Catechism of the Catholic Church

Part Two: The Celebration of the Christian Mystery

Section One: The Sacramental Economy

Chapter One: The Paschal Mystery in the Age of the Church

1. Article One: The Liturgy - Work of the Holy Trinity
   1. The Father - Source and Goal of the Liturgy
   2. Christ's Work in the Liturgy
   3. The Holy Spirit and the Church in the Liturgy
2. Article Two: The Paschal Mystery in the Church's Sacraments
   1. The Sacraments of Christ
   2. The Sacraments of the Church
   3. The Sacraments of Faith
   4. The Sacraments of Salvation
   5. The Sacraments of Eternal Life

Chapter Two: The Sacramental Celebration of the Paschal Mystery

1. Article One: Celebration the Church's Liturgy
   1. Who Celebrates?
   2. How is the Liturgy Celebrated?
   3. When is the Liturgy Celebrated?
   4. Where is the Liturgy Celebrated?
2. Article Two: Liturgical Diversity and the Unity of the Mystery

Section Two: The Seven Sacraments of the Church

Chapter One: The Sacraments of Christian Initiation

1. Article One - The Sacrament of Baptism
   1. What is this Sacrament Called?
   2. Baptism in the Economy of Salvation
   3. How is the Sacrament of Baptism Celebrated?
   4. Who Can Receive Baptism?
   5. Who Can Baptize?
   6. The Necessity of Baptism
   7. The Grace of Baptism
2. Article Two: The Sacrament of Confirmation
   1. Confirmation in the Econony of Salvation
   2. The Signs and the Rite of Confirmation
   3. The Effects of Confirmation
   4. Who Can Receive this Sacrament?
   5. The Minister of Confirmation
3. Article Three: The Sacrament of the Eucharist
   1. The Eucharist - Source and Summit of Ecclesial Life
   2. What is this Sacrament Called?
   3. The Eucharist in the Economy of Salvation
   4. The Liturgical Celebration of the Eucharist
   5. The Sacramental Sacrifice Thanksgiving, Memorial, Presence
   6. The Paschal Banquet
   7. The Eucharist - "Pledge of the Glory to Come"

Chapter Two: The Sacraments of Healing

1. Article Four: The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation
   1. What is this Sacrament Called?
   2. Why a Sacrament of Reconciliation after Baptism?
   3. The Conversion of the Baptized
   4. Interior Penance
   5. The Many Forms of Penance in the Christian Life
   6. The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation
   7. The Acts of the Penitent
   8. The Minister of this Sacrament
   9. The Effects of this Sacrament
   10. Indulgences
   11. The Celebration of the Sacrament of Penance
2. Article Five: The Anointing of the Sick
   1. Its Foundations in the Economy of Salvation
   2. Who Receives and Who Administers this Sacrament?
   3. How is this Sacrament Celebrated?
   4. The Effects of The Celebration of this Sacrament
   5. Viaticum, the Last Sacrament of the Christian

Chapter Three: The Sacraments at the Service of Communion

1. Article Six: The Sacrament of Holy Orders
   1. Why is this Sacrament called "Orders"?
   2. The Sacrament of Holy Orders in the Economy of Salvation
   3. The Three Degrees of the Sacrament of Holy Orders
   4. The Celebration of this Sacrament
   5. Who can Confer this Sacrament?
   6. Who Can Receive this Sacrament?
   7. The Effects of the Sacrament of Holy Orders
2. Article Seven: The Sacrament of Matrimony
   1. Marriage in God's Plan
   2. The Celebration of Marriage
   3. Matrimonial Consent
   4. The Effects of the Sacrament of Matrimony
   5. The Goods and Requirements of Conjugal Love
   6. The Domestic Church

Chapter Four: Other Liturgical Celebrations

1. Article One: Sacramentals
2. Article Two: Christian Funerals
   1. The Christian's Last Passover
   2. The Celebration of Funerals

Why the liturgy?

