‘Nothing can take the place of these great universal prayers of the Church, the prayers of the Mass and the divine Office. One has only to know them to find them indispensable. And alas, how few of the laity know them!’

God is saying to humankind, to Israel, to the Church, and to each one of us: “I want to marry you,” and Scripture tells the story of our frailty, His fidelity, and the final fulfillment to be found in “a new heaven and a new earth.”

“It will be sufficient, in every need, to ask my Mother to make her intentions in my regard come true.”

“The focal point of all that belongs to Christ in the world, the Eucharist opens onto heaven. The substance of the bread is withdrawn from this world and changed into the substance of the glorified body of Christ; those who eat the transubstantiated bread are themselves drawn into the sphere of eternal happiness.”

These seven sacraments are thus those parts of the material world which God, in His perfect freedom, has chosen to sanctify for the sake of our sanctification.

“The sacraments were seen as great events in sacred history…their course constituting that shining train of divine works whose splendor the very angels cannot endure, which fills them with wonder.”

Far from being merely rites of passage, the sacraments that a young person receives have ramifications not only for their own soul, but ramifications that reverberate through all of the “layers” of reality.

We need the sacraments, because Christians are not Deists and human beings are not angels.

I hope that you will take advantage of this treasure trove of ideas and resources, and I would like to extend my thanks to all of my CRCCM colleagues for their collegiality and support, which enable us all to better serve Our Lord and His people.

“In the psalms and hymns used in your prayers to God, let that be pondered in the heart which is uttered by the voice; chant nothing but what you find prescribed to be chanted; whatever is not so prescribed is not to be chanted.”