什麼是七件聖事？

新約聖事是由基督建立的，共有七件，就是聖洗、堅振、感恩(聖體)、懺悔、病人傅油、聖秩以及婚姻。

七件聖事涉及基督徒生命中的所有階段，以及一切重要時刻：它們產生、滋長、治癒基督徒的信仰生命，並賦予使命。

這樣，自然生命的各階段與靈性生命的各階段之間，有著某些類似之處。

按照這順序，我們將首先闡明基督徒入門的三件聖事，接著是治癒的聖事，最後論及為信徒的共融和使命而服務的聖事。這並不是唯一可行的次序，但它讓我們看到七件聖事組成一個有機體，而每件聖事在其中都有它的重要位置。在這有機體中，感恩(聖體)聖事佔有獨特的位置；它是「聖事中的聖事」：「其他所有聖事的安排，都是以感恩(聖體)聖事為其終向」。

(Reference Catechism of the Catholic Church 天主教教理)

Christ instituted the sacraments of the new law. There are seven:

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.”

Following this analogy, the first chapter will expound the three sacraments of Christian initiation; the second, the sacraments of healing; and the third, the sacraments at the service of communion and the mission of the faithful. This order, while not the only one possible, does allow one to see that the sacraments form an organic whole in which each particular sacrament has its own vital place. 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.