The Church: Her Books and Her Sacraments

by E. E. Holmes

CHAPTER VII.

THE LESSER SACRAMENTS.

These are "those five" which the Article says are "commonly called Sacraments":[[1]] Confirmation, Matrimony, Orders, Penance, Unction. They are called "Lesser" Sacraments to distinguish them from the two pre-eminent or "Greater Sacraments," Baptism and the Supper of the Lord.[[2]] These, though they have not all a "like nature" with the Greater Sacraments, are selected by the Church as meeting the main needs of her children between Baptism and Burial.

They may, for our purpose, be classified in three groups:—

(I) The Sacrament of Completion (Confirmation, which completes the Sacrament of Baptism).

(II) The Sacraments of Perpetuation (Holy Matrimony, which perpetuates the human race; and Holy Order, which perpetuates the Christian Ministry).

(III) The Sacraments of Recovery (Penance, which recovers the sick soul together with the body; and Unction, which recovers the sick body together with the soul).

And, first, The Sacrament of Completion: Confirmation.

[[1]] Article XXV.

[[2]] The Homily on the Sacraments calls them the "other Sacraments"—i.e. in addition to Baptism and the Eucharist.