Sacramentals

Sisters and brothers, we're nearing the end of our conversations on things that are liturgical and sacramental in the life of the Church. So we moved from sacraments to something called Sacramentals.

Those of you who come to Palm Sunday and receive a Palm, Ash Wednesday to receive an ash, have your homes or your cars blessed, pray the rosary. All of those things and actions are indeed sacramentals.

They aren't sacraments. Remember, a sacrament confers grace, a sacramental points to things that are holy in order for us to lean towards grace.

Sacramentals are often the way that we are called to particular prayers or thoughts about life in our Christian journey and discipleship.

We can talk about candles and medals and crosses and rings and blessings and holy water. All of those things that fill our life with the images of our Christian journey. Among the sacramentals, the primary one is the blessing.

Blessings are Trinitarian—they're in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit—in which we bless things and make them special. Dedicated to God, dedicated to holy purpose.

And so blessings very often have that Trinitarian formula and also oftentimes holy water is used.

If you've been to a wedding and you've seen the blessing of wedding rings, they usually involve not only the sign of the cross and the Trinitarian words, but also the use of holy water.

The blessing, again, of a house or a car will involve those good things. There are some other kinds of things that fall in the universe of sacramentals.

The next two are exorcisms. Now, exorcisms fall into two kinds. If you have in your mind something like the movie The Exorcist—well, that's called a major exorcism. That is the casting out of demons, the ending of demonic possession.

That is the work of special priests and special investigations.

What I'm talking about are exorcisms as the prayer at Baptism by which we pray for the ending of original sin and freedom from sin, freedom from temptation.

That prayer is also in the OCIA process when catechumens are preparing to be baptized.

The calling for the ending of evil in their lives. So exorcisms—minor exorcisms—are prayers that can be done throughout our lives in order to separate us from evil, to separate us from the influence of the enemy or the evil one.

There are those popular devotions: the Sacred Heart, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Divine Mercy Sunday—that first Sunday after Easter with "Jesus, I trust in you." That wonderful painting with the red, white, and blue flowing from the side of Christ.

All of those popular devotions are expressions of religious desires that rest within us, and oftentimes they're associated with a particular ethnic or social group.

Certainly, we know in Texas Our Lady of Guadalupe is a very particular devotion and is present here in our Church and almost every Church in Texas.

Other devotions like the use of the Miraculous Medal.

I'll give you one that we could end on. You may not even think of it as a sacramental, but you perhaps do it all the time.

And this is that prayer before meals—grace before meals.

"Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts which we are about to receive from Thy bounty through Christ our Lord."

It is a sacramental. It's not a sacrament. It doesn't turn our meal into a sacrament, but it turns our meal into a thanksgiving that we give to God for his bounty that we realize in our lives for the good of ourselves, our families, and others.

Sisters and brothers, let us look around us at the sacramentals in our lives and not just miss them, but remember each sacramental—that candle, that rosary, that medal, that image—all are calling us to a deeper Faith and a deeper discipleship in Christ.

Reflection Questions:

1. What sacramentals have been meaningful in your own spiritual journey?
   
   

2. How do these sacred signs help you grow in your relationship with Christ?
   
   

3. In what ways can you be more intentional about recognizing and using sacramentals in daily life?