Sacraments of the Catholic Church
There are seven sacraments of the Catholic Church, which according to Catholic theology were instituted by Jesus Christ and entrusted to the Church. Sacraments are visible rites seen as signs and efficacious channels of the grace of God to all those who receive them with the proper disposition.
The sacraments are often classified into three categories: the sacraments of initiation, consisting of baptism, confirmation, and the Eucharist; the sacraments of healing, consisting of penance and the anointing of the sick; and the sacraments of service: holy orders and matrimony. Furthermore, baptism and penance were also known as the "sacraments of the dead", whereas the other five are collectively the "sacraments of the living".
Enumeration
History
The number of the sacraments in the early church was variable and undefined; Peter Damian for example had listed eleven, including the ordination of kings. Hugh of Saint Victor enumerated nearly thirty, although he put baptism and Holy Communion first with special relevance. The current seven sacraments were set out in the Sentences by Peter Lombard, and these seven were confirmed by the Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215.Current
The Catechism of the Catholic Church lists the sacraments as follows: "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."The list of seven sacraments already given by the Council of Florence was reaffirmed by the Council of Trent, which stated:
Dogmatic aspects
"Sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture form one sacred deposit of the word of God, committed to the Church." "In the liturgy, above all that of the sacraments, there is an part, a part that is divinely instituted and of which the Church is the guardian, and parts that, which the Church has the power and on occasion also the duty to adapt to the cultures of recently evangelized peoples." Baptism cannot be changed to allow a non-Trinitarian formula. "Anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the sacrament of Reconciliation before coming to communion." Regarding marriage, "basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that 'homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered' contrary to the natural law." "The ordination of women is not possible."The efficacy of sacraments does not depend on the celebrant's being in the state of grace. Their power comes not from the celebrant nor from the recipient but from God, and it is held that Christ himself is at work in the sacraments. However, the actual effects of the sacrament depends also on the recipient's disposition: "in order that the liturgy may be able to produce its full effects, it is necessary that the faithful come to it with proper dispositions, that their minds should be attuned to their voices, and that they should cooperate with divine grace lest they receive it in vain".
Faith and grace
The Catholic Church teaches that the sacraments are "efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us". The sacraments presuppose faith and, through their words and ritual elements, they also nourish, strengthen and give expression to it.The Church teaches that the effect of a sacrament comes ex opere operato, by the very fact of being administered, regardless of the personal holiness of the minister administering it. However, a recipient's own lack of proper disposition to receive the grace conveyed can block the effectiveness of the sacrament in that person.
While the Church itself is the universal sacrament of salvation, the sacraments of the Catholic Church in the strict sense are seven sacraments that "touch all the stages and all the important moments of Christian life: they give birth and increase, healing and mission to the Christian's life of faith". "The Church affirms that for believers the sacraments of the New Covenant are necessary for salvation", although not all are necessary for every individual.
Sacraments of initiation
The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church states:"Christian initiation is accomplished by means of the sacraments which establish the foundations of Christian life. The faithful born anew by Baptism are strengthened by Confirmation and are then nourished by the Eucharist."The Catechism of the Catholic Church says:
"In the Eastern rites the Christian initiation of infants also begins with Baptism followed immediately by Confirmation and the Eucharist, while in the Roman rite it is followed by years of catechesis before being completed later by Confirmation and the Eucharist, the summit of their Christian initiation".Again in the Acts of the Apostles, baptism, laying on of the hands and Breaking of the Bread are administered to the faithful within a short span of time. The Eastern Churches followed the sacraments of initiation from early days. Latin Church, though administered the three sacraments—baptism, confirmation and Eucharist—separately, they retained the idea of unity of these sacraments. Thus CCC 1233 implies that the Christian initiation is completed by years long preparation in the Latin Church. Many of the Eastern Churches have restored their original tradition of Christian initiation which they lost due to Latinization.