الأسرار

As the name implies, the Sacraments are sacred rites instituted in the Church by Jesus. Properly speaking, there are seven Sacraments in the Catholic faith: المعمودية, تأكيد, ال القربان المقدس, اعتراف, الزواج, Orders, و ال دهن المريض.

Through the Sacraments believers receive God’s grace through material things like water, bread, wine and oil.

The Sacraments may be understood as outward signs that convey the grace they signify. Water, على سبيل المثال, signifies cleanliness and life. By the grace of God, the waters of Baptism actually cleanse the soul of sin and fill it with divine life (يرى إنجيل يوحنا, 3:5, و ال اعمال الرسل, 2:38). The Sacraments are patterned after the Incarnation, in which God, a spiritual being, took on human flesh–and the invisible one became visible.

The idea of grace being transferred through material things is a Biblical concept.

In the New Testament alone, we see water used in this way (again, يرى جون 3:5; 9:7; اعمال الرسل, 8:37; Paul’s Letter to Titus 3:5; or Peter’s First Letter 3:20 – 21); as well as oil (انظر ال إنجيل مرقس 6:13, or the رسالة جيمس 5:14); clay (يرى جون 9:6); garments (علامة 5:25 أو لوك 8:43); and even handkerchiefs (انظر ال اعمال الرسل 19:11-12).

God’s grace is transmitted through other sensible things, أيضاً, such as Mary’s voice and Peter’s shadow (انظر ال إنجيل لوقا 1:41, 44, و ال اعمال الرسل 5:15, respectively).