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."

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