Word, then, is fulfilled through formal kerygmatic preaching; it may also be achieved through dialogue, or through priestly presence or through prophetic speech and action in the tradition of Isaiah and Jesus, above all it emanates from the perception of the priest as a living reminder of God’s word.

2. Leader.
In the earliest communities, the priest is associated principally with Church leadership. A priest is what the NT calls a presbyter. The NT presbyters were a group responsible for the pastoral care of the churches. The qualities the NT prescribes for the presbyter are very sober. He must be above reproach, temperate, sensible, dignified, hospitable, an able teacher, gentle, not quarrelsome (e.g., I Tim 3:1-7).
• Public Figure
As a leader, the priest belongs to the public forum called the institutional Church. He cannot stand outside it even if he protests against it. He is bound to rise above his personal insights and feelings and represent those of the Church. He belongs to the public forum. Like it or not, he is a churchperson, he does represent an institution. He cannot, as a priest, stand outside his institution; he is an official part of it. Not that the institution is always right, is beyond criticism or censure. Rather, this institution is the setting where faith is born and grows; this institution is the locus and focus of worship; this institution is the community of love. This is what the priest represents.
• Administration
In the perspective of Church as Institution, the priest is involved in ecclesial parochial administration and directs the life of the community. The priest has a concern for the moral and physical order in the Church and a responsibility to ensure an orderly and proper celebration of the mysteries of salvation by the community. A strong and efficient priest can facilitate a large measure of lay participation and co-responsibility on all levels. As administrators, priests have responsibilities for the physical maintenance of the parish plant; monitoring the budget; hiring and supervising; evaluating and directing personnel; and submitting reports, collections, and planning documents to diocesan officials.
• Forms and Organises
The priest, as leader, is called especially to build up the Christian community. His ministry looks not merely to the care of individuals but also, as Vatican II put it, “to the formation of a genuine Christian community” (PO 6). The priest should be a person who has the “gift of discernment”, i.e. of being able to discover the many charisms in the congregation, stimulating them to become active and co-ordinating them for the well-being of the whole community. He should be a person of "dialogue ability", who can sense the Spirit operative in the community rather than constantly acting as if only he had the Spirit. For him, Paul wrote: “Do not stifle the Spirit, but discern everything and then keep what is good” (1 Th 5:19-20). His task is to organise, to stabilise, and to prevent dangerous innovation. “He must hold firm to the sure word he was taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict it” (Tit 1:9). His task calls for authority that does not dominate or make demands, that is softened by being wonderfully warm and human and has the ability to move hearts and minds.
• Connects
The priest as the leader connects his community with all of humanity. Unity in Christ is not only a personal, but above all, a communal achievement. The People of God is made up of many interlocking and interdependent communities. If one were to visualise the scope of the priest’s responsibility for reconciliation in Christ, the image of concentric, ever-widening circles might serve the purpose. At the centre is Christ. The first circle is that of the particular community, which the priest serves; he is to be the point of unity of the congregation. The priest is specifically empowered and obliged to be a ‘man of communion.’ In regard to the parish pastoral council, its role is to serve the orderly collaboration of the faithful in the development of pastoral activity which is proper to priests. The pastoral council is thus a consultative organ in which the faithful, expressing their baptismal responsibility, can assist the parish priest, who presides at the council, by offering their advice on pastoral matters. (The Priest, Pastor & Leader, Cong for Cl, 26).
The next circle broadens out to the larger Christian grouping which is the diocese. The parish priest is called to be a patient builder of communion between his own parish and the local Church, and the universal Church. By his union with the bishop as head of the presbyterate, the priest witnesses to the communion of his congregation with a cluster of similar congregations, thus overcoming the danger of sectarianism or exclusivism. Indeed, presbyters are the official representatives of the bishop. Lumen Gentium 28 states that there is a sense in which presbyters make the bishop present in each local assembly. Through their loyalty to their bishop, they exercise a ministry of unity in the diocese. Their common relationship to him should establish a bond of unity among priests and their parishes. The Council describes them as an “intimate sacramental brotherhood” (PO 8) and Pastores Dabo Vobis asserts that the ordained ministry has a radical communitarian form and can only be carried out as collective work. (PdV 17) The brotherly bond, flowing from the very nature of the presbyteral order, that exists among them means they have an obligation to care for one another and a responsibility toward those in difficulty, “even discreetly warning them when necessary” (PO 8). The brethren in the presbyterate should always be the special object of the priest's pastoral charity, by helping them materially and spiritually, by affording the opportunity for confession and spiritual direction, by encouraging their service, by helping them in their necessities, by offering fraternal support in their difficulties, old-age or infirmity. This is truly an area for the exercise of priestly virtue.’ (The Priest & the 3rd Mill, C of Cl, Ch 3, No 3.)
The role of priests as the vicar of the bishop implies both courage and humility. They courageously represent the Church’s authority and compassion as the voice of the bishop who is the chief representative of Christ in the local church. “Priests should be attached to their bishop with sincere charity and obedience” (PO 7). This implies humility and deference on the part of the priests in their obedience to the pastoral judgment and ecclesial discipline of the bishop as the leader of the local Church. The spirituality of both bishops and priests will be nurtured by the development of mutual trust and respect. Many priests find their relationship with their bishop challenging because of obedience and the priority given to professional integrity and the protection of children. So, there is need today for creative initiatives and dialogue in the relationships between bishops and priests, if the real fraternal solidarity they share in the one priesthood is to be authentic.
Religious priests, whose ordinary is not the local bishop but their own major superior, form a special category in the diocese. The charism of their founder and the mission of their religious institute constitute a pastoral value that is placed at the service of the local bishop and the diocese. The bishop, then, should carefully consider their charism, mission and potential to serve the spiritual needs of the diocese (Pope John Paul II, Vita Consecrata, 1996, 48-50). Religious priests, for their part, owe the bishop respect, affection, and obedience in the decisions that govern their participation in the ministry of the local church.
The third circle widens to that of the universal Church, for the presbyteral order as a whole is called to assist the episcopal order in the latter’s collegial care for the universal Church. Membership in and dedication to a particular Church does not limit the activity and life of priests to that Church (PDV 32). The priest represents the bishop in his collegial responsibility for the whole Church as well as in his pastoral guidance of the particular Church. ‘Priestly ministers voluntarily undertake to serve all in the Church.’ (The Priest, Pastor and Leader, Cong for Cl, Part 1, No 1.) Finally, the last circle expands to include all humankind, and here the priest, by his concern for peace and justice in the world, points to the hope that some day all people will be brothers and sisters in the Kingdom. He, as a member of a collegial order, shares in the Church's universal ministry and has an obligation to prevent any community from closing in on itself, presenting to it the universal aspect of the Church and the needs of humanity.
• President of Eucharist
Because the priest is the community leader and symbol-bearer, because he embodies the community’s values and stands in the public forum, he is entrusted with the community’s highest form of solidarity and unity. He presides over the Eucharist. He leads in the celebration of the sacraments. It is not his total task, but it is a central preoccupation of priesthood. For here the priest does what St. Paul insisted must be done: “proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor 11:26). He has a sacramental ministry that revolves around the bread of life and the cup of the new covenant. Around this liturgy the Church has built an access for man and woman to the life that is Christ, from the water of baptism through the ashes of penance to the healing oil of anointing.
The priest, as community symbol-bearer and living reminder, becomes a magnet to the community to gather. He is the focal sign and rallying point of the community always-in-the-making. He leads in the shaping of the Church. The priest presides over the “Church gathered” as the laity carries the gospel to the “Church scattered.” He preserves the community from forgetting who it is, just as a vital laity preserves it from forever looking backward. He protects the Church from amnesia while the laity saves it from nostalgia. As president at the Eucharist, he effects the Church’s most powerful expression of unity - the unity of the worshipping congregation within itself, with the diocese, with the universal Church, and with all humankind.
In the vision of Church as Sacrament, the priest is a cultic figure mediating between God and the rest of humanity. Since ministry in the Church is to lead people to an authentic encounter with God, the symbolic and mystical dimension of the priesthood should not be neglected; the priest is called to be a mystagogue, a holy person who leads the community to holiness, to intimate spiritual experiences with God, a prayerful person who educates the community in ways of prayer.

