Keeping Faith

Sacramentals of our faith

What are they and where have they gone?

Catholics, as sacramental people, incorporate symbolic actions
and objects into practice of faith

Encourage sacramentals in family life The church has an official "Book of Blessings." Families may benefit from having a comparison guide, in their homes, prepared by the U.S. Bishops Committee, "Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers". Ways to Encourage Sacramentals in Family Life Begin a tradition of gifts of sacramental objects, such as a rosary for each of your children when they are in first grade, a crucifix in second grade, a prayer book for first Communion, a medal of a favorite saint for third grade, etc. Ask your parish priest to bless these gifts when your children are present. Participate in the liturgical celebrations from a early age. Even young children can receive ashes on Ash Wednesday, have throats blessed on the feast of St. Blaise and venerate the cross on Good Friday, etc. Note the color of vestments the priest is wearing during different seasons and help your children connect the color of different seasons such the purple of Lent. Give the Bible a special place in your home. Read Scripture stories, simple lives of saints books and recite prayer at bedtime. Teach your children to identify liturgical seasons and the things that help us celebrate each season such as prayers around an Advent Wreath, the new Easter candle at Easter season, and a nativity scene at Christmas. To learn about the history of many sacramentals and to learn about lesser known sacramentals traditions and objects seek out Ann Ball's book, "A Handbook of Catholic Sacramentals" (Our Sunday Visitor) Among sacramentals blessings (of persons meals, objects and places) come first. Every blessing praises God and prays for his gifts (cc 1671)

I was standing in the back of our church near the baptismal font as people filed in just before the 10:30 a.m. Mass at my parish last Sunday. Out of the corner of my eye and clearly within earshot, a mom passed me carrying a young child perhaps 2 or 3 years old. The child was saying with a certain degree of distress, "Water! Water!"

His tone caught my attention, but before my concern grew I heard his mom gain control of the situation with her calm words, "You already have water," and smoothly took his little wet hand, touched it to his forehead and said in the same even tone, "In the name of the Father and of the Son ..." and her voice trailed off as they finished their walk around the church completing the sign of the cross.

My own mother had generously sprinkled our home with statues and religious articles. That's why during what we thought was a routine hospitalization I was surprised to notice a tiny blue medal of Mary around her neck, which I recognized as a particular medal called the Miraculous Medal. It looked old, worn, a beautiful color of blue. Her illness became serious swiftly and in the midst of it I was unable to learn the story about the medal that she apparently brought from home when she was first hospitalized.

I believe now, she had clung to it in hope of her own miracle or to prepare herself to go home to God, which she did a few days later.

From the beginning of life to the end of life we can benefit from understanding and embracing these sacred symbolic actions, blessings and objects we Catholics call sacramentals. They can enrich the practice of our faith and bring God more visibly into our homes.

Why do these sacred things, actions and words hold meaning for us? Because Catholics are "sacramental people." We celebrate the sacraments as, "visible signs of an invisible God." (St. Augustine) Each of the seven sacraments, identified by our church and woven into the lifetime of a religious practice, are rooted in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. We become part of God's family in Baptism, as Jesus was baptized. We are nourished in word and ritual in Eucharist, as Jesus taught us. We are assured of forgiveness in the name of the mercy of God during Reconciliation, the way Jesus forgave sinners. And so on.

These "big" sacraments help us to understand the principle of sacramentals. A sacrament such as Baptism makes visible the invisible grace of God. A sacramental such as a blessing with holy water as we enter church, ushers us into the sacred behind the ordinary. The miraculous medal expressed my mother's faith and perhaps, recalled to her, in her distress, the compassionate mother she had in Mary who would support, comfort and help lead her home to God.

The "Catechism of the Catholic Church" explains how sacramentals differ from sacraments. Sacramentals are sacred signs that have been instituted by the church. They "bear a resemblance to the sacraments" (cc1667) but they do not actually give grace as sacraments do. However, they do help us to become ready to "receive the fruits of the sacraments" (cc1677). Sacramentals can help prepare us to receive grace by reminding us to trust in God and live in a way that puts our faith in God's goodness and immeasurable love for us.

In the church's endearing appreciation of human life it reminds us that all aspects of life are possible occasions of grace for the faithful. Sacramentals remind us to use the circumstances, events and material things we have to make our lives sacred gifts that honor God. Catholics are offered sacramentals by the church to touch, to hear, to see things that resemble our sacramental life and bring us closer to God and, at the same time, help us to respect the holiness in all aspects of life. We are not able to see, to hear, to touch God directly but sacramentals are present realities that we believe can draw God to us and us to God.

