Sacraments

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A sacrament is a visible sign of an invisible reality.
Mother Angelica

Baptism

Contact: Mary Ellen Minnick 812-265-4166 ext 239  meminnick@popeace.org

Our parish provides a baptismal program designed for parents. One goal of the program is to help parents become aware of the significance of baptism as being the beginning, not an end, of a lifelong commitment. The program addresses the purpose of baptism from both a spiritual and practical standpoint.

If you are interested in the sacrament of baptism at Prince of Peace, you must be a registered parishioner.

To register your child (INFANT – 5 YEARS) for baptism please use this Baptismal Registration Form; for more information please email Mary Ellen Minnick at 812-265-4166 ext 239

To register your school-aged children (6 YEARS to 17 YEARS) for baptism please use this Baptismal Registration Form; for more information please call or email Mary Ellen Minnick at 812-265-4166 ext 239 meminnick@popeace.org

 Adults (18 years +) wishing to complete the Sacrament of Baptism please see (RCIA).

Click here for more information on Baptism.

Reconciliation

Reconciliation takes place on Saturday before the 6:00 PM Mass. Please locate Father in the church. 

Pope John Elementary and the Religious Education Program prepare second graders for their first confessions.

There are four steps in the Sacrament of Reconciliation:

  1. We feel contrition for our sins and a conversion of heart to change our ways.
  2. We confess our sins and human sinfulness to a priest.
  3. We receive and accept forgiveness (absolution) and are absolved of our sins.
  4. We celebrate God’s everlasting love for us and commit to living a Christian life.

Sin hurts our relationship with God, ourselves, and others. As the Catechism states:

 The sinner wounds God’s honor and love, his own human dignity…and the spiritual well-being of the Church, of which each Christian ought to be a living stone. To the eyes of faith, no evil is graver than sin and nothing has worse consequences for the sinners themselves, for the Church, and for the whole world. (CCC 1487, 1488)

A mature understanding of sin includes reflecting upon our thoughts, actions, and omissions as well as examining the patterns of sin that may arise in our lives. With contrite hearts, we are also called to reflect upon the effects of our sins upon the wider community and how we might participate in sinful systems.

Contrition and conversion lead us to seek forgiveness for our sins so as to repair damaged relationships with God, self, and others. We believe that only ordained priests have the faculty of absolving sins from the authority of the Church in the name of Jesus Christ (CCC 1495). Our sins are forgiven by God, through the priest.

Fr. Chris provides reconciliation before the Saturday vigil Mass, 5:30 pm at Prince of Peace Catholic church. He will also take appointments by calling the parish office: 812-265-4166 ext 241

Click here for the Examination of Conscience.

Eucharist (First Communion)

The Eucharist is the bread that gives strength… It is at once the most eloquent proof of His love and the most powerful means of fostering His love in us.
Saint Damien of Molokai

If you wish your child to receive their First Holy Communion, a student at Pope John or Shawe will receive instructions. If your child attends public school, they will need to attend religious education classes held on Wednesday nights from 6-7 pm at Pope John Elementary. The Parish Office needs to be contacted and your child’s baptismal record will need to be provided.

Click here for information on The Mass.

Confirmation

For I know well the plans I have in mind for you—oracle of the LORD—plans for your welfare and not for woe, so as to give you a future of hope.
Jeremiah 29:11

In the Sacrament of Confirmation, the baptized person is “sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit” and is strengthened for service to the Body of Christ.

The prophets of the Old Testament foretold that God’s Spirit would rest upon the Messiah to sustain his mission.  Their prophecy was fulfilled when Jesus the Messiah was conceived by the Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.  The Holy Spirit descended on Jesus on the occasion of his baptism by John.  Jesus’ entire mission occurred in communion with the Spirit. Before he died, Jesus promised that the Spirit would be given to the Apostles and to the entire Church.  After his death, he was raised by the Father in the power of the Spirit.

Confirmation deepens our baptismal life that calls us to be missionary witnesses of Jesus Christ in our families, neighborhoods, society, and the world.  We receive the message of faith in a deeper and more intensive manner with great emphasis given to the person of Jesus Christ, who asked the Father to give the Holy Spirit to the Church for building up the community in loving service.

Please contact Mrs. Mary Ellen Minnick for information on the 2025 Confirmation Class. We are currently taking applications. These can be found at Prince of Peace, St. Patrick Chapel, Shawe Memorial high school, and the parish office. Please return to the parish office by Sept. 16, 2024

Click here for more information about Confirmation.

Matrimony

There should be in the life of every married couple a continual building of the sacrament.
Mother Angelica

Marriage is a Covenant

The Sacrament of Marriage is a covenantal union in the image of the covenants between God and his people with Abraham and later with Moses at Mt. Sinai. This divine covenant can never be broken. In this way, marriage is a union that bonds spouses together during their entire lifetime.

The love in a married relationship is exemplified in the total gift of one’s self to another. It’s this self-giving and self-sacrificing love that we see in our other model of marriage, the relationship between Christ and the Church.

Marriage is based on the consent of the contracting parties, that is, on their will to give themselves, each to the other, mutually and definitively, in order to live a covenant of faithful and fruitful love. (CCC 1662)

Marriage Reflects the Holy Trinity

We believe that God exists in eternal communion. Together, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are united in one being with no beginning and no end. Human beings, likewise, were created by God in God’s image for the purpose of communion with another human being.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “The Christian family is a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit” (CCC 2205). Christian marriage at its finest is a reflection of God’s self-giving love expressed between the love of two people.

Marriage Preparation

Please contact the parish office at least 9-12 months before the wedding date. Weddings may be celebrated on Friday evenings and on Saturday up until 2 p.m.

Preparation begins by making an appointment with the pastor or deacon.

Contact Fr. Chris Craig or Deacon Mike Boggs  812-265-4166

Photo credit Laura Jayne Gardner Photography

Click here for more information on Marriage.

Holy Orders

Christ’s invitation to the priesthood is an invitation to a way of life that is athletic in its intensity and heroic in its form.
Father Robert Barron

Click here for more information on Holy Orders.

Click below if interested in Vocations.

Anointing of the Sick

Please contact the parish office if you or a family member is in need of anointing.

812-265-4166.

For more information click here.