3. Servant and Pastor
Finally, the priest is ordained to serve the community as a pastor and humanity as an agent for justice and peace. In the perception of the Church as Community of Disciples, the priest is to act as a pastor and is expected to be close to Christ in order to lead others to Christ. He needs to foster the bonds of love, trust, and familiarity with the fellow disciples under his care. He must resemble the Good Shepherd, who calls his sheep by name and whose voice is recognised as that of a trusted leader. He must make every effort to know the people entrusted to his care. “Jesus himself, the Good Shepherd, calls ‘his sheep one by one’ with a voice well known to them (John 10, 3-4). Viewing the Church as Servant to the World, the priest is called to point out the dangers of dehumanisation and inspire concrete initiatives for the transformation of human society according to the ideals of the Kingdom of God. Political responsibility as a priestly responsibility is integral to the mandate ‘to go forth and preach the Gospel’, for it is directly action for justice and participation in the development of the world. By standing aside from political struggles, the clergy might support an unjust social order or encourage indifference toward the moral dimension of public affairs.

Definition
Priestly ordination is a solemn sacramental celebration by which a person is received into the order of presbyters, assumes public office in the Church, and is enabled to act in the name of Christ and the Christian community with the promised assistance of the Holy Spirit (Walter J Burghardt, “What Is a Priest?”, The Way, Supplement, No 23, (Autumn 1974), p. 56).
There is a shift in the emphasis from possession of spiritual and hierarchical power to community relatedness and from performer to enabler in the newer concept of holy orders. The revised Roman ritual for ordination no longer speaks of priestly power but only of office and dignity. In all these ways, this sacrament is regaining its community orientation. Furthermore, the ritual declares that the one most worthy to be ordained as leader must be the one most proven as servant.


Chapter Ten Characteristics of Leadership

More than ever before the priest is called to be a leader in his community. In the spiritually intelligent leader, spirituality and humanity come together, fleshing out and making real the popular appeal for good leadership. The following traits are present in the great leader.
Courage —It is difficult to lead when you are afraid. Note – I Tim 1:6-7.
No resentment — ‘There is no limit to what you can achieve provided you don't mind who gets the credit.’
Passionate —'Are you prepared to break your heart in pursuit of the vision of true leadership?'
Openness —When everyone is thinking the same way, nobody is thinking very much.
Service —There is a dignity about being a servant that keeps the leader level-headed!
Confidence —It does not exclude uncertainty or mistakes. But it does include a sense of one's own uniqueness.
Inner Authority —Do you speak, act and lead out of your ego or your essence? Transparency —To be truly authentic, to be transparent, to be honest, and to be trustworthy is essential for any leader in our age of corporate cover-up, in State and Church.
Presence — A certain type of personal, physical presence is found in true leadership; a real presence; a presence that witnesses; a presence that speaks of justice and compassion, a presence that transforms.
Self-awareness —Without a knowledge of our own weaknesses, wounds and shadow, we will never be able to lead or liberate others into their true selves. We can only walk with others, sensitively and usefully, as far as we have walked with ourselves. We can only win the minds and hearts of others to the extent that we have won over our own.
Spirituality —The non-negotiable basis for achieving and acquiring the qualities just outlined is the contemplative dimension of our lives, the total surrender of our own hearts into the peace, power and passion of the heart of the Mystery. It is here, during that silent, daily time set apart for meditation, during which even religion-less leaders are renewed, that the spiritual dimension of leadership is nourished and maintained. In contemplation, the soul is searched.
(From ‘Courageous Conversations’ by Daniel O’Leary, Furrow, Feb 2006, Vol 57, No 2).

Chapter Eleven CELIBACY
The Apostles were, for the most part, married men who had discovered the hidden riches of the Kingdom of God and were so enthralled at the prospect of being involved in establishing the Kingdom that they joyfully left everything, without counting the cost, to follow Jesus. Thus, while they were essentially capable of marriage, their involvement with Christ and his Kingdom so engaged them that they were “existentially incapable” of doing other than leaving all things to follow Christ. In this sense, they are truly “eunuchs” for the sake of the Kingdom.
In the Synoptics, the original experiential fact of this ‘inner logic’ is already formulated as a demand. Whoever wants to be Jesus’ disciple must leave everything - ‘house, brothers, land, mother, father’(Matthew). In Luke, the formulation of this demand is less strict. The term ‘leave’ is weakened to ‘hate’ – weakened, because for a Semite ‘hate’ in such a context meant ‘to love less’. Jesus approvingly states a fact of religious psychology; in view of their joy in finding the ‘hidden pearl’ some people cannot do other than live as unmarried. But there is absolutely no question of a law commanding this. Thus, the NT knows no juridically binding connection between office in the Church and celibacy, but it recognises something more fundamental - that the religious experience of the overpowering attraction of God’s Kingdom and of being involved in establishing it becomes, for some people, a condition which makes entrance into marriage impossible in practice. Still, the image of the Church official in Apostolic times is that of a married person, who is a good parent.