What are sacramentals?

The catechism broadly categorizes sacramentals into "blessings" and "popular pieties," which take the form of devotions surrounding the sacramental life of the church such as objects like medals or rosaries, actions and prayers such as the stations of the cross or receiving ashes on Ash Wednesday.

Are sacramentals still important?

Absolutely! They are part of the richness of Catholic religious tradition. The analogy I think of is that of a home. What if I asked you to furnish a room where your family would live and you supplied a chair for everyone and said, "Now I have a furnished home." You could survive in the home but wouldn't it be a better place to live in if you had tables, beds, lamps, pictures on the walls, a clock, a soft rug (etc.). Sacramentals such as blessings with holy oils, bells, vestments, pilgrimages, processions (etc.) furnish the context of faith we give our children. Sacramentals such as these, as a part of our religious practice enrich, surround, encourage, comfort and prepare us for grace and help us to recognize God around us.

Do sacramentals still mean the same things they used to mean?

Since the Second Vatican Council the emphasis has been to encourage us to celebrate sacramentals as actions in which we participate rather than just private objects that might be treated in some superstitious manner.

In other words, the sacramentals such as the statue of St. Anthony that sits on my kitchen windowsill is not an end in itself but something that reminds me when I glance at it or move it to clean the windowsill of the faith passed down in my family that makes me who I am in my deepest core. The St. Anthony statue on my windowsill used to sit on my mom's kitchen windowsill and it reminds me to say a prayer that my children will come to know a love of God that will inspire them on their worst day and bring them peace of heart no matter what happens in the world.

To go back to the analogy of our furnished room, the emphasis since Vatican II is an understanding that it's not the objects, the lamps and pictures on the wall that are important in themselves but that they create a "home" where we live in faith and relate in love that is important. Sacramentals help create this rich warm meaningful space where we as the people of God in our time are called to live our faith. The St. Anthony statue's sacramentality is in the way it lifts me past my dirty dishes in the sink and fosters my faith by reminding me to pray. To clarify contemporary understanding of sacramentals let's take a brief tour of these sacred blessings, actions and objects.

Blessings

The tradition of blessings goes back to ancient times. A blessing is a ritual using gestures and prayers in which we ask God's care and grace. Blessings over activities, objects and people express the church's faith in God's presence and protection. In a blessing prayer we pray that God's grace will flow directly on through some use or effect of the blessed object.

In the past sacramental blessings most often consisted of a few ritual words accompanied by an action by a priest. Since the liturgical renewal of Vatican II a blessing might include an introductory rite, a Scripture reading, prayers of petition and invoking an actual blessing prayer.

Actions involved in blessings might be incensing, sprinkling with holy water, or anointing with holy oil. The sacramental blessings of the church include simple gestures and prayers such as a blessing of our homes or blessings for weddings and anniversaries. Blessings can also be as formal as blessings dedicating a new church when altar, building and the faithful sitting in the pews will all be blessed.

Sacramental action

Sacramental actions include gestures and postures that you probably teach your children, such as kneeling at Mass, genuflecting before the tabernacle, signing our foreheads, lips and hearts before reading the gospel. You may remember signing the cross with your thumb on your child's forehead at baptism or been present at an anointing of a sick person's forehead and hands with the sign of the cross with holy oil.

Many ritual actions recall our baptism such as the sprinkling rite, which may be used at Mass instead of the penitential rite or the sprinkling with holy water used in many forms of blessings such as at funerals.

Sacramental objects

Sacred objects may be what first comes to mind when you think of sacramentals. The blessing of a priest or bishop upon objects can designate the sacramental purpose of certain objects. These may include blessed palms, ashes, holy water, candles, incense and holy oils.

Sacramental objects may also include objects used for personal devotion such as rosaries, crucifixes, medals and statues. Such objects used as devotions may be part of our religious formation. Sometimes in various cultures certain pious practices develop around the church's liturgical and sacramental life that help people stay mindful of God's presence in their lives.

Sacramentals express the kind of treasure of Christianity that Catholicism is. In the Incarnation God chose to make the primary sacrament, Jesus, God in human life, in human body, in our worldly reality. Catholic tradition embraces the belief that Jesus confirmed that we are good and we are from God. The Catholic Church encourages us to surround our children with the sacramentals of our faith as we teach them to participate in our liturgical life and root them in a love of the sacraments.

This is why I will furnish my children's lives with crucifixes for their walls and why we will humbly wear ashes on Ash Wednesday and process into church expectantly with palms on Palm Sunday and why I hold a hope that one of them one day will keep the St. Anthony statue on his or her windowsill and be reminded to pray for their children.