One of the greatest obstacles to becoming a committed Christian is that Christianity is challenging. The task of living a fully God-centered life is no walk in the park, as the lives of the greatest and most fully converted Christians who have ever lived – the saints – will attest. Indeed, Christianity lived to the fullest involves struggle. But is the struggle worth it?
Psalm 23 begins with words that make us comforted for their straightforward admission of our need: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” It is this line that prepares us to receive the seven sacraments in just six short verses of a beautiful hymn. And before we explore the sacraments themselves in the words of the psalmist, we must pause to recognize why we need them.