Pints With Aquinas - 03: Why are there 7 sacraments?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to Pints with Aquinas, Episode 3. I'm Matt Fradd. If you could sit down with St. Thomas Aquinas over a pint of beer and ask him any one question, what would it be? Well, in today's episode we'll ask St. Thomas the question, why are there seven sacraments anyway. Welcome to Pints with Aquinas. This is the show where you and I pull up a barstool next to the angelic doctor and discuss theology and philosophy. As I already mentioned, we're going to be discussing why there are seven sacraments. You ever wondered that? Why isn't there 10 or 2 or whatever? Now, for those of you who don't know, let's quickly define a sacrament. This is from the Baltimore Catechism. What is a sacrament? Well, it says a sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace. Pretty straightforward. And of course, as I say, there are seven sacraments. What are they?

Starting point is 00:01:13 One, baptism. Two, confirmation. Three, the Eucharist. Four, penance or confession. Five, the anointing of the sick. Six, holy orders, and finally, seven, matrimony. Now, that's the order the Catechism of the Catholic Church puts them in, and that's not necessarily the order, of course, we receive them in, but it doesn't really matter. So, what I'm going to do is share with you what St. Thomas said, and then I would like to share with you a beautiful quotation from seven different saints for these different sacraments, and then expand a little bit on each. And my hope will be that by the end of this podcast, you and I will be stirred in our hearts to have a greater devotion and love of the Holy Eucharist, which of course

Starting point is 00:02:02 is the source and summit of our faith. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says the Eucharist occupies a unique place as the sacrament of sacraments. Why? Well, all other sacraments are ordered to it as to their end. And of course, the very simple answer is the Holy, the Blessed Sacrament, the Holy Sacrament, the Eucharist, is Jesus Christ himself. And that's why it is the Supreme One. So, now, St. Thomas has some cool stuff to say on why there are seven sacraments. And he pretty much says three different things. So, I'll just say what those three things are, and then I'll read what he has to say.

Starting point is 00:02:44 just say what those three things are, and then I'll read what he has to say. The first thing he has to say is just as he says that the spiritual life has a certain conformity with the life of the body. So just the body needs certain things to survive and so forth. Well, the spiritual life corresponds to that. And so we'll look at that in a moment. The second thing he says is that the sacraments are medicinal. They are a remedy against the defects that are caused by sin. And the final thing he says is that, and he points to others who have said this, that the sacraments, the seven sacraments, he said, some have said that they correspond to the seven different virtues. So three different things. So let's see what he has to say.

Starting point is 00:03:31 Quote, Now the life of the body is perfected directly in three ways. First, by generation, by which a man begins to be and to live. And corresponding to this in the spiritual life there is baptism, which is a spiritual regeneration according to Titus 3.5. Secondly, by growth, whereby a man is brought to perfect size and strength, and corresponding to this in the spiritual life there is confirmation, in which the Holy Ghost is given to strengthen us.

Starting point is 00:04:04 Wherefore the disciples who were already baptized were bidden thus, stay you in the city till you be endued with power from on high. Third, by nourishment, whereby life and strength are preserved to man and corresponding to this in the spiritual life, there is the Eucharist. Wherefore, it is said, except you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. But, continues Thomas, since man is liable at times to both corporeal and spiritual infirmity, that is sin, man needs a cure from his infirmity. Which cure is twofold? One is the healing that restores health,

Starting point is 00:04:49 and corresponding to this, there is penance or confession. As it says in the Psalms, heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee. The other is the restoration of former vigor by means of suitable diet and exercise. And corresponding to this in the spiritual life, there is extreme unction, or what we call the anointing of the sick these days, which removes the remainder of sin and prepares man for final glory. Wherefore it is written in James chapter 5 verse 15, and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him. Now, in regards to the whole community, man is perfected in two ways. First, by receiving power to rule the community and exercise public acts, and corresponding to this in the spiritual life, there is the sacrament of holy orders.

