Sacraments Of Desire?

[Stephen III]

Hi all!

We've all heard the term and perhaps understand the concept behind a "Baptism of Desire". But does anyone have insight into whether or not any of the other sacraments are equally available under the same dire straits (that is imminent death). For example, could one receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation by desire if facing an imminent death and it was truly desirable. I've been told "yes" by a priest on that particular one..but what about the Eucharist? I understand the other sacrements such as marriage, or Holy Orders as they are not taught as a "necessity" of salvation. Baptism, The Sacrement of Reconciliation and The Eucharist are looked upon as somewhat an initiation into the Life of Grace and into the Family of God and can be argued as being absolutely necessary. And perhaps Extreme Unction or Last Rites could be argued as an exit conduit of Grace from the physical realm and be considered on par with the initiation-like sacraments.
I would welcome any and all thoughts and/or comments.....even ones without much thought .

God bless
Stephen

[willguy]

I'm not sure if by desire you would recieve the same graces that you would recieve if you actually recieved the sacrament (Eucharist, confession), but I would say that God probably does bestow grace for desiring the sacrament.

[Adeodatus]

St Thomas Aquinas does mention receiving grace by mere desire for the Eucharist. This is known in popular piety as making a "spiritual communion". If for whatever reason you can't get to Mass or receive Communion, you can desire a spiritual communion. Obviously it's not at all like eating the Body of Christ sacramentally, but it is a "Eucharist of desire", so to speak.

You can always repent for your sins wherever you are, and make an act of contrition. If you;re dying and there's no priest around, it's certainly the thing to do. To at least say, 'Forgive me'. So this is like a "confession of desire".

Marriage can be contracted even in the absence of a bishop, priest or deacon, and even without 2 witnesses. Ordinarily you need a clergyman and the witnesses, but in extreme cases, say if you lived in a really isolated community and the priest came very rarely, or the two of you ended up on a desert island, you could validly contract the sacrament of marriage. This is then confirmed when the priest eventually comes around. He doesn't have to do anything, just write it down in his books. So this isn't a "marriage of desire" because it is actually a real sacramental marriage, only a little unusual because of the circumstances.

Apart from Baptism, the other 3 remaining sacraments don't have that same necessity in extreme situations, so they have no "by desire" equivalents. The importance of Anointing of the Sick in extremis would be overshadowed by the "confession of desire" (which is not a term I've heard of before, by the way---just my own expression).

[popestpiusx]

I don't disagree with any of that adeodatus, but just a little clarification (not a correction). These "by desire" equivalents do not impart the sacramental character, but they do, as you said, impart grace to some extent, depending upon the disposition of the individual and the circumstances, etc.. I think that is all I would add. Oh yeah, just one more thing, in the case of marriage, if I am not mistaken, there must be true case of necessity for the couple to "marry themselves". If such a case does not exist, the marriage is not valid. Just my two cents.

In Christo et Maria,
PSPX