Sacraments
The whole liturgical life of the Church
revolves around the Eucharistic sacrifice and the sacraments. There are
seven sacraments in the Church: Baptism,
Confirmation
or Chrismation, Eucharist,
Penance,
Anointing of the
Sick, Holy
Orders, and Matrimony.
Sacraments are "powers that comes forth"
from the Body of Christ, which is ever-living and life-giving. They are
actions of the Holy Spirit at work in his Body, the Church. They are
"the masterworks of God" in the new and everlasting covenant.
The 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. Catechism
of the Catholic Church 1113, 1116, 1131.