Food for Thought

Along with popular devotions and other forms of piety, sacramentals hold a special place in the church's liturgical life.

Nov 03, 2017

Along with popular devotions and other forms of piety, sacramentals hold a special place in the church's liturgical life.

Sacramentals are not the seven sacraments, yet they are "intrinsically linked" to the sacraments, Archbishop J. Michael Miller of Vancouver, Canada once wrote. "The church creates sacramentals" for a distinct purpose: "to sanctify everyday life," he said.

Blessings of persons, meals, objects and places are listed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church as examples of sacramentals (No. 1671).

"For well-disposed members of the faithful, the liturgy of the sacraments and sacramentals sanctifies," or makes holy, "almost every event" in the lives of the faithful, states the Second Vatican Council Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (No. 61).

A blessed medal or scapular does not become a cause of grace, Archbishop Miller explained. They are not charms, he said.

Rather, sacramentals prepare the faithful for the sanctifying grace conferred by the seven sacraments. Sacramentals are the "means by which we are to grow in faith, hope and love," said the archbishop.