What Is a Sacrament?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that sacraments are;
…efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions. (CCC 1131)
The seven sacraments, instituted by Christ, are outward signs that confer inward grace: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Reconciliation (Confession and Penance), Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony.
What Are the Seven Sacraments in the Catholic Church?
Here is a complete list of the seven sacraments:
- Baptism: the sacrament of regeneration, reception of the Holy Spirit, and incorporation into the Church. (Is Baptism Necessary for Salvation?)
- Confirmation: the sacrament that strengthens and completes the grace received at baptism. (Confirmation in the Catholic Church)
- Eucharist: the sacrament of reception of Holy Communion; the Church affirms the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist; body, blood, soul, and divinity. (What Is the Eucharist?)
- Reconciliation (Confession and Penance): the sacrament by which sins committed after baptism are forgiven through contrition, confession, and absolution. (What the Early Church Believed: Confession)
- Anointing of the Sick: a sacrament conferring strength, forgiveness of sins, and healing graces appropriate to serious illness or near-death. (Anointing of the Sick)
- Holy Orders: the sacrament conferring the ministerial priesthood and consecration. (What the Early Church Believed: Bishop, Priest, and Deacon)
- Matrimony: the covenantal sacrament uniting husband and wife as a sign of Christ’s union with the Church. (What the Early Church Believed: Marriage)
Historical note: The Church’s definitive teaching that there are seven sacraments was articulated in councils such as Lyons and Florence and reaffirmed at Trent; earlier usage of the term “sacrament” sometimes varied, but the sevenfold list is the Church’s settled doctrine. (Did the Church change the number of the sacraments?)