Starting point is 00:05:40 According to the saying of Hebrews 7.27, that priests offer sacrifices, not only for themselves, only, but also for the people. Secondly, in regards to propagation, this is accomplished by matrimony, both in the corporeal and in the spiritual life, since it is not only a sacrament, but also a function of nature. Okay, pretty cool, pretty straightforward. So just as there are certain things for the corporeal life of the body that we need to be born, to be strengthened, when we have diseases, there are things that heal us. He says the seven sacraments correspond to this. Now, the second chunk you'll remember, chunk, segment, whatever you want to call it, The second chunk, you'll remember, chunk, segment, whatever you want to call it,

Starting point is 00:06:32 St. Thomas says that the sacraments are medicinal in nature. So they are a remedy against the defect caused by sin. And this bit he goes through pretty quickly. So listen carefully because it's quick but dense. Quote, For baptism is intended as a remedy against the absence of spiritual life, confirmation against the infirmity of soul found in those of recent birth, the Eucharist against the soul's proneness to sin, penance against actual sin committed after baptism, extreme unction or anointing of the sick against the remainders of sin, holy orders

Starting point is 00:07:05 against divisions in the community, matrimony as a remedy against concupiscence in the individual and against the decrease of numbers that result from death. Okay, that was the second segment. This is the final segment. So I hope you're listening. I hope you're staying with me. I know sometimes when you listen to people quote text, especially St. Thomas Aquinas, maybe it's tempting to, I don't know, blank for a little bit, but try not to. This is really cool. Only about five lines left. Listen to how quickly he goes through this.

Starting point is 00:07:34 Now, I'm cutting some of it out so that it'll be shorter. But you know what? I mean, this would be a really cool blog post, I think. Thomas is talking about how the sacraments correspond to the seven virtues, hey? Cool blog post, cool paper for school. Maybe someone out there can write one and send it to me and I can share it. He says this, quote, some again gather the number of sacraments from a certain adaption to the virtues. They say that baptism corresponds to faith, extreme unction to hope, the Eucharist to charity, holy orders to prudence, penance to justice, matrimony to temperance, confirmation

Starting point is 00:08:13 to fortitude. So that's what St. Thomas Aquinas has to say. I hope you found that really interesting. I know as Catholics, we are so blessed to have the seven sacraments that Christ desired his church to have. You know, our Protestant brothers and sisters really only recognize two, if they recognize any at all, and that is baptism. And of course, whether they recognize that as a sacrament or not, if it's done licitly, that is baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit with water, then it's a legitimate baptism. Incidentally, though, you have to mean what the church means when it says, we baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Mormons actually have a baptismal formula that's essentially identical to ours, but what they mean by Father, Son,

Starting point is 00:09:03 and Holy Spirit is something altogether different. And for that reason, I believe it was John Paul II who said that LDS baptisms are invalid, so they aren't Christian. So let's look at seven quotes from the saints, and I'll go through these one by one. I'll say them, and then I'll expound upon them, talk about some personal anecdotes and that sort of thing. And what we're going to want to do, of course, is to keep the Eucharist till last so we can spend the most time on that. So, number one, here's another quotation from St. Thomas. He says, baptism is the sacrament of faith. Now, dead faith does not suffice for salvation. Therefore, the sacrament of baptism cannot give salvation to a man whose will expels the form of faith. Now, what is Thomas

Starting point is 00:09:57 saying here? Well, I just mentioned a moment ago that we need the right formula. We need water. We need to intend what the church intends. And very finally, the will cannot be, the will of the one being baptized cannot be opposed to baptism. So if you, I don't know, dragged your neighbor out of his house because maybe he was sick and you thought he was dying, I'm not sure why you'd drag him out of his house if that was the case. You might just go in and perform the action there and then, but whatever. And you start baptizing him and he's

