Sacraments

“The Sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us”
(Catechism of the Catholic Church No 1131)

It is the teaching of the Catholic Church that the Seven Sacraments are like a door opening onto the very life of God.
Each of the Sacraments has the power to speak meaningfully to us. They touch all the stages and all the important moments of our lives. The Sacraments bring us power as the People of God. They both demand and nourish faith.

“When the Church celebrates the Sacraments she confesses the faith received from the Apostles – lex orandi, lex credenti…..
 The law of prayer is the law of faith: the Church believes as she prays”.
(Catechism of the Catholic Church No. 1124)

The Sacraments can be divided into three groups
(Click on the links below for more information)

Sacraments of Initiation

• Baptism
• Eucharist
• Confirmation

Sacraments of Healing

• Reconciliation (or Penance)
• Anointing of the Sick

Sacraments of Vocation

• Marriage
• Holy Orders

OTHER LITURGICAL CELEBRATIONS
Many occasions are rendered holy through the effects of various rituals and liturgical actions. Some of these are known as “Sacramentals”. These are “sacred signs which bear a resemblance to the Sacraments. While they do not confer the grace of the Holy Spirit in the way that the Sacraments do they prepare us to receive grace through the prayer of the Church and dispose us to co-operate with it”. They signify effects, particularly of a spiritual nature, which are obtained through the intercession of the Church. (Catechism of the Catholic Church No 1667 and No 1670).

Sacramentals derive from the baptismal priesthood: every baptised person is called to be a blessing and to bless.
(c.f. Gen 12:2; Lk 6:28; Rom 12:14; I Pt 3:9).

Sacramentals include Blessings of persons, meals, objects or places; the blessing of people who are commissioned in the various Ministries of the Church and the blessing of objects and places for liturgical use; Consecrations of persons, objects, and places. Every blessing praises God and prays for his gifts. Consecration of a person is not to be confused with Sacramental Ordination.

“In addition to the liturgy, Christian life is nourished by the various forms of popular piety, rooted in the different cultures. While carefully clarifying them in the light of faith, the Church fosters the forms of popular piety that express an evangelical instinct and a human wisdom and that enrich human life” (Catechism of the Catholic Church No 1679).