The Church is only the Church when it is there for other people. (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

The Church is only the Church when it is there for other people. (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

koinonia the fellowship of believers. diakonia service to the suffering, including strangers and opponents, which continually tears down the barriers of internal fellowship.

Luke 10: 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved himself a neighbour to the man who fell into the bandit s hands?

Friendship & love: I think the word amicus (friend) comes from the word amor (love), and amicitia (friendship) from amicus. A friend is called a guardian of love or, as some would have it, a guardian of the spirit itself. Since it is fitting that my friend be a guardian of our mutual love or the guardian of my own spirit so as to preserve all its secrets in faithful silence, let him, as far as he can, cure and endure such defects as he may observe in it; let him rejoice with his friend in his joys, weep with him in his sorrows, and feel as his own all that his friend

Friendship, therefore, is that virtue by which spirits are bound by ties of love and sweetness, and out of many are made one. Even the philosophers of this world have ranked friendship not with things casual or transitory but with virtues which are eternal.

no one would choose to live, even if he had all other goods without friends. (Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics 8,1).

If we realise the fundamental sacramentality of all human experience and the way Jesus transformed this sacramentality, there is good reason for seeing human friendship as the most basic sacrament of God s saving presence among us. Human friendship reflects and makes credible the reality of God s love for humans; it gives us some insight into the Christian revelation that God is a self. (B. Cooke, Sacraments and sacramentality)

A community of life and love, founded in a mutual and irrevocable covenant, by which a Christian man and a Christian woman give and accept one another for the purpose of establishing an intimate partnership of their whole life. (Marriage, sacrament of, in NDSW)

Contracts deal with things, covenants with people. Contracts engage the services of people; covenants engage persons. Contracts can be broken, with material loss to the contracting parties; covenants cannot be broken, but if violated, they result in personal loss and broken hearts. Contracts are secular affairs and belong to the market place; covenants are sacral affairs and belong to the hearth, temple or Church. Contracts are best understood by lawyers, civil and ecclesiastical; covenants are better appreciated by poets and theologians. Contracts are witnessed by people with the state as guarantor. Contracts can be made by children who know the value of a penny; covenants can be made only by adults who are mentally, emotionally and spiritually mature. (Paul Palmer sj, Christian Marriage: Contract or Covenant? in Theological Studies (Vol 33, 1972) 639.

The matrimonial covenant by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptised persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament. For this reason, a matrimonial contract cannot validly exist between baptised persons unless it is also a sacrament by that fact. Canon 1055

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called woman, for out of Man this one was taken. Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. Genesis 2: 21-24

Hos 1-3 God claims Israel for his own, despite Israel s infidelity Jer 2:2 Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord: I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. Ezek 16; 23 Talks of faithfulness and Covenant Mal 2:14-16 The Lord was a witness between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. Did not one God make her? Both flesh and spirit are his. And what does the one God desire? Godly offspring. So look to yourselves and do not let anyone be faithless to the wife of his youth. For I hate divorce, says the Lord, the God of Israel, and covering one s garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So take heed to yourselves and do not be faithless.

1. Marriage between humans is not an imitation of an eternal marriage between some divine couple, but a truly human reality. 2. The bond between Giver, gift and recipients is explained by the prophet Hosea in his teaching that the marital communion between a man and a woman is the prophetic symbol of the covenantal communion between God and his people. 3. As a man and a woman become one body-person in marriage, so also have Christ and his Church become one body-person, and that the one reflects the other. 4. Christian Marriage is a covenanted community of love between a man and a woman, love that does not seek its own, love that gives way, love that serves, love that is steadfastly faithful. (M Lawler, Marriage and Sacrament)

It is fitting that men and women who want to marry get the approval of the bishop, so that their marriage is according to the Lord, not according to passion. (Letter to Polycarp 9:2)

Ritual symbols of Greco-Roman marriage tabulae nuptiales pronuba dexterarum iunctio deductio in domum

in the case of both the Greeks and Romans, marriage was not originally based on interpersonal relationship. Nor was it based directly on the procreative act, leading to the foundation of a family, or on marital and paternal authority, but on the religion of the hearth the focus patruus. Schillebeeckx

Tertullian (c160-240) How shall we ever be able adequately to describe the happiness of that marriage which the Church founds, and the Eucharist confirms, upon which the prayer of thanksgiving sets a seal, which angels praise, and to which the Father gives his consent? For not even on earth do children marry properly and legally without their father s permission.