• The Encratic Influence.
• Elvira, c295-302 - Imposes celibacy on bishops, priests and deacons, but has not universal application.
• Nicaea, 325 - Forbids marriage after receiving orders.
• Popes Innocent I in 401 & Pope Leo I, 440-461, allow married priests to live with their wives ‘as brothers and sisters’.
• Trullo, 692 - Forbids marriage after receiving orders.
• Pope Nicholas II forbade the faithful from attending Mass said by a priest who was not celibate in 1059.
• With Gregory VII in 1073, celibacy became a condition for entering the presbyteral ministry.
• The First Lateran Council (1123) prohibited those in holy orders from marrying and ordered all married priests to renounce their wives and do penance. The Second Lateran Council (1139) declared celibacy a law of the universal Church. It said that marriage of subdeacons, deacons, or priests after their ordination was invalid. Candidates for the priesthood who were already married might not receive any higher orders unless they severed all relations with their wives.
• Trent confirms the discipline.
Motives for the Law.
• Divine Intimacy
• Cultic Purity
• Attraction of the Kingdom (Mt 19.12)
• Social Motives
• Evangelically Inspired
• Pope Paul VI: Christ, Church & Eschaton
• Pope John Paul II: Freedom for Service & Sign of Fidelity
Conclusion
Richard Sipe says: ‘Celibacy is a freely chosen dynamic state, usually vowed, that involves an honest and sustained attempt to live without direct sexual gratification in order to serve others productively for a spiritual motive’. While the Church never imposes celibacy on anyone against his will or obliges anyone to become a priest, she has the right to impose restrictions on the manner of life of those whom she chooses as her ministers. On the basis of the biblical connection between religious celibacy and the Kingdom of God, she has concretised the state of life of all who wish to freely accept office in the Church into a Christian way of life that makes them available to all in a special way. Therefore, she permits only those who feel themselves called to celibacy to enter the ranks of her ministerial priesthood.



Chapter 12 Inter Insigniores


Reasons for not ordaining women as priests.
1. Jesus Christ did not call any woman to be part of the twelve apostles.
2. The Apostles did not include any women in the apostolic group.
3. From the earliest centuries, the constant practice of the Church has been not to ordain women to the priesthood.
4. No natural resemblance to act in the name of Jesus.
5. Not a human rights issue.
6. Church has not got the authority.

Reasons given for showing that women can minister as priests.
1. Jesus liberates women.
2. During the Last Supper, Jesus empowered women to preside at the Eucharist.
3. Church is called to be Liberated from Prejudice.
4. Affirmed in latent tradition.
5. Women were Ordained as Deacons.
6. Supported by developments in other Christian Churches.
7. Called by the Holy Spirit

SUMMARY
• Basis of Sacrament: Heb 5 (Jesus the compassionate High Priest of the Order of Melchizedek).
• Institution: Mt 18:18 (binding & loosing), Lk 22:19 (Do this in memory of me).
• Practice: 2 Tim 1:6 (Fan into a flame the gift God gave you, when I laid my hands on you).
• Prophetic Act: Lk 6:12-16 (Choice of 12); 9:1-6 (Mission of 12).
• Doctrine: The sacrament of Order was instituted by Christ and is conferred through the imposition of hands and the prayer of ordination. The minister of the sacrament is the bishop. The sacrament confers the Holy Spirit and grace for the exercise of the ministry. It imprints a sacramental character which conforms the recipient to Christ the Priest. Some ministries can be conferred on lay people by installation.

TEN PRINCIPLES FOR A PRIEST’S LIFE PATTERN

1. How I live as a priest is more important than what I do as a priest.
2. What Christ does through me is more important that what I do by myself.
3. It is more important for me to live in union with the presbyterium than to be alone and absorbed in my work.
4. The ministry of prayer and the word is more important than serving at tables.
5. It is more important to work united with my fellow workers than to do the maximum number of jobs all by myself.
6. It is more important to concentrate on a few points and to influence others than to be hurried and incomplete in everything.
7. Joint action is more important than isolated action, no matter how perfect.
8. The cross is more important than efficiency; it is more fruitful.
9. Openness to the whole (community, diocese, Church throughout the world) is more important than a particular interest, no matter how important that may be.
10. It is more important that the faith be witnessed to all than that all ‘traditional’ demands be satisfied. (From ‘The meaning of Christian Priesthood’ by Gisbert Greshake).

Oral Examination 2010

Sacramentology IV Marriage

Please Choose One Question to answer from the following (30 Marks).

1. Explain what the following Councils said about Marriage: The Council of Verona (2), The Council of Trent (8), and The Second Vatican Council (20).

2. Explain briefly: Eph 5:32, Tametsi, and the Pauline Privilege (3 marks each). Discuss marital covenant and marital contract (7). Describe the role of faith in the sacrament of marriage (4). As a pastor, why would you encourage those baptised, who are engaged to get married, but are not practicing Catholics and may have little or no ‘faith,’ to marry sacramentally? (10)

3. Explain why some theologians propose that the Church should separate the marital contract from the marital sacrament (4). Give some reasons against having civil divorce (8). Give reasons why the Catholic Church staunchly defends the indissolubility of marriage and prohibits divorce and remarriage, except in exceptional circumstances (7). As a pastor, what should your attitude be those who are living together with difficulty in a dead marriage and what options can you present to them? (9)

4. What did Jesus say about marriage? (6) What prophetic words of Jesus give us the origin of the Sacrament of Marriage? (3) Explain philia love and agapaic love (11). As a pastor, what should your attitude be to those who are cohabitating, those who are living in a polygamous situation, those who have divorced and have civilly remarried? (10)


Please Answer One of the Following Questions Chosen by the Lecturer (20 Marks).

5. What contributions were made by the following to our thinking on marriage: The Book of Genesis (2), The Prophet Hosea (2), The Gospel of Luke (2), Paul of Tarsus (9), Augustine of Hippo (4), Pope Nicholas I (1),

6. Why did the Church have reservations about declaring marriage a sacrament? (6) Give the reasons why the Church eventually accepted marriage as a sacrament? (6) Explain briefly the following: banns of marriage (2), canonical form of marriage (2) and marriage as a domestic Church (4).

7. Present some essential elements of a marriage preparation course (12). Describe some essential positive values in Catholic marriage (8).

8. Why is Christian marriage a sacrament? (2) Describe some essential positive values in Catholic marriage. (8) Describe some ways in which a couple experience the grace and invitation of sacramental marriage (10).

Rite of Marriage

RITE OF MARRIAGE
INTRODUCTION

IMPORTANCE AND DIGNITY OF THE SACRAMENT OF MATRIMONY
1. Married Christians, in virtue of the sacrament of mat¬rimony, signify and share in the mystery of that unity and fruitful love which exists between Christ and his Church;1 they help each other to attain to holiness in their married life and in the rearing and education of their children; and they have their own special gift among the people of God.
2. Marriage arises in the covenant of marriage, or irrevocable consent, which each partner freely bestows on and accepts from the other. This intimate union and the good of the children impose total fidelity on each of them and argue for an unbreakable oneness between them. Christ the Lord raised this union to the dignity of a sacrament so that it might more clearly recall and more easily reflect his own unbreakable union with his Church.
3. Christian couples, therefore, nourish and develop their marriage by undivided affection, which wells up from the fountain of divine love, while, in a merging of human and divine love, they remain faithful in body and in mind, in good times as in bad.4
4. By their very nature, the institution of matrimony and wedded love are ordained for the procreation and education of children and find in them their ultimate crown. There¬fore, married Christians, while not considering the other purposes of marriage of less account, should be steadfast and ready to cooperate with the love of the Creator and Savior, who through them will constantly enrich and en¬large his own family.5
5 A priest should bear in mind these principles of faith, both in his instructions to those about to be married and when giving the homily during the marriage ceremony. He should relate his instructions to the texts of the sacred readings.6
The bridal couple should be given a review of the funda¬mentals of Christian doctrine. This may include instruction on the teachings about marriage and the family, on the rites used in the celebration of the sacrament itself, and on the prayers and readings. In this way the bridegroom and the bride will receive far greater benefit from the celebration.
6. In the celebration of marriage (which normally should be within the Mass), certain elements should be stressed, espe¬cially the liturgy of the word, which shows the importance of Christian marriage in the history of salvation and the duties and responsibility of the couple in caring for the holiness of their children. Also of supreme importance are the consent of the contracting parties, which the priest asks and receives; the special nuptial blessing for the bride and for the marriage covenant; and finally, the reception of holy communion by the groom and the bride, and by all present, by which their love is nourished and all are lifted up into communion with our Lord and with one another.
7. Priests should first of all strengthen and nourish the faith of those about to be married, for the sacrament of mat¬rimony presupposes and demands faith.8

