God shares his very life with us through our seven sacraments. They are rooted in the life and ministry of Jesus and the Tradition of the Church. Jesus himself acts in and through the sacraments. Through the Spirit, the grace of Jesus’ actions empowers us.
The sacraments can change us and our world because of God’s power. We must be prepared for and actively participate in the sacraments if the grace of God is going to empower us. They cannot work without us.
The definition of sacraments from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
“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”. (#1131)
