SACRAMENTS
"Sacraments are visible signs of invisible things whereby man is made holy." -- St. Thomas Aquinas
The Sacraments signify our faith and cause God's sanctifying grace to be made present in us.
"Celebrated worthily in faith, the sacraments confer the grace that they signify. They are efficacious (they actually do what they signify) because in them Christ himself is at work: it is He who baptizes, He who acts in His sacraments in order to communicate the grace that each sacrament signifies (Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), Nbr. 1127, emphasis added.)
"In Scripture we hear what God has done for His people before us, but through the sacraments we experience how these deeds are effective for us. The liturgy and sacraments are our doorway into the story of salvation. Thus the covenant drama is not simply the story of Israel, Jesus, the disciples, and others, but through our participation in the sacraments, beginning with Baptism, it is our own story." (Sacraments In Scripture, Tim Gray)
