In an article on Real and Imagined Stories, Thomas Howard writes:

And the sacraments: These all have their existence in the solid world of flesh and blood. They stand at the pinnacle of all dogma, doctrine, theology, and discourse. (It is worth noting here that Protestantism has, in effect, evacuated the sacraments as they have been understood by the Church from its apostolic birth.) The sacraments all do their work via the physical world. Water, bread, wine, oil, yes – but even confession. You can’t text your confession, or e-mail it in. There has to be a human eardrum right there, and your larynx. And holy orders? There must be your head and the hands of a bishop. There are no disembodied sacraments.