CHOICE OF RITE
8. In a marriage between a Catholic and a baptized person who is not Catholic, the regulations which appear below in the rite of marriage outside Mass (nos. 39-54) shall be observed if suitable, and if the Ordinary of the place gives permission, the rite for celebrating marriage within Mass (nos. 19-38) may be used, except that, according to the general law, communion is not given to the non-Catholic.
In a marriage between a Catholic and one who is not baptized, the rite which appears in nos. 55-66 is to be followed.
9. Furthermore, priests should show special consideration to those who take part in liturgical celebrations or hear the gospel only on the occasion of a wedding, either because they are not Catholics, or because they are Catholics who rarely, if ever, take part in the eucharist or seem to have abandoned the practice of their faith. Priests are ministers of Christ’s gospel to everyone.
10. In the celebration of matrimony, apart from the liturgi¬cal laws providing for due honors to civil authorities, no special honors are to be paid to any private persons or classes of person, whether in the ceremonies or by external display.9
11. Whenever marriage is celebrated during Mass, white vestments are worn and the wedding Mass is used. If the marriage is celebrated on a Sunday or solemnity, the Mass of the day is used with the nuptial blessing and, where appropriate, the special final blessing.
The liturgy of the word is extremely helpful in emphasizing the meaning of the sacrament and the obligations of mar¬riage. When the wedding Mass may not be used, one of the readings in nos. 67-105 should be chosen, except from Holy Thursday to Easter and on the feasts of Christmas, Epiphany, Ascension, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, and other holidays of obligation. On the Sundays of the Christmas season and throughout the year, in Masses which are not parish Masses, the wedding Mass may be used without change.
When a marriage is celebrated during Advent or Lent or other days of penance, the parish priest should advise the couple to take into consideration the special nature of these times.

PREPARATION OF LOCAL RITUALS
12. In addition to the faculty spoken of below in no. 17 for regions where the Roman Ritual for matrimony is used, particular rituals shall be prepared, suitable for the customs and needs of individual areas, according to the principle of art. 63b and 77 of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. These are to be reviewed by the Apostolic See.

In making adaptations, the following points must be re¬membered:
13. The formulas of the Roman Ritual may be adapted or, as the case may be, filled out (including the questions before the consent and the actual words of consent). When the Roman Ritual has several optional formulas, local rituals may add other formulas of the same type.
14. Within the rite of the sacrament of matrimony, the arrangement of its parts may be varied. If it seems more suitable, even the questions before the consent may be omitted as long as the priest asks and receives the consent of the contracting parties.
15. After the exchange of rings, the crowning or veiling of the bride may take place according to local custom.
In any region where the joining of hands or the blessing or exchange of rings does not fit in with the practice of the people, the conference of bishops may allow these rites to be omitted or other rites substituted.
16. As for the marriage customs of nations that are now receiving the gospel for the first time, whatever is good and is not indissolubly bound up with superstition and error should be sympathetically considered and, if possible, pre¬served intact. Sometimes the Church admits such things into the liturgy itself, as long as they harmonize with its true and authentic spirit.10

RIGHT TO PREPARE A COMPLETELY NEW RITE
17. Each conference of bishops may draw up its own mar¬riage rite suited to the usages of the place and people and approved by the Apostolic See. The rite must always con¬form to the law that the priest assisting at such marriages must ask for and receive the consent of the contracting parties,” and the nuptial blessing should always be given.’2
18. Among peoples where the marriage ceremonies customarily take place in the home, sometimes over a period of several days, these customs should be adapted to the Chris¬tian spirit and to the liturgy. In such cases the conference of bishops, according to the pastoral needs of the people, may allow the sacramental rite to be celebrated in the home.

CHAPTER I
RITE FOR CELEBRATING MARRIAGE DURING MASS

ENTRANCE RITE
19. At the appointed time, the priest, vested for Mass, goes with the ministers to the door of the church or, if more suitable, to the altar. There he meets the bride and bride¬groom in a friendly manner, showing that the Church shares their joy.
Where it is desirable that the rite of welcome be omitted, the celebration of marriage begins at once with the Mass.
20. If there is a procession to the altar, the ministers go first, followed by the priest, and then the bride and the bridegroom. According to local custom, they may be es¬corted by at least their parents and the two witnesses. Meanwhile, the entrance song is sung.

LITURGY OF THE WORD
21. The liturgy of the word is celebrated according to the rubrics. There may be three readings, the first of them from the Old Testament.
22. After the gospel, the priest gives a homily drawn from the sacred text. He speaks about the mystery of Christian marriage, the dignity of wedded love, the grace of the sacrament and the responsibilities of married people, keep¬ing in mind the circumstances of this particular marriage.

RITE OF MARRIAGE
23. All stand, including the bride and bridegroom, and the priest addresses them in these or similar words:
My dear friends, you have come together in this church so that the Lord may seal and strengthen your love in the presence of the Church’s minister and this community. Christ abundantly blesses this love. He has already consecrated you in baptism and now he enriches and strengthens you by a special sacrament so that you may assume the duties of marriage in mutual and lasting fidelity. And so, in the presence of the Church, I ask you to state your intentions.

24. The priest then questions them about their freedom of choice, faithfulness to each other, and the acceptance and upbringing of children:
N. and N., have you come here freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other in mar¬riage?
Will you honor each other as man and wife for the rest of your lives?

The following question may be omitted if, for example, the couple is advanced in years.
Will you accept children lovingly from God, and bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church?
Each answers the questions separately.

CONSENT
25. The priest invites the couple to declare their consent:
Since it is your intention to enter into marriage, join your right hands, and declare your consent before God and his Church.
They join hands.
At the discretion of the priest, other words which seem more suitable under the circumstances, such as friends or dearly beloved or brethren may be used. This also applies to parallel instances in the liturgy.

The bridegroom says:
I, N., take you, N., to be my wife. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.
The bride says:
I, N., take you, N., to be my husband. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.

