Baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, penance, anointing of the sick, holy orders, matrimony " these are the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church. According to Why Believe? by Eileen Flynn, the sacraments are rituals. They are Christian rituals that express sacred meanings. When Christ walked this Earth many years ago, He was able to show His love, knowledge, compassion, and concern for people personally, but Jesus has long since been resurrected and now "seated at the right hand of the Father. " So as Christian's believe, He is not far from us believers. The same love, knowledge, compassion, and concern are still transmitted by Jesus through God's grace through the ritual of the sacraments. The sacraments are considered events that utilize words, symbols, and actions performed in a ritualized manner in order to express Christ's grace and make Him present to us. Just as God reaches out to us through tangible and worldly things, so do we through the sacraments which are tangible yet mysterious to us. They are tangible in the sense that Catholics believe that during the execution of the sacraments, Christ is present and we experience His power and grace. The sacraments are also considered an expression of faith. As St. Augustine said, they are "visible signs of invisible grace, " which means that we realize that one cannot see the grace of God, but we believe that we may experience His grace through the ordinary. Through the sacraments we experience the presence of the Trinity. God initiates this process because He desires to encounter us through symbolisms and signs. The basic principle behind the sacraments is that God is ever present and even though His grace cannot be seen, He uses visible signs to express His grace to us. .
Furthermore, baptism, confirmation, and the Eucharist are the three sacraments of initiation into the Church. Many years ago, baptism and confirmation were completed at the same time in both the East and the West, but since the West reserved the anointing solely to the Bishop, the community grew too vast and the Bishop was unable to both baptize and confirm at the same time.
