About Prayer and Sacraments

"For there is no other mystery of God, except Christ."
These words of St. Augustine highlight the role of Jesus as the mystery of salvation in the world. It is in, with and through Jesus that the salvation of God is brought to the world, and it is through the continued presence of Jesus in the world that the salvation of God is made available to us today. "The seven sacraments are the signs and instruments by which the Holy Spirit spreads the grace of Christ the head throughout the Church which is his Body."
(Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 774)

"The sacredness of a sacrament is not to be found in some kind of other worldliness, or in stimuli that are only experienced in the church building. The real mystery is that we, through many, are one body in Christ in this everyday world. The real mystery is that the church assembled to celebrate is Christ. The real mystery is that we are sacred, and that we are to discover sacredness among ourselves."
Tad Guzie, The Book of Sacramental Basics

At St. Joseph the Worker Parish sacraments are typically celebrated in community, and only after some effort has been made to understand the mystery of Christ present in water and pouring, in bread and eating, in oil and anointing, in sorrow and forgiveness, in human love and spoken vows. We take sacraments seriously, just as we try each day to take seriously the lives of one another.