“The ordinances of baptism and the sacrament symbolize both the end result and process of being born again. In baptism, we bury the old man of flesh and come forth to a newness of life.”
Sacrament
LDS Quotes on Sacrament
“We receive a remission of our sins through baptism and through the sacrament. The Spirit will not dwell in an unclean tabernacle, and when men receive the Spirit, they become clean and pure and spotless.”
| A New Witness for the Articles of Faith
“A periodic review of the covenants we have made with the Lord will help us with our priorities and with balance in our lives. This review will help us see where we need to repent and change our lives to ensure that we are worthy of the promises that accompany our covenants and sacred ordinances. Working out our own salvation requires good planning and a deliberate, valiant effort.”
| “Keeping Life’s Demands in Balance,” Ensign, May 1987, 14.
“But there’s another way of looking at taking the Lord’s name in vain. When we partake of the sacrament we renew a covenant to take Christ’s name upon us. When we do so out of habit rather than as a sincere choice, are we taking His name in vain? … The Hebrew word that was translated in our scriptures as vain means meaningless and empty… Perhaps the commandment in Exodus 20:7 should read thou shalt not take upon thyself the name of God with empty and meaningless intent. When we give up the hope Christ offers through His Atonement, are we taking the Lord’s name in vain? Are we rendering His grace, His divine help, as useless, empty, and meaningless in our lives?”
| The Law of the Gospel
“Two essential weekly signposts that mark our journey to our Heavenly Father are the perpetual covenant of the ordinance of the sacrament and our Sabbath observance. President Russell M. Nelson taught last general conference that the Sabbath is the Lord’s gift to us. Our devoted weekly observance of the Sabbath is our sign to the Lord that we love Him. … We are promised that, with devoted Sabbath day observance, the fulness of the earth will be ours.”
| “Your Next Step,” general priesthood session
“Most people in trouble end up crying, ‘What was I thinking?’ Well, whatever they were thinking, they weren’t thinking of Christ. Yet, as members of His Church, we pledge every Sunday of our lives to take upon ourselves His name and promise to ‘always remember him.’ So let us work a little harder at remembering Him.”
| Place No More For the Enemy of My Soul, April 2010 General Conference
As we think of the things He did for us, we will not only come to know more about Him, but we will come to know Him; we will not only want to live more like Him, but we will also learn how to do so. Through introspection and self-analysis, we can come to know what we have done that needs to be repented of and learn what we can do to improve spiritually in some way.
It’s impossible to live a perfect life. Only one man was able to live perfectly while dwelling on this telestial planet. That was Jesus Christ. Although we may not be perfect, brothers and sisters, we can be worthy: worthy to partake of the sacrament, worthy of temple blessings, and worthy to receive personal revelation.
The Lord has directed his people to rest one-seventh part of the time, and we take the first day of the week, and call it our Sabbath. This is according to the order of the Christians. We should observe this for our own temporal good and spiritual welfare . . . six days are enough for us to work, and if we wish to play, play within the six days; if we wish to go on excursions, take one of those six days, but on the seventh day, come to the place of worship, attend to the Sacrament, confess your faults one to another and to our God, and pay attention to the ordinances of the house of God.
| Journal of Discourses, 15:81
“Sacrament meeting is the most sacred, the most holy, of all the meetings of the Church.”
| Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1955), 2:340.
Let us not be like the Church member who partakes of the sacrament in the morning, then defiles the Sabbath that afternoon by cleaning the house or by watching television or by choosing an afternoon of sleep over an afternoon of service.
| “The Example of Abraham,” Ensign, June 1975
The ordinances of baptism by immersion, the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the sacrament are not isolated and discrete events; rather, they are elements in an interrelated and additive pattern of redemptive progress. Each successive ordinance elevates and enlarges our spiritual purpose, desire, and performance. The Father’s plan, the Savior’s Atonement, and the ordinances of the gospel provide the grace we need to press forward and progress line upon line and precept upon precept toward our eternal destiny.
| Always Retain a Remission of Your Sins - April 2016
“To remember Christ means we are mindful of his example and will follow it seven days a week, not just on Sunday; we will exemplify in our lives the principles he taught; and we will pattern our lives after Christ’s life in our social and occupational activities. We are his children and should be proud of his family name.”
| The Sacrament: Building upon Christ's Rock
“A great person is reverent. He will be deferential in a house of worship even though he be the only soul therein. No congregation was assembled when the Lord commanded Moses: “Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground!” [See Exodus 3:5.] Presiding officers should plan so carefully that no whispering would be heard or seen on the stand. Parents should train and discipline their children and sit with them (except where class groups are supervised). Ushers should be trained to quietly care for seating with a minimum of disturbance. Attenders should arrive early, do their friendly greeting in subdued tones, slow their step, find seats toward the front, and sit in quiet contemplative mood. All should participate as fully as possible—singing with the singers, praying with him who prays, partaking of the sacrament with a grateful heart and a reconsecration to covenants previously made. An opportunity is given to follow sympathetically lessons that are taught, the sermons that are preached and the testimonies that are borne, judging not by eloquence but by sincerity. Here is a chance to drink deeply from fountain heads, for the humblest teacher or speaker will contribute thought which can be developed. As we quietly enter the door of the chapel we may leave behind us outside all criticisms, worries, and cares—all occupational, political, social, and recreational plans—and calmly give ourselves to contemplation and to worship. We may bathe in the spiritual atmosphere. We may devote ourselves to learning, repenting, forgiving, testifying, appreciating, and loving.”
| “Chapter 15: We Should Be a Reverent People,” Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Spencer W. Kimball (2006), 154–64
“I imagine that if we could see the heavenly barometer that reads and records the secret thoughts of each person during the sacrament, we would have a pretty good measure of the spirituality of that person.”
| The Infinite Atonement
Each week we partake of the sacrament and make a covenant with our Heavenly Father. We promise to link our identity with the Savior’s by pledging our willingness to take upon us His name, to always remember Him, and to keep His commandments. Conscientiously preparing for and worthily making these covenants each week anchors us to the Savior, helps us internalize our commitment, and powerfully propels us along the covenant path.
| Unwavering Commitment to Jesus Christ
“The form of worship is frequently an outward compliance without the true soul acknowledgment of its deep spiritual significance… In the partaking of the sacrament, there is danger of people’s permitting formality to supersede spirituality.”
| Gospel Ideals (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1953), 71.
