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: Taufe, Bestätigung, Die Eucharistie, Geständnis, Ehe, Orders, und das Krankensalbung.
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, Zum Beispiel, 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 (sehen Johannes-Evangelium, 3:5, und das Apostelgeschichte, 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 (nochmal, sehen John 3:5; 9:7; Apostelgeschichte, 8:37; Pauls Brief an Titus 3:5; or Peter’s First Letter 3:20 – 21); as well as oil (siehe die Evangelium nach Markus 6:13, oder der Brief des Jakobus 5:14); clay (sehen John 9:6); garments (Markieren 5:25 oder Lukas 8:43); and even handkerchiefs (siehe die Apostelgeschichte 19:11-12).
God’s grace is transmitted through other sensible things, zu, such as Mary’s voice and Peter’s shadow (siehe die Lukas-Evangelium 1:41, 44, und das Apostelgeschichte 5:15, respectively).