Starting point is 00:10:28 screaming and struggling and saying, leave me alone, you crazy person. Well, you can get through the baptismal formula, but it did not take effect because the will of the one you were trying to baptize was hostile, didn't want to be baptized. Now, you might be thinking to yourself, well, what about babies? They don't necessarily want to be baptized. Well, that's true. They don't know what's going on. But because they don't know what's going on, the will of the child cannot refuse, cannot, as it says here in Thomas's quote, expel the form of faith. And for that reason, it is valid. Okay. Incidentally, that would even be the case, let's say, if your friends had a child who was dying and the friends did not want you to baptize their baby. Well, in that case, in the sense that it was an emergency, that the baby is

Starting point is 00:11:26 definitely dying, you can and should baptize that child. So not just priests can baptize, all the laity can baptize. And as I say, so long as you do it with water, you do it with the proper form, and you intend to do what the church intends, that is a valid baptism. All right, so that's St. Thomas Aquinas for baptism. Let's look at what St. John Vianney says about the sacrament of confession, since this is the sacrament that you and I receive, probably the next one we receive after baptism. Incidentally, my son, Liam, just received his first confession. And what a cool thing that was as a dad to be able to teach him the act of contrition,

Starting point is 00:12:10 for him to remember his sins, and to go to the confessional and to just lay it out there. You've probably heard this a number of times, I certainly have. And that is that even if we put to one side the spiritual good that comes from the sacrament of confession, just the psychological benefits of it are beautiful, brilliant. and without making excuses, accusing themselves of the sinful things they have done or not done in the case of sins of omission, what they should have done but failed to do. And what a beautiful thing. I mean, I think you and I know people in our lives who, if we knew that they were doing this sort of thing, gee, what amazing respect you have for that. That takes a lot of strength. Anyway, here's what St. Francis de Sales has to say. Quote, when you, oh, sorry, wrong quote. Start again. Quote, God at the moment of absolution throws our sins over his shoulder. He forgets them. He annihilates them. They shall never

Starting point is 00:13:27 reappear. End quote. Now, I feel confident that there's someone out there that needs to hear that word. So, let me repeat it. God, at the moment of absolution, throws our sins over his shoulder. revolution throws our sins over his shoulder. He forgets them. He annihilates them. They shall never reappear. You know, I went through a period of my life when I was living in Ireland of real scrupulosity. What is scrupulosity? Well, scrupulosity is where our sins seem to us to be magnified. So what might not be a sin seems to us sinful. What might be only a venial sin seems to us to be mortal. And so I know for me for a long time, I felt like I was always displeasing God, that I was always going to go to hell. I had this idea in my mind, this analogy, that it was as if I was walking through God's pristine kingdom with a beautiful white marble floor, and I was dragging my muddy feet throughout it.

Starting point is 00:14:31 And at any moment, God was going to throw me out. Now, the good news is, of course, that there's no reason to think that's true when it comes from divine revelation, from the scriptures, and from what the church teaches. We have a merciful God who loves us. Our Lord says, I have not come for the healthy, I've come for the sick, right? Doctor's not interested in those coming to him and bragging about how healthy they are. The whole point of a doctor is to diagnose the problem and help you. And Jesus Christ is the divine physician. Perhaps some of you are struggling with scrupulosity. So you might be wondering how I began by God's grace to overcome it. And I'd say three things. The first is that I had a very good

Starting point is 00:15:17 spiritual director at the time, very holy man who knew all about scrupulosity and could address that. Okay, so that would be something I would highly recommend if you're struggling with that. The second thing was I read Therese of Lisieux's autobiography, The Story of a Soul. Now, towards the end, as she's dying at the age of 24, you know, her sisters come up to her and say, you know, Therese, it's no wonder you're so confident of heaven. We don't think you've ever committed a mortal sin in your life. And what does she say? She says, it's not because of my lack of sin that I'm confident.

