So if the first talk, as I titled it, was about Christ extending his incarnation through the sacraments,

notion of Christological Christian friendship being extended to us through the sacraments,

seeing how the final goal of the sacrament is life and gracious friendship with Christ,

the first talk emphasized, if you will, the divine spiritual aspect of the sacraments.

And in this second talk, we want to look at how the sacraments take place from a more physical perspective.

We want to look at how it is that we do

a sacrament.

How does that we, humanly speaking,

do a sacrament?

Earlier, I had given two definitions of the

sacraments, one by Aquinas and one by the

Catechism on page one of your

handout.

Aquinas also gave another definition.

He said, as I put on your, at the top of page two, the sacrament affects what it signifies. A sacrament affects what it signifies.

So if we compare what's going on in all these various definitions, the sacraments are certain

sensible signs of invisible things by which a man is sanctified, or as the catechism says that

the sacraments are efficacious signs of grace.

Basically, we're looking at three things in a sacrament.

There is a sign, efficacy, and grace.

In other words, there is a beginning, a causality, and an end.

Sacrament. is a beginning, a causality, and an end. Sacraments effect what they signify. Let's explore that definition.

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