If, however, it seems preferable for pastoral reasons, the priest may obtain consent from the couple through ques¬tions.
First he asks the bridegroom:
N., do you take N. to be your wife? Do you promise to be true to her in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love her and honor her all the days of your life?
The bridegroom: I do.
Then he asks the bride:
N., do you take N. to be your husband? Do you promise to be true to him in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love him and honor him all the days of your life?
The bride: I do.

If pastoral necessity demands it, the conference of bishops may decree, in virtue of the faculty in no. 17, that the priest should always obtain the consent of the couple through questions.

In the dioceses of the United States, the following form may also be used:
I, N., take you, N., for my lawful wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.
I, N., take you, N., for my lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.

If it seems preferable for pastoral reasons for the priest to obtain consent from the couple through questions, in the dioceses of the United States the following alternative form may be used:
N., do you take N. for your lawful wife (husband), to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?
The bride (bridegroom): I do.

26. Receiving their consent, the priest says:
You have declared your consent before the Church.
May the Lord in his goodness strengthen your consent
and fill you both with his blessings.
What God has joined, men must not divide.
R. Amen.

BLESSING AND EXCHANGE OF RINGS
27. Priest: May the Lord bless + these rings which you give to each other as the sign of your love and fidelity. R. Amen.
Other forms of the blessing of the rings, nos. 110 or 111, may be chosen.
28. The bridegroom places his wife’s ring on her ring finger. He may say:
N., take this ring as a sign of my love and fidelity. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
The bride places her husband’s ring on his ring finger. She may say:
N., take this ring as a sign of my love and fidelity. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
29. The general intercessions (prayer of the faithful) follow, using formulas approved by the conference of bishops. If the rubrics call for it, the profession of faith is said after the general intercessions.

LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
30. The Order of Mass is followed, with the following changes. During the offertory, the bride and bridegroom may bring the bread and wine to the altar.
31. Proper preface (see nos. 115-117).
32. When the Roman canon is used, the special Hanc igitur is said (no. 118).

NUPTIAL BLESSING
33. After the Lord’s Prayer, the prayer Deliver us is omit¬ted. The priest faces the bride and bridegroom and, with hands joined, says:
My dear friends, let us turn to the Lord and pray that he will bless with his grace this woman (or N.) now married in Christ to this man (or N.)
and that (through the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ,)
he will unite in love the couple he has joined in this holy bond.
All pray silently for a short while. Then the priest extends his hands and continues:
Father, by your power you have made everything out of nothing.
In the beginning you created the universe and made mankind in your own likeness.
You gave man the constant help of woman so that man and woman should no longer be two,
but one flesh, and you teach us that what you have united may never be divided.

Or: Father, you have made the union of man and wife so holy a mystery
that it symbolizes the marriage of Christ and his Church.

Or: Father, by your plan man and woman are united, and married life has been established
as the one blessing that was not forfeited by original sin
or washed away in the flood.
Look with love upon this woman, your daughter,
now joined to her husband in marriage.
She asks your blessing.
Give her the grace of love and peace.
May she always follow the example of the holy women
whose praises are sung in the scriptures.
May her husband put his trust in her and recognize that she is his equal and the heir with him to the life of grace. May he always honor her and love her as Christ loves his bride, the Church.
Father, keep them always true to your commandments.
Keep them faithful in marriage
and let them be living examples of Christian life.
Give them the strength which comes from the gospel so that they may be witnesses of Christ to others. (Bless them with children
and help them to be good parents.
May they live to see their children’s children.) And, after a happy old age, grant them fullness of life with the saints in the kingdom of heaven.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
R. Amen.

34. If one or both of the parties will not be receiving communion, the words in the introduction to the nuptial blessing, through the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, may be omitted.
If desired, in the prayer Father, by your power, two of the first three paragraphs may be omitted, keeping only the paragraph which corresponds to the reading of the Mass.
In the last paragraph of this prayer, the words in paren¬theses may be omitted whenever circumstances suggest it, if, for example, the couple is advanced in years.
Other forms of the nuptial blessing, no. 120 or 121, may be chosen.
35. At the words Let us offer each other the sign of peace, the married couple and all present show their peace and love for one another in an appropriate way.
36. The married couple may receive communion under both kinds.

BLESSING AT THE END OF MASS
37. Before blessing the people at the end of Mass, the priest blesses the bride and bridegroom, using one of the forms in nos. 125-127.

Or: In the dioceses of the United States, the following form may be used:
May almighty God, with his Word of blessing, unite your hearts in the never-ending bond of pure love. R Amen.
May your children bring you happiness, and may your generous love for them be returned to you, many times over.
R Amen.
May the peace of Christ live always in your hearts and in your home.
May you have true friends to stand by you, both in joy and in sorrow.
May you be ready and willing to help and comfort all who come to you in need.
And may the blessings promised to the compassionate be yours in abundance.
R. Amen.
May you find happiness and satisfaction in your work.
May daily problems never cause you undue anxiety, nor the desire for earthly possessions dominate your lives.
But may your hearts’ first desire be always the good things waiting for you in the life of heaven.
R. Amen.
May the Lord bless you with many happy years together, so that you may enjoy the rewards of a good life.
And after you have served him loyally in his kingdom on earth, may he welcome you to his eternal kingdom in heaven.
R. Amen.
And may almighty God bless you all, the Father, and the Son, + and the Holy Spirit.
R. Amen.
38. If two or more marriages are celebrated at the same time, the questioning before the consent, the consent itself, and the acceptance of consent shall always be done indi¬vidually for each couple; the rest, including the nuptial blessing, is said once for all, using the plural form.

CHAPTER II
RITE FOR CELEBRATING MARRIAGE OUTSIDE MASS

ENTRANCE RITE AND LITURGY OF THE WORD
39. At the appointed time, the priest, wearing surplice and white stole (or a white cope, if desired), proceeds with the ministers to the door of the church, or, if more suitable, to the altar. There he greets the bride and bridegroom in a friendly manner, showing that the Church shares their joy.
Where it is desirable that the rite of welcome be omitted, the celebration of matrimony begins at once with the liturgy of the word.
40. If there is a procession to the altar, the ministers go first, followed by the priest, and then the bride and the bridegroom. According to local custom, they may be es¬corted by at least their parents and the two witnesses. Meanwhile, the entrance song is sung.
Then the people are greeted, and the prayer is offered, unless a brief pastoral exhortation seems more desirable.’4 See nos. 106-109.
41. The liturgy of the word takes place in the usual manner. There may be three readings, the first of them from the Old Testament. See nos. 67-105.
42. After the gospel, the priest gives a homily drawn from the sacred text. He speaks about the mystery of Christian marriage, the dignity of wedded love, the grace of the sacrament, and the responsibilities of married people, keeping in mind the circumstances of this particular marriage.

RITE OF MARRIAGE
43. All stand, including the bride and bridegroom, and the priest addresses them in these or similar words:
My dear friends, you have come together in this church so that the Lord may seal and strengthen your love in the presence of the Church’s minister and this community. Christ abundantly blesses this love. He has already consecrated you in baptism and now he enriches and strengthens you by a special sacrament so that you may assume the duties of marriage in mutual and lasting fidelity. And so, in the presence of the Church, I ask you to state your intentions.
44. The priest then questions them about their freedom of choice, faithfulness to each other, and the acceptance and upbringing of children:
If two or more marriages are celebrated at the same time, see no. 38, above.
N. and N., have you come here freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other in mar¬riage?
Will you love and honor each other as man and wife for the rest of your lives?