A garland is placed on their (spouses ) heads as a symbol of their victory, because they reach victorious toward the port of marriage, without ever having been vanquished by pleasure. John Chrysostom

Casti Connubii, Pope Pius XI 1930

intimate partnership of life and love (GS 48) contract of its partners, that is, in their irrevocable personal consent. (48). help and serve each other by their marriage partnership; they become conscious of their unity and experience it more deeply from day to day. (48) with the Spirit of Christ and their whole life is suffused by faith, hope and charity; thus they increasingly further their own perfection and their mutual sanctification, and together they render glory to God. (48)

GS 52: Let married people themselves, who are created in the image of the living God and constituted in an authentic personal dignity, be united together in equal affection, agreement of mind and mutual holiness. Thus, in the footsteps of Christ, the principle of life, they will bear witness by their faithful love in the joys and sacrifices of their calling, to that mystery of love which the Lord revealed to the world by his death and resurrection.

a Covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of their whole life, and which of its own very nature is ordered to the well-being of the spouses and to the procreation and upbringing of children. (Canon 1055)

Towards Christians who live in this situation priests and the whole community must manifest an attentive solicitude, so that they do not feel themselves separated from the Church, in whose life they can and must participate as baptised persons. (Canon 1651)

About this time, when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenists made a complaint against the Hebrews: in the daily distribution their widows were being overlooked. So the Twelve called a full meeting of the disciples and addressed them, It would not be right for us to neglect the Word of God so as to give out food; you, brothers, must select from among yourselves seven men of good reputation, filled with the spirit and with wisdom; we will hand over this duty to them, and continue to devote themselves to prayer and to the service of the word. (Acts 6:1-4)

apostoloi episkopoi presbuteroi diakonia

He must not have been married more than once, and he must be temperate, discreet and courteous, hospitable and a good teacher; not a heavy drinker, nor hot-tempered, but kind and peaceable. He must not be a lover of money. He must be a man who manages his own family well and brings his children up to obey him and be well-behaved; how can any man who does not understand how to manage his own family have responsibility for the Church of God? He should not be a new convert, in case pride might turn his head and then he might be condemned as the devil was condemned. It is also necessary that people outside the Church should speak well of him, so that he never gets a bad reputation and falls into the devil s trap. (1 Tim 3: 2b-7)

They must be conscientious believers in the mystery of the faith. They are to be examined first, and only admitted to serve as deacons if there is nothing against them. In the same way, the women must be respectable, not gossips but sober and quite reliable (1 Tim 3:9-11).

Diversity of Ministries 1 Cor 12:8 1 Cor 12: 28 Rom 12:6 Eph 4:11 Gift of wisdom Apostles Gift of Prophecy Apostles Gift of Knowledge Prophets Gift of Service Prophets Gift of Faith Those who teach Gift of Teaching Evangelists Gift of Healing Gift of Miracles Gift of exhortation Pastors Gift of Miracles Gift of Healing Those who teach Gift of Prophecy Gift of Helping Discernment of Spirit Gift of Administration Gift of Tongues Gift of Interpretation Gift of Tongues

Understanding ministries in the life of the Church: The solidarity and complementarity of the members of the body; The presence of the head, which animates all with a view to mission.

All the priests stand at their duties every day, offering over and over again the same sacrifices which are quite incapable of taking sins away. He, on the other hand, has offered one single sacrifice for sins, and then taken his place forever, at the right hand of God, where he is now waiting until his enemies are made into a footstool for him. By virtue of that one single offering, he has achieved the eternal perfection of all whom he is sanctifying (Heb 10: 11-14).