Starting point is 00:16:01 Even if I had committed all of the most abominable and shameful sins imaginable, I would still have this confidence. She says, I've seen the way he spoke, he being Jesus. I've seen the way he spoke to Mary Magdalene. I've seen the way he spoke to the woman caught in adultery, the woman at the well, yeah, as well. No, she says, nothing can frighten me. I know that if I was in that position, I would bring all of my sins, my broken heart before our Lord, and I would throw myself into the arms of him. And that all of those sins would just be like a drop of water flicked into the raging furnace of his mercy. All of that sin would be like a drop of water flicked into the raging furnace of his mercy, so we can trust in our merciful Jesus.

Starting point is 00:16:48 furnace of His mercy so we can trust in our merciful Jesus. The third thing is I read the documents from the Council of Trent on justification. I believe it's in the sixth session. Now, why did I do that? Well, I did that because the Council of Trent was responding to this erroneous idea of once saved, always saved. The idea that you and I can have infallible assurance of our salvation. And I had some Protestant friends saying to me, look, you can't be sure that you're saved. Well, look, here's what the council said. It said, look, you cannot have infallible certainty of your salvation unless you've been given a divine revelation from on high. And I haven't.

Starting point is 00:17:25 And I'm willing to bet that you, dear listener, haven't either. But the council said we can have a sort of moral certainty. That is, we can examine our own hearts and be confident that we are not in a state of mortal sin and that if we were to die right now, we would be saved, whether or not we have to be cleaned up a little bit first in purgatory or not's another matter. So that's really beautiful. I mean, when you think about it, whenever you and I go to the sacrament, the holy sacrament, the most holy sacrament, the Eucharist, we are essentially saying I'm not in a state of mortal sin, which is pretty much the same as saying, you know, if I were would be struck by lightning right now, I would eventually be saved. So, that's something really cool to think of. So, I hope that's a help to you. All right. Now, let's skip the quotation on the Eucharist and

Starting point is 00:18:17 let's go down to what St. Ambrose says about confirmation, which I do think is perhaps one of the most misunderstood sacraments in the Catholic Church. I don't think there's a lot of theology that's been fleshed out and expounded to the faithful in a way that we can really understand. But look at what St. Ambrose says. Quote, remember then that've heard of this too, that the bishop used to slap the candidate for confirmation gently, of course, across the face. And just now it's perhaps devolved into a tap or something. But the point of that is to remind the Christian that you are to be a soldier for Jesus Christ. So I'd like it if bishops aren't

Starting point is 00:19:26 doing that, that they bring that back because I think that's a beautiful sign. All right, let's look at the quotation for holy matrimony. It's from St. Josemaria Escriva. And if you are married, this quotation is going to bless you as it blessed me and blesses me tremendously. Here's what he says, quote, avoid pride. It is the greatest enemy of your married life. In your little quarrels, neither of you is right. Whoever is the calmer should say a word or two to ward off bad temper for a while. Then later on, when you are alone with each other, go ahead and argue it out. Soon afterwards, you'll make peace anyway. Now, let it no longer be said that a celibate does not understand the inner workings of the marital relationship. Just yesterday, my wife and I got into an argument,

Starting point is 00:20:20 and I'm sorry to say we got into an argument in front of our kids. And yeah, it can be really difficult to sort of back down in the heat of the moment, you know, when you know you should be humble, but pride creeps in. I really like what he says here, you know, in your little quarrels, neither of you is right. Whoever is the calmer should say a word or two to ward off bad temper for a while. I like that. So if, you know, if you're arguing in front of the kids, hopefully we don't do that, but sometimes we do. Or if we're out in public and there's this awkward situation, I love this. Whoever is calmer should say to the other, maybe something like this, listen, I love you. We'll talk about this later. I'm sorry that we're fighting right now. I don't

Starting point is 00:20:59 want to fight. Can we chat about this when the kids are in bed? Or can we chat about this, you know, when the kids are in bed? Can we chat about this on the drive home? So anyway, beautiful. Okay, this one here is on the Holy Priesthood, Holy Orders, from St. John Paul II. He says, quote, The world looks to the priest because it looks to Jesus. No one can see Christ, but everyone sees the priest, and through him they wish to catch a glimpse of the Lord. Amen. You know, I came to Jesus Christ, as I mentioned in the second podcast of Pints of the Qantas. in the second podcast of Pints of the Qantas, I mentioned that I came to Christ at the age of 17 and actually really wanted to be a priest. Now, the priests in my diocese and in my area,

