Today's new word--SACERDOTAL

I came across sacerdotal  in one of the letters of the church fathers, I think it was Irenaeus. This is another word I've seen many times, was sort of confused about the meaning and had no idea how to pronounce because in English, the C has no sound of its own--it is either an S sound or a K sound.  So yes, it is the S--as in sassy.  So just picture this as Saserdotal, and you've got it.  And the root is in so many words.  

From the Merriam Webster web site: "Sacerdotal is one of a host of English words derived from the Latin adjective sacer, meaning "sacred." Other words derived from "sacer" include "desecrate," "sacrifice," "sacrilege," "consecrate," "sacrament," and even "execrable" (developed from the Latin word exsecrari, meaning "to put under a curse"). One unlikely "sacer" descendant is "sacrum," referring to the series of five vertebrae in the lower back connected to the pelvis. In Latin this bone was called the "os sacrum," or "holy bone," a translation of the Greek hieron osteon."

Rules of Faith, 2nd century, Irenaeus

 This is the statement of faith of Irenaeus (c. 190), so the basics of Christian belief were well settled.  It's our modern churches that struggle with this. This is what was received from the apostles who knew Jesus.

The Church, though dispersed throughout the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith:

• [She believes] in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; 
• and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation; 
• and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed through the prophets the dispensations of God, 
• and the advents, 
• and the birth from a virgin, 
• and the passion, 
• and the resurrection from the dead, 
• and the ascension into heaven in the flesh of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, 
• and His [future] manifestation from heaven in the glory of the Father “to gather all things in one,” 
• and to raise up anew all flesh of the whole human race,
•  in order that to Christ Jesus, our Lord, and God, and Saviour, and King, according to the will of the invisible Father, 
• “every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess” to Him, 
• and that He should execute just judgment towards all; 
• that He may send “spiritual wickednesses,” and the angels who transgressed and became apostates, together with the ungodly, and unrighteous, and wicked, and profane among men, into everlasting fire; 
• but may, in the exercise of His grace, confer immortality on the righteous, and holy, and those who have kept His commandments, and have persevered in His love, some from the beginning [of their Christian course], and others from [the date of] their repentance, and may surround them with everlasting glory.    
•  http://www.catholic.com/tracts/apostolic-succession