The Eucharist is always accompanied by readings from the Holy Scriptures and by various prayers. Throughout the year, different scriptural readings proclaim the mysteries of God and the life of Christ. Catholics celebrate the Eucharist at least once a week on Sunday, the Lord’s Day, and on great feast days. This Love-meal is also called Holy Mass.

OTHER RITES, RITUALS OR SACRAMENTS

There are six other sacraments or Christian rites which are connected with different stages of life. In Catholic tradition, gradually “seven sacraments” have been explicitated to celebrate the one great mystery of the life- in-union-with the Guru. They are all grouped around the Lord’s Supper. Each sacrament is a personal meeting with Christ, otherwise it could remain external ritualism without a heart.

Thus in Baptism one is re-born in the Spirit. Baptism is the first rite of initiation into the Christian life. Christ is the source of life. The person becomes one with the Christian family united with them in Christ and is graced to grow in love.

Confirmation is the second rite of initiation into the Christian life. One receives the Spirit of Christ to enable him/her to give witness to the life of Christ within, in the ordinary daily circumstances of life. How the first disciples received the Spirit (at Pentecost) and were transformed from cowards into heroes is told in the Acts of the Apostles (Ch. 2).

In the sacrament of Reconciliation – when one has sinned the Christian life is restored or strengthened. This reconciliation implies being reconciled both to God and to one’s brothers and sisters.

The celebration of Marriage endows a man and a woman with strength to persevere in love and mutual union – “in riches or in poverty, in sickness or in health” and to foster the Christian life in their children. In this ritual they are graced to be living witnesses of God’s fidelity and love in the world. The fruitful love between husband and wife is seen as a symbol of the union which exists between Jesus Christ and the faithful who believe in him. The Church is often called the “Bride of Christ”.

In the sacrament of Anointing one is either restored to health or one receives the strength for the journey that leads us through the door of death to the fulness of life.

The Order to Priesthood ordains a brother to an explicit ministry of the Word within the community, so that through the gift of the Spirit he may preside over the celebration of the Eucharist, proclaiming the very words of the Lord’s Supper – and also, proclaiming/assuring, in the name of Christ and his Church, the forgiveness of sins. The Bishop having the fullness of priesthood has the power to “ordain” priests.

These seven sacraments (including the Eucharist) are recognised by the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Some churches recognise only Baptism and the Eucharist as normative sacraments in the full sense.

II. Is not Christianity a specifically “European” Religion?

It has sometimes been thought by the people in India that Christianity is a western religion. Although it has a Judaic pre-history, Christianity regards itself as the religion of all mankind. It arose in Asia on the frontier between East and West – so that its roots penetrate directly into almost all the earlier higher civilisations. In the beginning Christian communities were more numerous in West Asia and North Africa than in Europe. But for a long time Christian leadership was found mainly in Europe. European colonisers transmitted Christianity as part of their cultural heritage when they expanded throughout the world.

Christian groups in India, descended from the converts of European missionaries of the colonial period, took on many aspects of Western culture, besides Western forms of Christianity. However, some Christian groups have not become Westernised. The St. Thomas Christians in Kerala who trace their origin back to Jesus’ Apostle, Thomas, have retained their Indian cultural heritage, while adopting an Eastern form of Christianity.