The Seven Sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church

Our next sacrament is that of reconciliation. Also known as confession or penance, reconciliation celebrates God's willingness to forgive sin and to bring the confessor back into the community of faith. In order for a person to receive this full reconciliation, most Catholic Churches believe a person must truly be contrite or sorry, they must name all their sins openly, and they must be willing to do what is known as penance, a sort of self-inflicted or voluntary punishment for sin.

Next on our list is confirmation. Very familiar to anyone who sat through its classes as a child, confirmation, in very simple terms, is training and maturing in the Catholic faith. Often requiring a person to take classes on Church history and Church doctrine, confirmation can be remembered as the confirming of a person's place within the Church. With this, Catholics also believe that they are sort of sealed with the Holy Spirit and His many gifts at this time.

Bringing back our little ditty, Beliefs Every Real Catholic Must Have Amassed, the next sacrament is marriage. Being a pretty easy one to remember, this sacrament is simply one's willingness to dedicate oneself to another in matrimony. Seen as a symbol for God's love and the human commitment to Him, marriage is held in high regard within the Catholic Church.

With this, we come to our last sacrament, the Anointing of the Sick, which has often been referred to as Last Rites, since it's often administered near the time of death. However, the Anointing of the Sick is a practice of healing for those who are not just physically sick, but for those who are also suffering both emotionally and spiritually. Often performed in conjunction with the sacraments of confession and Eucharist, the Anointing of the Sick is carried out by an ordained member of the Church by placing his hands on the person who is ill. As the name implies, the sick person is also anointed with oil and prayed for.

The seven sacraments are the main religious ceremonies, which the Catholic faith regards as an outward and visible sign of things which are spiritually divine. More plainly stated, they're the seven rituals Catholics believe will help one experience God's presence in their lives.

Using the mnemonic Beliefs Every Real Catholic Must Have Amassed, the seven sacraments are as follows:

There's baptism, which is often carried out by being either sprinkled or immersed in water. This symbolizes that Jesus has washed away sin.

Next is the Eucharist. This is the commemoration of the Last Supper in which Jesus instructed His disciples to remember His death by eating bread, which symbolized His body, and drinking wine, which symbolized His blood. The Catholic Church believes the bread and the wine of today actually become the body and blood of Jesus through what is called transubstantiation.

Once you are done with this lesson you should be able to remember, name and describe the seven sacraments of the Catholic faith.