While the sacraments of initiation and healing focus on an individual’s continued conversion and renewal, empowering one to spread the Good News to others; the sacraments of Holy Orders and Matrimony are specifically “directed towards the salvation of others” (CCC 1534). They confer a particular mission in the Church and serve to build up the People of God.

One must have already received the sacraments of initiation in order to receive these distinct consecrations, which are lifelong vocations, each unique in their mission and purpose.

Holy Orders (Ordination) is the sacrament through which the mission entrusted by Christ to his apostles continues to be exercised in the Church until the end of time. This sacrament enables the ordained to exercise a sacred power in the name and authority of Christ when he helps accomplish Christ’s task here on earth, preaching the Gospel, celebrating the sacraments and bringing the Eucharist, Christ’s Body and Blood, to his people, among other services (cfr CCC 1536).

Ordination confers an indelible spiritual character, irremovable, unrepeatable or limited in time, and it is composed of three degrees: bishops, priests and deacons.

Holy Matrimony (Marriage) is also a sacrament for building the community. Like Holy Orders, the fruits of marriage bring people to God. Holy Matrimony is a covenant by which a man and a woman enter into an intimate communion of life and love, “So they are no longer two but one flesh” (Matthew 19,6), called to “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1,28). So the ends of matrimony are the mutual good of the spouses and the procreation and education of children (cfr CCC 1659-1660).

The matrimonial consent between a man and a woman manifests their will to give themselves to each other irrevocably, and it binds the couple in an indissoluble union of faithful and fruitful love. “What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate” (Mark 10,9).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that “the sacrament of matrimony signifies the union of Christ and the Church. It gives spouses the grace to love each other with the love with which Christ has loved his Church”. The grace of this sacrament “perfects the human love of the spouses, strengthens their indissoluble unity and sanctifies them on the way to eternal life” (CCC 1661).