But what you have come to is Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem where the millions of Angels have gathered for the festival, with the whole Church in which everyone is a first-born-son and a citizen of heaven. You have come to God himself, the supreme judge, and been placed with the Spirits of the saints who have been made perfect; and to Jesus, the mediator who brings a new covenant and a blood for purification which pleads more insistently than Abel s. (12:22-24).

a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a people set apart to sing the praises of God who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (1 Pet 2:9)

Ordination rites grow in importance and are acknowledged as the ground of these ministries. Whereas in the first two to three centuries it seemed that one presided at the liturgy because of one s position as leader of the community, subsequently one is understood to preside and so to lead the community because one has been ordained. (McGoldrick, Patrick, Orders, sacrament of, in NDSW).

With regard to this development, it is important to remember that ranks existed in the authority of priests from the beginning, namely, the ranks instituted by Jesus himself when he appointed the Twelve under the primacy of Peter and entrusted the seventy-two disciples a similar mission. In the early Church the Twelve exercised the highest authority and were assisted by ministers of lower rank. The later development duplicates these two ranks within the framework of the local church: a bishop and a group of presbyters. Galot

In Persona Christi In Persona Ecclsiae

I deny that there are seven sacraments, and for the present maintain that there are only three: baptism, penance and the bread. All three have been subjected to a miserable captivity by the Roman authorities, and the Church has been robbed of all her freedom.

Yet it has seemed right to restrict the name of sacrament to those promises of God which have signs attached to them. The remainder, not being connected to signs, are merely promises. Hence, strictly speaking, there are only two sacraments in the Church of God- baptism and the bread. For only in these two do we find the divinely instituted sign and the promise of the forgiveness of sins.

so that you too may be living stones making a spiritual house as a holy priesthood to offer the spiritual sacrifices made acceptable to God through Jesus Christ 1 Pet 2:5

it is the first task of priests as co-workers of the bishops to preach the Gospel of God to all The purpose for which priests are consecrated by God through the ministry of the bishop is that they should be made sharers in a special way in Christ s priesthood and, by carrying out sacred functions, act as ministers of him who through his Spirit continually exercises his priestly role for our benefit in the liturgy. (Presbyterorum Ordinis 4 & 5)

Spiritual formation should be closely allied to doctrinal and pastoral training. (Optatam Totius, 8)

especially trained in what is relevant to the sacred ministry, that is, in catechesis and preaching, liturgy and administration of the sacraments, works of charity, meeting the needs of those in error and of unbelievers, and in all other pastoral duties. Let them be carefully trained in the art of directing souls, through which all members of the Church can be guided towards a fully committed and apostolic Christian life and helped to fulfil the duties of their state. (OT 19)

Individual bishops to whose charge particular dioceses are committed, under the authority of the supreme pontiff, care for their flocks in the name of God, as their proper, ordinary and immediate pastors, teaching, sanctifying and governing them. (Decree on the Pastoral Office of Bishops in the Church, Christus Dominus, 11).

Sacrum Diaconatus Ordinem Ad Pascendum

Ministry and the Universal Church: LG 23 in so far as they are set over particular Churches, exercise their pastoral office over the portion of the people of God assigned to them, not over other Churches nor the universal Church

Stephen Porter The development of Lay Pastoral Ministry in The Pastoral Review, May/ June 2006, pp28-32.

The gifts of service which are the result of baptism and which develop through participation in the Church s mystery are not intended for the individual s own enhancement. They are for the Church, belong to the Church, and have to be discerned by the Church. (Power, p139)

The services that Christians render to one another in the word, in mutual hospitality, and in other forms of empowerment are given multiple expression in the liturgy and give rise to a variety of specific liturgical ministries (184).

full, active and varied participation of the faithful in the liturgy, so that as a holy and elect people they might minister to the world in Christ s name, in the power of the spirit, for the eternal glory of the Father (185).