Starting point is 00:21:55 they were really good people, never had a bad experience of those priests. They were humble men who really served the community. But unfortunately, they would often act, well, maybe not act, but certainly speak as if there was nothing special about them. I think it was this sort of false sense of humility. They wouldn't wear the clerics. They would dress in regular clothes. And they would just sort of refuse to acknowledge that there was anything special about them. But listen, you know, it's been said, humility, it's not about downplaying yourself. It's about recognizing who you really are. And with the sacrament of

Starting point is 00:22:32 holy orders comes what we call an ontological change, a change in the being of the priest that can never be undone. We might say a mark on the soul, just as with baptism, but in a different sense, that can never be reversed, even if one were to, quote-unquote, leave the priesthood. So that's beautiful. And I want to take my hat off. I'm not wearing a hat, but if I was, I would take it off right now to all of the beautiful priests out there who are brave enough to wear their clerics, to wear their habit in public. And I always make it an effort, if I see a priest at an airport or in the street, just very briefly, I'll say, thank you, Father, for your priesthood. Now, you might think

Starting point is 00:23:10 that's a little cliche, and I actually used to wonder if that was just kind of annoying to the priests. But you know what? We live in a pagan culture. We live in a culture that does not look charitably upon Catholics. Really, many people hate what they believe the Catholic Church is. And so, can you imagine how many stares they get, how many whispers they must hear? And so, I'd like to encourage you, if you feel so inclined, the next time you see a priest in public who's wearing his clerics, maybe say that to him. Thank you so much for your priesthood. Thank you for wearing your clerics, the collar. Okay. We have two more quotations here.

Starting point is 00:23:50 One is the anointing of the sick, or as St. Thomas calls it, extreme unction. And then we'll say something about the Eucharist. Now, this quotation comes from St. James 5, verses 14 through 15. This really is just an explanation of what the anointing of the sick is. So if any of you are out there thinking maybe this isn't very biblical, listen to what St. James has to say. He says, if is any among you sick, let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. What a really cool thought. So, you know, a friend of yours or a grandparent or a parent is on their deathbed, even if they're unconscious.

Starting point is 00:24:46 or a parent is on their deathbed, even if they're unconscious, by this anointing of the sick, all sins are forgiven, provided that person would be confessing them if they were conscious. What a lovely and reassuring thought as our friends and family, and even ourselves one day, go on to our final reward. Please, God, there will be a priest present. Okay, very finally, we want to talk maybe for the next couple of minutes just about the most holy sacrament. Here's what St. Francis de Sales has to say about after we receive our Lord in the blessed sacrament. Quote, when you have received him, stir up your heart to do him homage. Speak to him about your spiritual life, gazing upon him in your soul where he is present for your happiness. Welcome him as warmly as

Starting point is 00:25:32 possible and behave outwardly in such a way that your actions may give proof to all of his presence. End quote. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. I remember a story that my bishop, his name, he was the Bishop of Port Pirie, the diocese I grew up in at the time, Bishop Eugene Hurley. He told me he had a conversation with a Protestant minister one day, and the Protestant minister said to him, do you really believe that that's Jesus Christ in what you call the Eucharist and not just a symbol for Jesus Christ? And the bishop said, yes, I absolutely do. Do you not believe that?

Starting point is 00:26:13 And the minister said, no, I don't. I think it's just a symbol, but I'll tell you this. If I did believe that was Jesus Christ, I would crawl over broken glass daily to receive him. Wow, what a powerful statement. Now look, I'm not here to try and make myself seem holier than I am. I don't like it when people do that. I want to be holy, but let me just be real. There's a lot of times I just choose not to go to mass, not because I've got something else on, but just because I don't really want to.

