Sacrament rankings

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Baptism
Confession
Eucharist
Confirmation
Holy Orders
Marriage
Anointing of the Sick.

Of the vocational sacraments, Marriage is the only one the Church doesn’t consider being for life. Why I can’t fathom, but that is the Church’s teaching, so it must be placed at the end before anointing of the sick.

Personally I would rank them differently.
 
ziapueblo said:
I agreed with the the above statement:
  1. Baptism
  2. Chrismation (Confirmation)
  3. the Eucharist
In this order.

ZP
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Another ranking with confirmation as a high rank. Can you elaborate on why. It isn’t necessary for many of the other sacraments. We receive hundreds of Eucharists before confirmation. While I know the importance of it. Why so high?
 
I see nothing to be achieved by ranking the sacraments. Of course, baptism is described as the ‘gateway’ to the other sacraments. This does not place baptism first in a league table, it simply means that you must be baptised prior to receiving the other sacraments.

In some cases you must have received other sacraments before receiving another one. For example, those who are ordained must be baptised and confirmed. Confirmation prior to matrimony is preferred but not mandatory. This is, however, simply an order in which the sacraments are received for particular reasons. I honestly do not think any sacrament can be classed as more important than another.
 
The Tradition of the Church, both East and West, was Baptism, Chrismation (Confirmation) and the Eucharist in one liturgical celebration. We see this in the Roman Church on Easter Vigil as well in the reception of unbaptized converts into the Roman Church during other times of the year are received in this order. It wasn’t until the second millennium that this changed.

ZP
 
farronwolf said:
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Marriage is the only one the Church doesn’t consider being for life. Why I can’t fathom
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It is just as long as both are alive. Humans are not given in marriage in heaven.

Rom. 7
2 A married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies she is discharged from the law concerning the husband.
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Mark 12
25 When they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.
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Or if they are granted an annulment. Which is something that I completely disagree with in most all circumstances.

When one takes their marriage vows, it is not conditional upon the other person’s intentions, so regardless of what your spouse’s state of mind is, you make a promise to God that you will do what you are promising for life.
 
It’s just interesting that for most Catholics two of those three are delayed. Eucharist for about 8 years and confirmation well over a decade. And sadly, many live the entirety of their lives and die young perhaps before confirmation. I rank confirmation lower because of it’s place in salvation of souls. One can live a life and enter into many other sacraments without being confirmed.

I do wish that for the universal Church, the initiation sacraments were all done at once in infancy.
 
If I were to place one at the top of the list it would be the Eucharist.
From the CCC:
1324 The Eucharist is “the source and summit of the Christian life.” “The other sacraments, and indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch.”
 
IdaCatholic said:
It’s just interesting that for most Catholics two of those three are delayed.
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I took a study on the sacraments of initiation and was taught that because diocese became larger and in the West, the bishop (in most circumstances) being the ordinary minister of Confirmation, both Confirmation and the Eucharist where delayed but maybe a few months to a year. Here is the study I mentioned from the Institute of Catholic Culture:



ZP
 
1-10. Eucharist
11. Baptism
12. Confirmation
13. Marriage
14. Holy Orders
15. Anointing of the sick
16. Confession

The Eucharist is most important in so many ways, it needs a much more prominent posirion than any other.

Confirmation, despite being neglected, is how God cintinues to be active in our lives.

Marriage is how someone else is active with God in our lives, changing us far more than “imparting a character” does.

Orders are at the service of the others.

The sacrament of the sick is only for the infirm, which is all of us but only as mortal.

Confession is only for the sinner, which is all of us but only as imperfect.

Any of these can be the most important at particular moments in a person’s life. Ranking them is in terms of how often and how deep the impact is in ideal situations.
 
It’s so interesting, because the Episcopal Church officially recognizes only Baptism and Eucharist as Sacraments since those two were handed down by Jesus, and the other five as Sacramental Rites.

My church though is very “highchurch” and recognizes all seven! I happen to agree with your ranking, but I wanted to share a little Protestant trivia 🙂
 
Turns out he (the seminarian) was adamant that the consecrated life was not a higher state, and when I told him that that’s not what the Church teaches, his adamancy became pique.
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The seminarian is right. I’m also adamant that consecrated life is not a higher state.

A few things JP2 specifically said that all vocations are equal.
All vocations are born in Christ, and this is what is expressed by every anointing with Chrism-- from Holy Baptism to the anointing of the head of a bishop. This is the source of the dignity common to all Christian vocations, which, from this point of view, are all equal. They differ according to the role that Christ assigns to each individual within the community of the Church and the responsibility attached to the role. Great care must be taken so that “nothing is wasted” (John 6:12): no vocation should be wasted because all are valuable and necessary.
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From Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way, John Paul II (excerpt from, section “Vocation,” subsection, “Sacred Chrism,” page 37)…google it…it will take you right to google books and this section…

Vastly more important, please reread the teaching on marriage from Jesus in Matthew 19:1-12. This is primarily were we should be looking to answer this. Here he talks about marriage and celibacy for the kingdom of God. After reading this I think Jesus would be very unhappy at our efforts to rank marriage and celibacy. He doesn’t present marriage and celibacy this way at all. He presents celibacy for the kingdom of God as an exception to marriage. He says we should accept marriage if we can. If you just read Matthew 19:12, it looks like Jesus is saying to accept celibacy, but that interpretation is ridiculously taken out of context.
 
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farronwolf said:
Or if they are granted an annulment. Which is something that I completely disagree with in most all circumstances.

When one takes their marriage vows, it is not conditional upon the other person’s intentions, so regardless of what your spouse’s state of mind is, you make a promise to God that you will do what you are promising for life.
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But matrimony requires the consent from both simultaneously or no covenant. It is established between the two.

CIC (Canon Law)
Can. 1055 §1. The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life and which is ordered by its nature to the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring, has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament between the baptized.
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I understand what the sacrament requires and what Canon Law says.

But like my statement in the previous post. When one takes their vows, it is not stated as conditional on the other actions. One makes a promise to God.

Annulments seem to be issued like candy to children.

This is one of my personal disagreements with the Church.
 
farronwolf said:
I understand what the sacrament requires and what Canon Law says.

But like my statement in the previous post. When one takes their vows, it is not stated as conditional on the other actions. One makes a promise to God.

Annulments seem to be issued like candy to children.

This is one of my personal disagreements with the Church.
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Marriage has never been a promise to God. Vows are not even required for matrimony, but proper agreement of what a marriage is and consent to it is required, and it cannot be a lie or under duress or it is not a marriage. (Example: shotgun marriage.) It is as St. Paul taught in Ephesians 5
21 Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.
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In what manner are you referring.

Seeking an annulment.

Answering questions on behalf of those seeking?

Having family members who have gotten them?
 
Sorry, I could have been clearer. How many cases have you read, cover to cover (so to speak) so you know all the available facts?

Dan
 
None, cover to cover.

Just know that the number somehow rose exponentially in the last half a century when the number of marriages taking place over the same period of time in the US Catholic church has decreased.

Again, as I have stated, something which I don’t agree with that has happened. This thread was asking how we ranked the sacraments. I answered according to my thoughts.

I find it curious that it is the only vocational sacrament that is not for life. Again, something that I disagree with the Church.
 
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