Sacramentals
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Sacramentals are material objects or things (sacramentalia) set apart or blessed by the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Churches and the Anglican Churches to manifest the respect due to the Sacraments, and so to excite good thoughts and to increase devotion, and through these movements of the heart to remit venial sin, according to the Council of Trent (Session XXII, 15).
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[edit] Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican usage
When the term is used in the singular it is preceded by an article ("a sacramental" or "the sacramental") as sacramental is also an adjective describing the Sacraments.
These churches recognize two differences between the Sacraments and the sacramentals:
- The Sacraments were instituted by Jesus Christ; most, but not all, of the sacramentals were instituted by the Church.
- The Sacraments give grace of themselves and are always fruitful when the faithful place no spiritual obstacles in the way; the sacramentals excite pious dispositions, by means of which the faithful may obtain grace. It is not the sacramental itself that gives grace, but the devotion, the love of God, or sorrow for sin that it inspires, and the prayers of the Church that render sacramentals efficacious against evil.
Although the Catholic Church restricts on the reception of the Sacraments by non-Catholics, this is not true of the sacramentals. The pious use of sacramentals by non-Catholics is permitted and encouraged. As blessed objects or rituals that represent sacred beliefs and persons, disrespect to sacramentals is considered a form of sacrilege.
[edit] Examples
Some examples of rituals that are sacramentals are making the sign of the cross, bowing the head or bowing deeply, folding hands, genuflection, prostration, the imposition of blessed ashes (the ashes themselves are also a sacramental), the recital of blessings, the washing of feet, the celebration of the canonical hours and the seasons of the liturgical year, exorcisms, the reception of the minor orders, and the churching of women.
Statues and icons are examples of objects that are sacramentals. Other examples of objects that may be considered sacramentals are ashes, bells (especially church bells), blessed fire, blessed salt, candles, crucifixes, holy oil, holy water, incense, liturgical vessels (e.g. chalices), a Mary garden, medals (e.g. the Miraculous Medal or the Saint Benedict Medal), palm branches, religious habits and scapulars, rosaries, vestments, or wedding rings.
Other examples may be found at Anglican devotions and Catholic devotions.
[edit] Protestant usage
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Some groups, in particular Lutherans and Methodists, use "sacramental" to refer to the "five commonly called sacraments" that are recognized as Sacraments by the Roman Catholic Church, but not by most Protestants: marriage, confirmation, ordination, confession, and unction/anointing.[citation needed]
This usage is intended to emphasize the Protestant belief that only Baptism and the Eucharist are explicitly ordained by Christ in the gospels with parallel rites in the Old Testament (in Circumcision and Passover), but that these sacramentals are nevertheless similar to sacraments in many respects and can be valuable means of Grace for believers.[citation needed]
