The Sacraments

Christ instituted the sacraments of the new law. There are seven: Baptism, Confirmation (or Chrismation), the Eucharist, Penance, the Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony . The seven sacraments 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. There is thus a certain resemblance between the stages of natural life and the stages of the spiritual life.

The sacraments are devided into three:

1. The sacraments of Christian initiation (Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist);
2. The sacraments of healing (Penance and the Anointing of the Sick);
3. The sacraments of service and mission (Holy Orders and Matrimony).

In this organic whole, the Eucharist occupies a unique place as the "Sacrament of sacraments": "all the other sacraments are ordered to it as to their end."

Christ instituted the sacraments of the new law. There are seven: Baptism, Confirmation (or Chrismation), the Eucharist, Penance, the Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony . The seven sacraments 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. There is thus a certain resemblance between the stages of natural life and the stages of the spiritual life.

The sacraments are devided into three: 1) the sacraments of Christian initiation (Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist); 2) the sacraments of healing (Penance and the Anointing of the Sick); 3) the sacraments of service and mission (Holy Orders and Matrimony). In this organic whole, the Eucharist occupies a unique place as the "Sacrament of sacraments": "all the other sacraments are ordered to it as to their end."