While we believe that human life is infused with the sacramental goodness of God, the Catholic Church has defined seven sacraments - instituted by and through the life of Jesus Christ. It is through the experience of the sacramental ritual that we are infused with God’s grace. The Sacraments nourish and strengthen us as they express and build up our faith.
Sacraments of Initiation
"Through the sacraments of Christian initiation, man receives the new life of Christ (CCC 1420)."
"Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life in the Spirit, and the door which gives access to the other sacraments (CCC 1213)."
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"In the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself (CCC 1324)."
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"By reception of Confirmation, [the baptized] are more perfectly bound to the Church and are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit (CCC 1285)."
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Sacraments of Healing
"The Lord Jesus Christ, physician of our souls and bodies, who forgave the sins of the paralytic and restored him to bodily health, has willed the his Church continue, in the power of the Holy Spirit, his work of healing salvation, even among her own members (CCC 1421)."
"Those who approach the sacrament of Penance obtain pardon from God's mercy for the offence committed against him, and are, at the same time, reconciled with the Church which they have wounded by their sins and which by charity, by example, and by prayer labors for their conversion (CCC 1422)."
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"By the sacred anointing of the sick and the prayer of the priests the whole Church commends those who are ill to the suffering and glorified Lord, that he may raise them up and save them (CCC 1499)."
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Sacraments of Vocation
"Two other sacraments, Holy Orders and Matrimony, are directed towards the salvation of others; if they contribute as well to personal salvation , it is through service to others that they do so (CCC 1534)."
"God himself is the author of marriage. The vocation of marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the hand of the Creator (CCC 1603)."
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" Holy Orders is the sacrament through which the mission entrusted by Christ to his apostles continues to be exercised in the Church until the end of time (CCC 1536)."
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The whole liturgical life of the Church revolves around the Eucharistic sacrifice and the sacraments. (CCC 1113)