“We must come to the sacrament table hungry.”
“Partaking of the sacrament is not to be a mere passive experience.”
| Conference Report, April 1946, 39–40.
“But, as President Kimball noted, ‘We do not go to Sabbath meetings to be entertained or even solely to be instructed. We go to worship the Lord. It is an individual responsibility, and regardless of what is said from the pulpit, if one wishes to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth, he may do so by attending his meetings, partaking of the sacrament, and contemplating the beauties of the gospel. If the service is a failure to you, you have failed. No one can worship for you; you must do your own waiting upon the Lord.”
| (Ensign, January 1978.) — Church News, July 6, 2002, p. 16
“No more sacred ordinance has been given to us by the Lord than the administration of the Sacrament.”
| Conference Report, October 1956, 88.
[A sacrament is] “a pledge and promise on man’s part to forsake personal sins, knowing that if he does so he will be blessed by the Lord. When the saints partake of the ordinance of the sacrament, they promise not simply to keep the commandments in general, but also to serve and conform and obey where they as individuals have fallen short in the past. Every man’s sacraments are thus his own; he alone knows his failures and sins, and he alone must overcome the world and the flesh so that he can have fellowship with the saints.”
| A New Witness for the Articles of Faith
The Spiritual renewal we receive from our sacrament meetings will not exceed our preparation and our willingness and desire to be taught.
| “Holy Place, Sacred Space,” Ensign, May 2003, p. 72
We are to remember in as personal a way as possible that Christ died from a heart broken by shouldering entirely alone the sins and sorrows of the whole human family. Inasmuch as we contributed to that fatal burden, such a moment demands our respect.
“the sacrament of the Lord’s supper is an ordinance of salvation in which all the faithful must participate if they are to live and reign with him.”
| The Promised Messiah
“May we take time this Christmas season to renew our covenants to follow the Savior and to do his will, just as he did the will of our Heavenly Father. As we do so, the words of King Benjamin’s people, recorded 125 years before the Savior’s birth, will be fulfilled for us today: ‘O have mercy, and apply the atoning blood of Christ that we may receive forgiveness of our sins, and our hearts may be purified; for we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who created heaven and earth, and all things; who shall come down among the children of men’ (Mosiah 4:2).
Each week we partake of the sacrament and make a covenant with our Heavenly Father. We promise to link our identity with the Savior’s by pledging our willingness to take upon us His name, to always remember Him, and to keep His commandments. Conscientiously preparing for and worthily making these covenants each week anchors us to the Savior, helps us internalize our commitment, and powerfully propels us along the covenant path.
| Unwavering Commitment to Jesus Christ
“Doesn’t the Atonement really begin to mean something to a person when he or she is trying to face down the challenges of living, whether they be temptations or limitations? The willingness to turn to the Savior, the opportunity of going to sacrament service on a Sunday, and really participating in the ordinance of the sacrament… listening to the prayers, partaking of those sacred emblems. Those are opportunities that really help us to come within the ambit of the Savior’s Atonement.”
“Perhaps we do not always attach that kind of meaning to our weekly sacramental service. How ‘sacred’ and how ‘holy’ is it? Do we see it as our [own personal] passover, remembrance of our safety and deliverance and redemption?”
| “‘This Do in Remembrance of Me,’” Ensign, November 1995, 68;
“True worship goes on seven days a week. Sacraments and vows and covenants of renewal ascend to heaven daily in personal prayer.”
| A New Witness for the Articles of Faith
“When you look on the dictionary for the most important word, do you know what it is? It could be ‘remember.’ Because all of you have made covenants – to know what to do and you know how to do it – our greatest need is to remember. That is why everyone goes to sacrament meeting every Sabbath day.”
“Soil is broken to plant wheat. Wheat is broken to make bread. Bread is broken to become the emblems of the sacrament. When one who is repentant partakes of the sacrament with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, he or she becomes whole.”
| "Called of Him to Declare His Word"
“Christmas is a time for remembering the Son of God and renewing our determination to take upon us his name. It is a time to reassess our lives and examine our thoughts, feelings and actions. Let this be a time of remembrance, of gratitude and a time of forgiveness. Let it be a time to ponder the Atonement of Jesus Christ and its meaning for each of us personally. Let it especially be a time of renewal and recommitment to live by the word of God and to obey his commandments. By doing this, we honor him far more than we ever could with lights, gifts or parties.”
| "Seeing Christmas Through New Eyes"
“Because it is broken and torn, each piece of bread is unique, just as the individuals who partake of it are unique. We all have different sins to repent of. We all have different needs to be strengthened through the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom we remember in this ordinance. Strive to think of His sacrifice as specific and unique to you.”
“No member of the Church, who refuses to observe this sacred ordinance, can retain the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Ghost. It is as true today as it was in the days of Paul, that many members of the Church are weak and sickly, in spirit and body, and many sleep, because they have failed to show their love for, and obedience to, the Lord Jesus Christ in the keeping of this commandment.”
| Seek Ye Earnestly (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1970), 108