CAPG's Blog 

For carrying on divine worship, ruling the Church, and administering the sacraments, a priesthood is required, and it belongs to God alone to institute the priesthood.

In the Old Law, God chose and raise to the priesthood Aaron, his children and their descendants, and they were to be assisted in their priestly functions by the members of the tribe of Levi; and thus the priesthood was transmitted to posterity simply by family descent. In the New Law the means instituted by Christ for the transmission of the priesthood was not by limiting to one family or tribe, but by having the sacrament of holy orders conferred on those Christians whom the Apostles and their successors should see fit to choose among the baptized and who are willing to be ordained.

Holy orders, then, is a sacrament by which bishops, priests, and other ministers of the Church are ordained, and receive power and grace to perform their sacred duties.

The sacramental character of holy orders is manifest in Holy Scripture. St. Paul, in his epistles to St. Timothy, says: "Neglect not the grace that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with imposition of the hands of the priesthood." (1 St. Timothy iv 14.) "I admonish thee that thou stir up the grace of God which is in thee by the imposition of my hands." (2 St. Timothy i. 6).

Here we have all the essentials of a sacrament - the outward sign - the inward grace annexed - and divine appointment; for, as we have before said, God alone can make outward signs to be means of grace.

Source: The Glories of the Catholic Church: The Catholic Christian Instructed in Defense of His Faith, Volume 1. 1895