The following question may be omitted if, for example, the couple is advanced in years.
Will you accept children lovingly from God, and bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church?
Each answers the questions separately.

CONSENT
45. The priest invites them to declare their consent:
Since it is your intention to enter into marriage, join your right hands, and declare your consent before God and his Church.
They join hands.
The bridegroom says:
I, N., take you, N., to be my wife. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.
The bride says:
I, N., take you, N., to be my husband. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.
If, however, it seems preferable for pastoral reasons, the priest may obtain consent from the couple through ques¬tions. First he asks the bridegroom:
N., do you take N. to be your wife? Do you promise to be true to her in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love her and honor her all the days of your life?
The bridegroom: I do.
Then he asks the bride:
N., do you take N. to be your husband? Do you promise to be true to him in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love him and honor him all the days of your life?
The bride: I do.
If pastoral necessity demands it, the conference of bishops may decree, in virtue of the faculty in no. 17, that the priest Should always obtain the consent of the couple through questions.

In the dioceses of the United States, the following form may also be used:
I, N., take you, N., for my lawful wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.
I, N., take you N., for my lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.
If it seems preferable for pastoral reasons for the priest to obtain consent from the couple through questiOns1 in the dioceses of the United States the following alternative form may be used:
N., do you take N. for your lawful wife (husband), to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, f or poorer1 in sickness and in health, until death do you part?
The bride (bridegroom) I do.

46. Receiving their consent, the priest says:
You have declared your consent before the Church. May the Lord in his goodness strengthen your consent and fill you both with his blessings.
What God has joined, men must not divide. R. Amen.

BLESSING AND EXCHANGE OF RINGS
47. Priest: May the Lord bless + these rings which you give to each other as the sign of your love and fidelity.
R. Amen.
For other forms of the blessing of rings, see nos. 110, 111.
48. The bridegroom places his wife’s ring on her ring finger. He may say:
N., take this ring as a sign of my love and fidelity. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
The bride places her husband’s ring on his ring finger. She may say:
N., take this ring as a sign of my love and fidelity. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

GENERAL INTERCESSIONS AND NUPTIAL BLESSINGS
49. The general intercessions (prayer of the faithful) and the blessing of the couple take place in this order:
a) First the priest uses the invitatory of any blessing of the couple [see the first part of no. 33, 120, and 121] or any other, taken from the approved formulas for the general intercessions.
b) Immediately after the invitatory, there can be either a brief silence, or a series of petitions from the prayer of the faithful with responses by the people. All the petitions should be in harmony with the blessing which follows, but should not duplicate it.
c) Then, omitting the prayer that concludes the prayer of the faithful, the priest extends his hands and blesses the bride and bridegroom.
50. This blessing may be Father, by your power, (no. 33) or another from nos. 120 or 121.

CONCLUSION OF THE CELEBRATION
51. The entire rite can be concluded with the Lord’s Prayer and the blessing, whether with the simple form, May almighty God, or with one of the forms in nos. 125-127.
52. If two or more marriages are celebrated at the same time, the questioning before the consent, the consent itself and the acceptance of consent shall always be done individually for each couple; the rest, including the nuptial blessing, is said Once for all using the plural form.
53. The rite described above should be used by a deacon who, when a priest cannot be present, has been delegated by the bishop or pastor to assist at the celebration of marriage, and to give the Church’s blessing.15
54. If Mass cannot be celebrated and communion is to be distributed during the rite, the Lord’s Prayer is said first. After communion, a reverent silence may be observed for awhile, or a psalm or song of praise may be sung or recited. Then comes the prayer, Lord, we who have shared (no. 123, if only the bride and bridegroom receive), or the prayer, God, who in this wondrous sacrament or other suitable prayer.
The rite ends with a blessing, either the simple formula, May almighty God bless you, or one of the forms in nos. 125-127.

CHAPTER III
RITE FOR CELEBRATING MARRIAGE BETWEEN A CATHOLIC AND AN UNBAPTIZED PERSON
If marriage is celebrated between a Catholic and unbaptized person (either a catechumen or a non-Christian), the rite may be performed in the church or some other suitable place and takes the following form.

RITE OF WELCOME AND LITURGY OF THE WORD
55. At the appointed time, the priest, wearing surplice and white stole (or a white cope if desired), proceeds with the ministers to the door of the church or to another appropriate place and greets the bride and the bridegroom.
Where it is desirable that the rite of welcome be omitted, the celebration of marriage begins at once with the liturgy of the word.
56. The liturgy of the word takes place in the usual manner. There may be three readings, the first of them from the Old Testament. If circumstances make it more desirable, there may be a single reading. See nos. 67-105.
57. A homily, drawn from the sacred text, is given and should speak of the obligations of marriage and other ap¬propriate points.

RITE OF MARRIAGE
58. All stand, including the bride and the bridegroom. The Priest addresses them in these or similar words:
My dear friends, you have come together in this church 80 that the Lord may seal and strengthen your love in the presence of the Church’s minister and this community. In this way you will be strengthened to keep mutual and lasting faith with each other and to carry out the other duties of marriage. And so, in the presence of the Church, I ask you to state your intentions.
59. The priest then questions them about their freedom of choice, faithfulness to each other, and the acceptance and upbringing of children:
N. and N., have you come here freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other in mar¬riage?
Will you love and honor each other as man and wife for the rest of your lives?

The following question may be omitted if, for example, the couple is advanced in years.
Will you accept children lovingly from God, and bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church?
Each answers the questions separately.

CONSENT
60. The priest invites them to declare their consent:
Since it is your intention to enter into marriage, join your right hands, and declare your consent before God and his Church.
They join hands.

The bridegroom says:
I, N., take you, N., to be my wife. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.
The bride says:
I, N., take you, N., to be my husband. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.

If, however, it seems perferable for pastoral reasons, the priest may obtain consent from the couple through ques¬tions. First he asks the bridegroom:
N., do you take N. to be your wife? Do you promise
to be true to her in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love her and honor her all the days of your life?
The bridegroom: I do. Then he asks the bride:
N., do you take N. to be your husband? Do you promise to be true to him in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love him and honor him all the days of your life?
The bride: I do.
If pastoral necessity demands it, the conference of bishops may decree, in virtue of the faculty in no. 17, that the priest should always obtain the consent of the couple through questions.

In the dioceses of the United States, the following form may also be used:
I, N., take you, N., for my lawful wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.
I, N., take you, N., for my lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.

If it seems preferable for pastoral reasons for the priest to obtain consent from the couple through questions, in the dioceses of the United States the following alternative form may be used:
N., do you take N. for your lawful wife (husband), to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health until death do you part?
The bride (bridegroom): I do.