1066 In the Symbol of the faith the Church confesses the mystery of the Holy Trinity and of the plan of God's "good pleasure" for all creation: the Father accomplishes the "mystery of his will" by giving his beloved Son and his Holy Spirit for the salvation of the world and for the glory of his name.^[1]

Such is the mystery of Christ, revealed and fulfilled in history according to the wisely ordered plan that St. Paul calls the "plan of the mystery"^[2] and the patristic tradition will call the "economy of the Word incarnate" or the "economy of salvation."

1067 "The wonderful works of God among the people of the Old Testament were but a prelude to the work of Christ the Lord in redeeming mankind and giving perfect glory to God. He accomplished this work principally by the Paschal mystery of his blessed Passion, Resurrection from the dead, and glorious Ascension, whereby 'dying he destroyed our death, riSing he restored our life.' For it was from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death upon the cross that there came forth 'the wondrous sacrament of the whole Church."'^[3]

For this reason, the Church celebrates in the liturgy above all the Paschal mystery by which Christ accomplished the work of our salvation.

1068 It is this mystery of Christ that the Church proclaims and celebrates in her liturgy so that the faithful may live from it and bear witness to it in the world:

For it is in the liturgy, especially in the divine sacrifice of the Eucharist, that "the work of our redemption is accomplished," and it is through the liturgy especially that the faithful are enabled to express in their lives and manifest to others the mystery of Christ and the real nature of the true Church.^[4]

What does the word liturgy mean?

1069 The word "liturgy" originally meant a "public work" or a "service in the name of/on behalf of the people."

In Christian tradition it means the participation of the People of God in "the work of God."^[5]

Through the liturgy Christ, our redeemer and high priest, continues the work of our redemption in, with, and through his Church.

1070 In the New Testament the word "liturgy" refers not only to the celebration of divine worship but also to the proclamation of the Gospel and to active charity.^[6] In all of these situations it is a question of the service of God and neighbor.

In a liturgical celebration the Church is servant in the image of her Lord, the one "leitourgos";^[7] she shares in Christ's priesthood (worship), which is both prophetic (proclamation) and kingly (service of charity):

The liturgy then is rightly seen as an exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ.

It involves the presentation of man's sanctification under the guise of signs perceptible by the senses and its accomplishment in ways appropriate to each of these signs.

In it full public worship is performed by the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, that is, by the Head and his members.

From this it follows that every liturgical celebration, because it is an action of Christ the priest and of his Body which is the Church, is a sacred action surpasSing all others.

No other action of the Church can equal its efficacy by the same title and to the same degree.^[8]

Liturgy as source of life

1071 As the work of Christ liturgy is also an action of his Church. It makes the Church present and manifests her as the visible sign of the communion in Christ between God and men. It engages the faithful in the new life of the community and involves the "conscious, active, and fruitful participation" of everyone.^[9]

1072 "The sacred liturgy does not exhaust the entire activity of the Church":^[10] it must be preceded by evangelization, faith, and conversion. It can then produce its fruits in the lives of the faithful: new life in the Spirit, involvement in the mission of the Church, and service to her unity.

Prayer and liturgy

Catechesis and liturgy

1074 "The liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; it is also the font from which all her power flows."^[13]

It is therefore the privileged place for catechizing the People of God.

"Catechesis is intrinsically linked with the whole of liturgical and sacramental activity, for it is in the sacraments, especially in the Eucharist, that Christ Jesus works in fullness for the transformation of men."^[14]

1075 Liturgical catechesis aims to initiate people into the mystery of Christ ( It is "mystagogy." ) by proceeding from the visible to the invisible, from the sign to the thing signified, from the "sacraments" to the "mysteries."

Such catechesis is to be presented by local and regional catechisms.

This Catechism, which aims to serve the whole Church in all the diversity of her rites and cultures,^[15] will present what is fundamental and common to the whole Church in the liturgy as mystery and as celebration (Section One), and then the seven sacraments and the sacramentals (Section Two).