Introduction
“With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation” (Is. 12:3).
The Sacraments are efficacious signs of grace instituted by Christ. They are
external rites that both signify and confer the grace they signify. By grace is
understood sanctifying grace and its concomitant supernatural virtues,
seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, and actual graces needed to live as adopted
children of God and heirs to heaven.
Grace is a supernatural reality that is beyond the grasp of our external
senses. Hence, in His profound thoughtfulness Christ connected the
bestowal of grace with material things such as water, oil, bread and wine to
give consoling certainty through the senses of the precise moment when
grace is bestowed. The Sacraments are thus appropriately fitted to our
human nature comprised of body and soul.
God therefore as principal cause produces the most spiritually momentous
effects through the most common of things as His instruments, giving them
a power akin to His omnipotence. The Sacraments operate ex opere
operato, that is by their very usage. Provided the recipient places no
obstacle in the way, every sacrament properly administered bestows the
grace intended.
It is the solemn teaching of the Catholic Church that there are seven
sacraments, viz., Baptism, Confirmation, Blessed Eucharist, Penance,
Anointing of the Sick (Extreme Unction), Holy Orders and Holy
Matrimony.¹ They provide grace for every individual and community need
from the cradle to the grave. Baptism gives the soul birth to the
supernatural order and a participation in God’s own life; the Eucharist
gives daily supernatural nourishment and strength through union with
Christ’s Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity; Confirmation gives the seven
gifts of the Holy Spirit in added strength to lead the life of an adult
Christian courageously; Penance restores the Christian to the life of grace
1
Council of Trent, Canons on the Sacraments in General, Canon 1, March 3,
1547.
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