SACRAMENTS

The sacraments are Christ’s own gift that provide us with his grace.

They are the divine helps which God gives us to enable us to:

• Believe the truths of his faith
• Live according to his moral code
• Grow in his gift of divine life

The seven sacrements are a fundamental part of the Catholic faith.

In Baptism we receive sanctifying grace and also a continuing chain of graces enabling us to preserve and extend that grace by the practice of the virtues of faith, hope, and charity.

Confirmation increases our basic vitality (sanctifying grace) but also establishes a permanent fund of actual graces (sacramental grace) upon which we may draw in order to be strong and active and productive exemplars of Christian living.

The Anointing of the Sick strengthens us in sickness or prepares us to meet death with confidence. Its sacramental grace comforts us in our sufferings and, by supporting us in any final temptations that may assail us, enables us to face eternity unafraid.

The Holy Eucharist, whose special sacramental grace is growth in supernatural charity (love for God and neighbor).

• One article here discusses the nature of the Holy Eucharist itself as the Real Presence of Christ.
• Another article covers the act by which we receive the Holy Eucharist—Holy Communion, and its sacramental purpose and effects.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation—inoculation against sin—whose special sacramental grace is to cure us of the spiritual illness of sin and to help us resist temptation.

There are also the two great states in life which impose upon us grave responsibility for the souls of others: the priesthood and marriage. The two sacraments of Holy Orders and Matrimony give to their recipients each its own sacramental grace, which will enable priests and spouses to discharge, creditably before God, the sometimes heavy burdens of their state in life.

~ from beginningcatholic.com