Sacraments

The Rite of Baptism

RITE OF BAPTISM (For Children Under the Age of 7) Congratulations on the birth of your child! We look forward to welcoming your child into God’s family and as a member of the Holy Family community. When planning for your child’s Baptism, please allow the process to take from three to six months. To begin the process for Baptizing your child at Holy Family, South Pasadena, CA please submit the  Baptism Registration Form. Once this form has been completed, you will be contacted via …

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Funeral, The Rite of Christian Burial

Recently Deceased and Funeral Information

Just like baptisms and marriages, so at death: The rites of a community serve several purposes. They convey a great deal about how death is understood in the group, and about what relationship there is between the living and dead. They may also convey the meaning of this individual’s life. The rites will handle the time of transition from life with this person present in the community to life with this person absent. This recognizes that death ordinarily brings a group-family, neighborhood, church-into a different way of being. Changes like this are always difficult. They may challenge the existence of the group itself, or at the least call people to new roles and new understandings.

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Matrimony

When two people marry, the whole complex gathering of rites-some from the state, some from the family, some from the church-serves many purposes. For one, they show what all these groups think about marriage, and they try to impress these understandings on the couple. For another, they let everyone adjust to the idea that there is something new among us: We cannot think of these two tomorrow as we thought of them yesterday. And yet another task of the rites: Some of them are meant to allow us to express our sheer delight in the festival. When ritual does its work, all these things happen. But there are some¬times difficulties when it comes to the church’s part in the wedding. If the couple has no feeling of belonging, they are likely to be indifferent, seeing what happens in the church building as only another obligation. Apart from the bridal party’s entrance procession and a favorite song or two, they may say that “anything Father wants is fine with us.”

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Liturgy of the Hours

Long ago, our ancestors in faith had ways for individuals and households to praise and thank God constantly, with the poetic richness of praying at morning and evening with hymns and psalms known by heart. As time went on we lost those forms of prayer. In more recent times, some substitutes were found: the prayers called the morning offering, the act of contrition, the Angelus and other prayers related to the time of day. For some, these too have been …

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Holy Orders

The Sacrament of Holy Orders is according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church “the sacrament of apostolic ministry.”(For a full discussion of Holy Orders see CCC paragraphs1536-1600) “Ordination” comes from the Latin word ordinatio, which means to incorporate someone into an order. The word order in the Roman empire meant to describe an established civil body, especially a “governing body”.  So the Church adapted this understanding to their “governing” leadership.  There were many Orders in the early Church: the …

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Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and Children

Rite of Christian Initiation: Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist Every society that wants to continue must admit new members. This is true of sporting leagues, universities, the unions, the United States and churches. In some societies, very little may be required to gain admittance: When you wish to become a member of a book or record club, you just send in the coupon and the check. At another extreme, young men gained admission to adulthood in certain African cultures by elaborate …

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Sacraments

The eucharist is and remains the “source and summit” of our encounter with God in Christ. Yet the other rich and various rites of the church provide the foundation, context and entry point that help us all appreciate the centrality of the eucharist in our communal experience of the paschal mystery.

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First Eucharist

First Eucharist (formerly known as First Communion)

Eucharist Eucharist comes from the Greek eucharistia, meaning thanksgiving. Ever since Pentecost, when the Church, the People of God, began building a church, they were sustained with the spiritual food in times of trialsl and in time of celebration. Eucharist is that food, the real presence of the risen Lord. The Second Vatican Council, in its Constitution on the Church, rightly proclaimed that the eucharistic sacrifice is “the source and summit of the Christian life.” The Eucharist is, for Catholics, …

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The Rite of Confirmation

The Gathering Rite includes a welcoming hospitality for the guests and candidates. The procession of the candidates precedes the procession of the celebrant, pastor, assisting priests, lector(s) and servers. The entire assembly is invited to join in singing the gathering song. The bishop or his delegate welcomes all, and begins the Eucharistic celebration. Because confirmation is celebrated during the Easter season, a sprinkling rite is common during the Gloria.   Click here for Teen Confirmation preparation Click here for Adult …

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Confirmation

The Rite of Confirmation The debate within the church about this sacrament is reflected in the variety of ages suggested for its celebration. In some places, the church confirms infants when they are baptized. In other cultures, confirmation may come at the same time as first communion. The practice in much of this country is to confirm during the high school years, letting confirmation come as the mark of a more mature decision for membership in the church where the …

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