61. Receiving their consent, the priest says:
You have declared your consent before the Church. May the Lord in his goodness strengthen your consent and fill you both with his blessings.
What God has joined, men must not divide.
R. Amen.

BLESSING AND EXCHANGE OF RINGS
62. If circumstances so require, the blessing and exchange of rings can be omitted. If this rite is observed, the priest says:
May the Lord bless + these rings which you give to each other as the sign of your love and fidelity.
R. Amen.
For other forms of the blessing of rings, see nos. 110-111.
63. The bridegroom places his wife’s ring on her ring finger. He may say:
N., take this ring as a sign of my love and fidelity. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
The bride places her husband’s ring on his ring finger. She may say:
N., take this ring as a sign of my love and fidelity. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

GENERAL INTERCESSIONS AND NUPTIAL BLESSINGS
64. If circumstances so require, the blessing of the bride and bridegroom can be omitted. If used, it is combined with the general intercessions (prayer of the faithful) in this order:
a) First the priest uses the invitatory of any blessing of the couple (see the first part of nos. 33, 120, and 121) or any other, taken from any approved formula for the general intercessions.
b) Immediately after the invitatory, there can be either a brief period of silence, or a series of petitions from the prayer of the faithful with responses by the people. All the petitions should be in harmony with the blessing which follows, but should not duplicate it.
c) Then, omitting the prayer that concludes the prayer of the faithful, the priest blesses the bride and the bridegroom:
65. Facing them, he joins his hands and says:
My brothers and sisters, let us ask God for his con¬tinued blessings upon this bridegroom and his bride.
All pray silently for a short while. Then the priest extends his hands and continues:
Holy Father, creator of the universe, maker of man and woman in your likeness, source of blessing for married life, we humbly pray to you for this bride
who today is united with her husband in the bond of marriage.
May your fullest blessing come upon her and her husband
so that they may together rejoice in your gift of married love.
May they be noted for their good lives, (and be parents filled with virtue).
Lord, may they both praise you when they are happy and turn to you in their sorrows.
May they be glad that you help them in their work, and know that you are with them in their need. May they reach old age in the company of their friends,
and come at last to the kingdom of heaven. We ask this through Christ our Lord.
R Amen.

CONCLUSION OF THE CELEBRATION
66. The rite may be concluded with the Lord’s Prayer (or, if the nuptial blessing has been omitted, another prayer by the priest) and a blessing using the customary form, May al¬mighty God bless you or another formula from nos. 125-127

CHAPTER IV

TEXTS FOR USE IN THE MARRIAGE RITE AND IN THE WEDDING MASS
I. SCRIPTURE READINGS
In the wedding Mass and in marriages celebrated without Mass, the following selections may be used:

OLD TESTAMENT READINGS
67. Genesis 1:26-28, 31a Male and female he created them.
68. Genesis 2:18-24 And they will be two in one flesh.
69. Genesis 24:48-51, 58-67
Isaac loved Rebekah, and so he was consoled for the loss of his mother.
70. Tobit 7:9-10, 11-15 May God join you together and fill you with his blessings.
71. Tobit 8:5-10 May God bring us to old age together.
72. Song of Songs 2:8-10, 14, 16a; 8:6-7a
For love is as strong as death.
73. Ecclesiasticus 26:1-4, 16-21
Like the sun rising is the beauty of a good wife in a well-kept house.
74. Jeremiah 31:31-32a, 33-34a
I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and Judah.

NEW TESTAMENT READINGS
75. Romans 8:31b-35, 37-39 Who will separate us from the love of Christ?
76. Romans 12:1-2, 9-18 (longer) or Romans 12:1-2, 9-13 (shorter)
Offer to God your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, truly pleasing to him.
77. 1 Corinthians 6:13c-15a, 17-20 Your body is a temple of the Spirit.
78. 1 Corinthians 12:3 1; 13:8a If I am without love, it will do me no good whatever.
79. Ephesians 5:2a, 21-33 (longer) or 2a, 25-32 (shorter) This mystery has many implications, and I am saying it applies to Christ and the Church.
80. Colossians 3:12-17 Above all have love, which is the bond of perfection.
81. lPeter3:1-9 You should agree with one another, be sympathetic and love the brothers.
82. 1 John 3:18-24 Our love is to be something real and active.
83. lJohn4:7-12 God is love.
84. Revelation 191, 5-9a
Happy are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.

RESPONSORIAL PSALMS
85. Psalm 33:12 and 18, 20-21, 22
R. (5b) The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
86. Psalm 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
R. (2a) I will bless the Lord at all times.
Or: (9a) Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
87. Psalm 103:1-2, 8 and 13, l7-18a
R (8a) The Lord is kind and merciful.
Or: (17) The Lord’s kindness is everlasting to those who fear him.
88. Psalm 112:1-2, 3.4, 5-7a, Thc-8, 9
R. (1b) Happy are those who do what the Lord commands.
Or: Alleluia.
89. Psalm 128:1-2, 3, 4-5
R. (la) Happy are those who fear the Lord.
Or: (4) See how the Lord blesses those who fear him.
90. Psalm 145:8-9, 10 and 15, 17-18
R (9a) The Lord is compassionate to all his creatures.
91. Psalm 148:1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-l2ab, 12c-14a
R (12c) Let all praise the name of the Lord.
Or: Alleluia.

ALLELUIA VERSE AND VERSE BEFORE THE GOSPEL
92. lJohn4:8 and 11
God is love; let us love one another as he has loved us.
93. lJohn4:l2
If we love one another God will live in us in perfect love.
94. lJohn4:l6
He who lives in love, lives in God, and God in him.
95. lJohn4:7b
Everyone who loves is born of God and knows him.

GOSPELS
96. Matthew 5:1-12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.
97. Matthew 5:13-16 You are the light of the world.
98. Matthew 7:21, 24-29 (longer) or 21, 24-25 (shorter) He built his house on rock.
99. Matthew 19:3-6 So then, what God has united, man must not divide.
100. Mathew 22:35-40
This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is similar to it.
101. Mark 10:6-9 They are no longer two, therefore, but one body.
102. John 2:1-11
This was the first of the signs given by Jesus; it was given at Cana in Galilee.
103. John 15:9-12 Remain in my love.
104. John 15:12-16 This is my commandment: love one another.
105. John 17:20-26 (longer) or 20-23 (shorter) May they be completely one.

II. OPENING PRAYERS
106. Father, you have made the bond of marriage a holy mystery, a symbol of Christ’s love for his Church. Hear our prayers for N. and N. With faith in you and in each other they pledge their love today. May their lives always bear witness to the reality of that love.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

107.

Father, hear our prayers for N. and N., who today are united in marriage before your altar. Give them your blessing. and strengthen their love for each other.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

108.

Almighty God, hear our prayers for N. and N., who have come here today to be united in the sacrament of marriage. Increase their faith in you and in each other, and through them bless your Church (with Christian children).
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

109.
Father, when you created mankind you willed that man and wife should be one. Bind N. and N. in the loving union of marriage; and make their love fruitful so that they may be living witnesses to your divine love in the world.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.