Starting point is 00:26:47 I couldn't be bothered. And I think that's a problem. Do I really believe that the Eucharist is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ? Or don't I? And if I do, what would possibly be more important than to get to Mass? Now, look, of course,

Starting point is 00:27:08 we've got obligations, we've got families to attend to, we've got jobs we need to go to, so these are our duty and we should be doing these things. We don't want to leave our job just to go to Mass if we thereby get fired and our family's well-being is in jeopardy, of course not. I'm not talking about that, though. I'm talking about trying to find time in the day to go to Mass, and not just Mass, but to be before our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. So let me say a word about each. Another little story, a friend of mine, Father Larry Richards, who maybe many of you are aware of, had this to say at a talk I attended recently.

Starting point is 00:27:49 He said, if I told you, when he was speaking to the entire congregation, there must have been at least a thousand of us at this talk. He said, if I told you that tomorrow I'll be giving everybody who comes to mass $10,000, how many of you wouldn't be able to come? Think about that for a moment. It's not very comfortable to think about because you know exactly what he's about to say next. But just honestly, think about that. If the priest said to you, hey, if you can just make it on this time or this time tomorrow, you know, just come in. I'll give you $10,000. Listen, you and I would absolutely find a way to get to Holy Mass. And here it comes. The Eucharist. Jesus Christ, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, is worth infinitely more than $10,000.

Starting point is 00:28:41 And he wants to feed us with his body and blood. And yet you and I make excuses. I know I do. Or sometimes I don't even make excuses because I'm too embarrassed to make excuses. I just try and put it out of my mind. I just got too much, I got too much, I got too much. Now, look, I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad here. You might not even be Catholic and you're listening to this podcast. Or maybe you've been Catholic only for a little while. Or maybe you've only just come back to the church. So listen, please don't hear me say, if you don't go to daily mass, you're a bad Catholic. I am not saying that. But what I am saying is simply this, if you and I truly believe that that's Jesus Christ up on that altar, wouldn't we want to go to mass whenever we could?

Starting point is 00:29:20 So I think instead of, you know, maybe falling into two pitfalls, two errors here, you know, on the one hand, we might say, no, no, I do love Jesus in the Eucharist. I do want to go every day. Well, I hope you do. But if you say that, and really, it's not true. No, come on, let's just be honest. Like I said a moment ago, I should want to go. But you know what, sometimes I just don't want to. I'd rather, I don't know, have a coffee and sit down. All right. In fact, if we're being really honest here, sometimes I'll be at Holy Mass and I'm more excited about the coffee I'm going to drink afterwards than the blessed sacrament I'm about to receive. That's terrible. But look, it's human and you felt the same thing. And when I have those moments, I say, Lord Jesus Christ, you know, I love you. And as a sign of my

Starting point is 00:30:04 love, you know, I'm here because I love you. love you. It would be one thing. Sorry, it'd be another thing if you got up out of church and went off to Starbucks or wherever. I mean, that's obviously a different thing here. All right. So, that's one thing. Okay. Now, the second thing, of course, is Eucharistic adoration. What a beautiful thing to be before our Lord and to adore Him. 17th century philosopher Blaise Pascal made famous for his Pascal's Wager that he wrote in the Pensees. By the way, I've just released an e-book at mattfradd.com. It's called God or Atheism? What to do when you can't decide. So So if you go to mattfradd.com, you might see a pop-up for that ebook. If you don't see that, go to the search bar and type that in, God or Atheism? What to do when you can't decide? And I explain Pascal's wager and

Starting point is 00:30:57 I respond to common objections to it. Anyway, that's not the point. here's what he said elsewhere in the ponce he says all of man's problems can be traced back to the fact that man is unable to sit alone in a dark room silently did you hear that i'll say it again and i'm paraphrasing all of the ills facing mankind all of our problems can be traced back to this fact that man, that is you and me, we don't know how to sit alone in a dark room silently. We love being distracted. We may say we don't like being distracted, but I think very often we do like being distracted by Instagram, by Twitter, by Facebook, by radio, by podcasts, maybe even this podcast. I'm not saying turn it off, just it's nearly done, then you can turn it off. By email, by friends, by radio. We often don't like being silent because I think sometimes we have to face the confusion and

