The Seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church
* Sources used here are taken from "United States Catholic Catechism for Adults" published by the USCCB..

What are the Sacraments?

The sacraments of the Church are the fruit of the redemtive sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

"The sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us" through the work of the Holy Spirit (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1131; cf. no. 774).

We recognize that the Sacraments have a visible and invisible reality, a reality open to all the human senses but grasped in its God-given depths with the eyes of faith. When parents hug their children, for example, the visible reality we see is the hug. The invisible reality the hug conveys is love. We cannot "see" the love the hug expresses, though sometimes we can see its nurturing effect in the child.

The visible reality we see in the Sacraments is their outward expression, the form they take, and the way in which they are administered and received. The invisible reality we cannot "see" is God's grace, his gracious initiative in redeeming us through the death and Resurrection of his Son. His initiative is called grace because it is the free and loving gift by which he offers people a share in his life, and shows us his favor and will for our salvation. Our response to the grace of God's initiative is itself a grace or gift from God by which we can imitate Christ in our daily lives.

The saving words and deeds of Jesus Christ are the foundation of what he would communicate in the Sacraments through the ministers of the Church. Guided by the Holy Spirit, the Church recognizes the existence of Seven Sacraments instituted by the Lord. They are grouped together in the following way:

• Sacraments of Initiation (1. Baptism; 2. Confirmation; 3. Eucharist)
• Sacraments of Healing (4. Penance; 5. Anointing of the Sick)
• Sacraments at the Service of Communion (6. Holy Orders; 7. Matrimony)

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