Sacramentals

SACRAMENTALS

BASIC R.C. BELIEF Rites, actions, prayers or objects used by the Church to obtain temporal and spiritual effects from God. Their efficacy depends primarily on the power of the Church and secondarily on the dispositions of the people who use them.

Powers of sacramentals include remission of venial sin and temporal punishment, expelling demons, helping people gain sanctifying Grace and temporal blessings.

Principle sacramentals (defined in THE VATICAN BANK alphabetically) are: Sign of the Cross, Cross, Crucifix, Holy Water, Vestments, Stations of the Cross, Holy Oils, Bells, Candles, Blessed Palms, Scapulars, Rosary, Agnus Dei, Incense, Medals, Ashes.

Cardinal Newman in THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE, p. 359, states: “Temples, incense lamps, candles, votive offerings, holy water, asylums, holy days and seasons, processions, blessings on the fields, sacerdotal vestments, tonsure, ring in marriage, turning to the East, images and Kyrie Elieson are all of pagan origin, and sanctified by their adoption into the Church.”

CHRISTIAN COMMENT From RENEWED DAY BY DAY, A.W. Tozer, October 30. “The union of the human soul with God in Christ establishes a personal relationship which cannot in any way be affected by material substances. The (Catholic) Church by pronouncing certain objects sacred, and attributing power to them, has turned from the pure freedom of the gospel to a kind of educated magic, far from New Testament truth and gravely injurious to the souls of men.”