III. BLESSING OF RINGS
110.
Lord, bless these rings which we bless + in your name.
Grant that those who wear them may always have a deep faith in each other. May they do your will and always live together in peace, good will, and love.

We ask this through Christ our Lord. R. Amen.

111.

Lord, bless + and consecrate N. and N. in their love for each other. May these rings be a symbol of true faith in each other, and always remind them of their love.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.

R. Amen.


IV. PRAYERS OVER THE GIFTS

112.
Lord, accept our offering
for this newly-married couple, N. and N.
By your love and providence you have brought them together;
now bless them all the days of their married life. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

113.
Lord, accept the gifts we offer you on this happy day. In your fatherly love watch over and protect N. and N., whom you have united in marriage.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.

114.
Lord, hear our prayers
and accept the gifts we offer for N. and N. Today you have made them one in the sacrament of marriage. May the mystery of Christ’s unselfish love, Which we celebrate in this eucharist, increase their love for you and for each other.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.

V. PREFACES
115.

Father, all-powerful and ever-living God, we do well always and everywhere to give you
thanks.
By this sacrament your grace unites man and woman in an unbreakable bond of love and peace.
You have designed the chaste love of husband and wife
for the increase both of the human family and of your own family born in baptism.
You are the loving Father of the world of nature; you are the loving Father of the new creation of grace. In Christian marriage you bring together the two orders of creation:
nature’s gift of children enriches the world and your grace enriches also your Church.
Through Christ the choirs of angels and all the saints praise and worship your glory. May our voices blend with theirs as we join in their unending hymn.

116.
Father, all-powerful and ever-living God, we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Through him you entered into a new covenant with your people.
You restored man to grace in the saving mystery of redemption.
You gave him a share in the divine life through his union with Christ.
You made him an heir of Christ’s eternal glory. This outpouring of love in the new covenant of grace is symbolized in the marriage covenant that seals the love of husband and wife and reflects your divine plan of love.
And so, with the angels and all the saints in heaven we proclaim your glory
and join in their unending hymn of praise

117.
Father, all-powerful and ever-living God, we do well always and everywhere to give you
thanks.
You created man in love to share your divine life. We see his high destiny in the love of husband and wife, which bears the imprint of your own divine love.
Love is man’s origin, love is his constant calling, love is his fulfillment in heaven.
The love of man and woman is made holy in the sacrament of marriage, and becomes the mirror of your everlasting love.
Through Christ the choirs of angels and all the saints
praise and worship your glory.
May our voices blend with theirs as we join in their unending hymn:

VI. HANC IGITUR
118. The words in parentheses may be omitted if desired.

Father, accept this offering from your whole family
and from N. and N., for whom we now pray. You have brought them to their wedding day:
Grant them (the gift and joy of children and) a long and happy life together.
[Through Christ our Lord. Amen.]

VII. NUPTIAL BLESSING
119.
Father, by your power, with the proper invitatory, as in no. 33.

120. In the following prayer, either the paragraph Holy Father, you created mankind, or the paragraph Father, to reveal the plan of your love, may be omitted, keeping only
the paragraph which corresponds to the reading of the Mass.

The priest faces the bride and bridegroom and, with hands joined, says:

Let us pray to the Lord for N. and N.
who come to God’s altar at the beginning of their married life
so that they may always be united in love for each other
(as now they share in the body and blood of Christ).

All pray silently for a short while. Then the priest extends his hands and continues:

Holy Father, you created mankind in your own image and made man and woman to be joined as husband and wife
in union of body and heart
and so fulfill their mission in this world.

Father, to reveal the plan of your love, you made the union of husband and wife an image of the covenant between you and your
people.
In the fulfillment of this sacrament, the marriage of Christian man and woman
is a sign of the marriage between Christ and the Church.

Father, stretch out your hand, and bless N. and N.
Lord, grant that as they begin to live this sacrament they may share with each other the gifts of your love and become one in heart and mind as witnesses to your presence in their marriage. Help them to create a home together (and give them children to be formed by the gospel and to have a place in your family).

Give your blessings to N., your daughter, so that she may be a good wife (and mother), caring for the home, faithful in love for her husband, generous and kind.
Give your blessings to N., your son, so that he may be a faithful husband (and a good father).
Father, grant that as they come together to your table on earth,
so they may one day have the joy of sharing your feast in heaven.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
R. Amen.

121. The priest faces the bride and bridegroom and, with hands joined, says:

My dear friends, let us ask God
for his continued blessings upon this bridegroom and his bride (or N. and N.).

All pray silently for a short while. Then the priest extends his hands and continues:
Holy Father, creator of the universe, maker of man and woman in your own likeness, Source of blessing for married life, we humbly pray to you for this woman who today is united with her husband in this sacrament of marriage.

May your fullest blessing come upon her and her husband
so that they may together rejoice in your gift of married love
(and enrich your Church with their children).

Lord, may they both praise you when they are happy and turn to you in their sorrows.
May they be glad that you help them in their work and know that you are with them in their need. May they pray to you in the community of the Church,
and be your witnesses in the world.
May they reach old age in the company of their friends,
and come at last to the kingdom of heaven. We ask this through Christ our Lord. RI. Amen.


VIII. PRAYERS AFTER COMMUNION

122.
Lord, in your love
you have given us this eucharist
to unite us with one another and with you. As you have made N. and N.
one in this sacrament of marriage (and in the sharing of the one bread and the one cup), so now make them one in love for each other.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.

123.
Lord, we who have shared the food of your table
pray for our friends N. and N., whom you have joined together in marriage. Keep them close to you always. May their love for each other proclaim to all the world their faith in you.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.

124.
Almighty God, may the sacrifice we have offered and the eucharist we have shared strengthen the love of N. and N., and give us all your fatherly aid.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.


IX. BLESSING AT THE END OF MASS
125.
God the eternal Father keep you in love with each other,
so that the peace of Christ may stay with you and be always in your home.
R. Amen.

May (your children bless you,) your friends console you and all men live in peace with you.
R. Amen.

May you always bear witness to the love of God in this world so that the afflicted and the needy will find in you generous friends, and welcome you into the joys of heaven.
R. Amen.

And ‘nay almighty God bless you all, the Father, and the Son, + and the Holy Spirit. ~ Amen.

126.

May God, the almighty Father, give you his joy and bless you (in your children).
R. Amen.

May the only Son of God have mercy on you and help you in good times and in bad.
R. Amen.

May the Holy Spirit of God always fill your hearts with his love.
R. Amen.

And may almighty God bless you all, the Father, and the Son, + and the Holy Spirit.
R. Amen.

127.
May the Lord Jesus, who was a guest at the wedding in Cana,
bless you and your families and friends.
R. Amen.

May Jesus, who loved his Church to the end, always fill your hearts with his love.
R. Amen.

May he grant that, as you believe in his resurrection, so you may wait for him in joy and hope.
R. Amen.

And may almighty God bless you all, the Father, and the Son, + and the Holy Spirit.
R. Amen.