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: baptismus, Confirmatio, the eucharistia, Confessio, Matrimonium, Orders, et Unctio infirmorum.
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, exempli gratia, 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 (vide Evangelium Ioannis, 3:5, et Acta Apostolorum, 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 (iterum, vide John 3:5; 9:7; Acta Apostolorum, 8:37; Paul's Epistula ad Titum 3:5; or Peter’s Epistola prima 3:20 – 21); as well as oil (videre Evangelium secundum Marcum 6:13, aut Epistola Iacobi 5:14); lutum (vide John 9:6); garments (Mark 5:25 or * Luc 8:43); and even handkerchiefs (videre Acta Apostolorum 19:11-12).
God’s grace is transmitted through other sensible things, etiam, such as Mary’s voice and Peter’s shadow (videre Evangelium secundum Lucam 1:41, 44, et Acta Apostolorum 5:15, respectively).