Starting point is 00:31:56 poverty of our own hearts. And so coming before our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament can be a rather daunting thing because it means sitting alone with really nothing to entertain us for an hour or for half an hour. But you and I both know it's good for us, like exercise, like eating our vegetables. Even if we don't want to do it, we know we should. And the thing is, the more you do something that you should be doing, the more you'll begin to love it. At least that's usually the case. We might not like exercise to begin with, but you know what? We put in the effort and all of a sudden we enjoy the rush that we get through exercise. We like how we feel. We might not like our vegetables because we've been raised on Coca-Cola and Skittles. And so vegetables and fruit might seem rather dull to us. But of course,

Starting point is 00:32:38 if we put away the fake food and begin eating actual food, all of a sudden we'll begin to appreciate the flavors of real food. And so I think the more we can spend our time before our blessed Lord in the sacrament, the more we will want to be there. Jesus Christ is the friend of our souls and the way we become friends with another person is by spending time with them. It's simple, but it's true. So here's what I would like to suggest. And again, it's just a suggestion. You don't have to do it, obviously. But for those of you who are thinking

Starting point is 00:33:10 or maybe feeling called in your hearts to take the next step, I'd say this. Perhaps near you, they have Eucharistic adoration, maybe perpetual adoration, maybe 24-hour adoration once a week or something. Don't just commit to going there in the sense that you say, okay, yeah, next Tuesday I'll do it. Call up the parish and schedule a slot. That's how that works.

Starting point is 00:33:34 People are always adoring the Blessed Sacrament in perpetual adoration, so they need what they call adorers to come and adore the Blessed Sacrament. And so people will actually commit to an hour. It might be two in the morning, it might be five in the afternoon, it might be eight in the morning. But if you commit to it, you're going to go. Because if you don't go, the person who just spent an hour before our Lord isn't able to leave because they can't leave while the Blessed Sacrament is exposed. So that's a way of sort of kind of putting your money where your mouth is, if you will. So you might think about doing that.

Starting point is 00:34:05 Now, some of you might say to me, I don't actually have the Blessed Sacrament. I don't have perpetual adoration in my parish or it's not even anywhere near me. Well, go and spend time before our Lord in the tabernacle. Something I learned from Jason Everett, and this is something he does and I've begun doing. And if you're not familiar with Jason Everett, he speaks to many people on chastity every year. Before his talks every day, he always spends an hour before our Lord and the Blessed Sacrament. And so I want to give him the credit there. I've been really inspired by his witness and I've done that too. So wherever I go to speak, I always make sure that if I'm speaking that day, I get before our Lord for an hour. Now, sometimes I'll say, I'm sorry,

Starting point is 00:34:44 we don't have perpetual adoration. I'm like, you know what? It doesn't matter. Just let me get before the blessed sacrament. So I hope that those words and the words of St. Thomas have inspired you to appreciate the sacraments of our Catholic faith. And of course, in particular, the Holy Eucharist. So thank you so much for listening today. Hey, three things I want to suggest. If you could do this for me, that would be the bomb, okay? Number one, would you please rate this show? They tell me that the more people who rate the show, the more people see the show if they type in St. Thomas or Aquinas or theology. So that would be awesome. Number two, would you tell someone about the show? Maybe a Catholic nerd like myself who likes these sorts of discussions. Number three, if you want me to address a

Starting point is 00:35:30 particular question, tweet me, okay, at Matt Fradd. That's my handle on Twitter. Shoot me a message over there. And then very finally, just go to my website, mattfradd.com, if you'd like to learn more about me and the sorts of things I'm writing about. to carry you.

Pints With Aquinas - 03: Why are there 7 sacraments?

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