Title: Catholic Sacraments - Outward Signs Of Inward Grace
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Content: In worship, we give to God that which we owe Him; in the sacraments, He gives us the graces necessary to live a truly human and fulfilling life. The Sacraments of the Catholic Church are, the Church teaches, “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.” [ 1]
Though not every individual has to receive every sacrament, the Church affirms that, for believers as a whole, the Catholic sacraments are necessary for salvation, as the modes of grace divinely instituted by Christ Himself. [ 2] Through each of them Christ bestows that sacrament’s particular grace, such as incorporation into Christ and the Church, forgiveness of sins, or consecration for a particular service. 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. [ 3] However, a recipient’s own lack of proper disposition to receive the grace conveyed can block the effectiveness of the sacrament in that person. The sacraments presuppose faith and through their words and ritual elements, nourish, strengthen and give expression to faith
The sacraments are categorized into three areas.