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: Baabtiis, Xaqiijinta, ah Eucharist, Ictiraafka, Guurka, Orders, and the Subkidda Bukaanka.
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, tusaale ahaan, 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 (eeg Injiilka Yooxanaa, 3:5, and the Falimaha Rasuullada, 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 (mar kale, eeg John 3:5; 9:7; Falimaha Rasuullada, 8:37; Paul’s Letter to Titus 3:5; or Peter’s Xarafka Koowaad 3:20 – 21); as well as oil (eeg Injiilka Markos 6:13, or the Warqadda James 5:14); clay (eeg John 9:6); garments (Calaamadee 5:25 ama Luukos 8:43); and even handkerchiefs (eeg Falimaha Rasuullada 19:11-12).
God’s grace is transmitted through other sensible things, sidoo kale, such as Mary’s voice and Peter’s shadow (eeg Injiilka Luukos 1:41, 44, and the Falimaha Rasuullada 5:15, respectively).