Chapter IV: On Sacramentals

1440. DEFINITION. Sacramentals are ecclesiastical ceremonies, or external acts of religion accommodated to worshiping God.⁸

DIVISION. Sacramentals are reduced to four species, which are: 1. Rites and ceremonies which the Church uses in the administration of the Sacraments. 2. Blessings and exorcisms, outside the dispensation of the Sacraments. 3. Sacred things to which, either from divine institution, as to the Most Holy Name of Jesus and the sign of the cross, or from the blessing of the Church, as to lustral water, some salutary power is annexed. 4. Certain pious exercises, as prayer in a dedicated church, the Lord's Prayer, especially recited in the name of the Church, striking of the breast, the Confiteor, alms prescribed by the Church.⁹

The principal Sacramentals are customarily expressed by this verse:

Praying, sprinkled, eating, confessed, giving, blessing.

1441. I. "Sacramentals have some EFFECTS, yet not infallible, of which those using them piously and duly are made participants. The first is the excitation of pious movements through prevenient graces. The second is remission of venial sins, by means of movements of this kind, penance expressed or implicit. The third is remission of temporal punishment due to sins. The fourth is the putting to flight or repression of the devil. The fifth is bodily health, or a similar temporal benefit."¹⁰

What particular effect, in the temporal order, this or that Sacramental can especially produce is to be gathered from the institution of each, from the manner and prayers of the Church by which they are made; for individual Sacramentals have not been instituted for the same singular end, although all tend to divine worship and to our progress.¹¹

1442. II. "Sacramentals cause these effects, not from the work worked, but FROM THE WORK OF THE WORKER: namely by the prayer of the Church impetrating them; also by the prayer of the faithful piously using Sacramentals, for example the sign of the cross, blessed water."¹² "Hence, after the taking of blessed water, etc., it is advised to all the faithful to excite themselves to an act of sorrow or of love."¹³

The principal place among Sacramentals is held by Exorcisms and liturgical Blessings.

1443. I. EXORCISMS, from the common opinion of the doctors, have this special property, that they infallibly expel or at least repress demons quasi from the work worked, on account of the peculiar power, conceded by Christ the Lord to the Church, of commanding demons. Recall what was said, n. 622.

1444. II. LITURGICAL BLESSINGS are rites which, in the name of the Church, are performed by sacred ministers, and thus they differ from blessings which are given in a private name by laymen, for example by parents to children. They are DIVIDED in various ways:¹⁴

1. By reason of effects, they are constitutive or invocative. 1. CONSTITUTIVE or consecratory blessings are those by which either persons or things are deputed to divine worship, or are permanently constituted in a sacred and religious being; they are called permanent Sacramentals, because they imitate the Sacraments which imprint a character. Of this kind are: 1. with respect to PERSONS, first tonsure, the consecration of an Abbot, Abbess, nun, etc.; 2. with respect to THINGS, the blessing of a church, oratory, cemetery, chalice, paten, chrism, sacred oils, salt for baptism, vestments for the Sacrifice, altar, wax lamb, etc. 2. INVOCATIVE blessings are those by which the kindness of God is invoked, that He may bestow something good on persons or things to be blessed; they are called passing Sacramentals, because the things so blessed do not change their state, or do not become strictly sacred, and therefore can be turned to profane uses, provided these are honorable.

Of this kind are the blessing of the Supreme Pontiff, of a Bishop, and of a presbyter in Mass, and much more the Blessing with the Most Holy Sacrament, the nuptial blessing, the blessing of a woman after childbirth, etc.; likewise the blessing of houses, fields, produce, foodstuffs, etc.

2. By reason of rite, some are REAL, in which an anointing is employed; others VERBAL, which are perfected by words alone. Likewise, some are solemn, others simple, according as they are done with greater pomp or without preparation.

3. By reason of minister, some are PAPAL, as the blessing of the Pallium, wax lamb, golden rose, and prince's sword; others EPISCOPAL or PRIESTLY, concerning which fuller things must be said.

A) To BISHOPS belong: 1. Real blessings, as of a chalice, altar, bell; likewise the blessing of chrism itself and of the sacred oils. These are found only in the Pontifical, and are so proper to Bishops that without a Pontifical Indult they cannot be delegated to presbyters. Whence things which have been blessed without an Indult of this kind ought before use to be blessed anew, if it can be done without scandal (S. R. C., decree of September 22, 1703, ad 3).¹⁵ 2. Blessings which are found in the Missal and Ritual under the title: Blessings to be done by Bishops, or by others having faculty, namely: the blessing of priestly garments, cloths and corporals, the tabernacle, that is, the pyx and lunette; likewise of a cross or images if it is done solemnly with concourse of the people; then: the blessing and reconciliation of a church not yet consecrated, of a public oratory, or cemetery, or of the primary stone. In these, from the Ritual itself, and in those, from the Holy See by indult, Bishops receive the faculty of delegating. Yet the blessing of a cross can be done by permission of the Bishop.¹⁶

B) To PRIESTS, without delegation, belong all blessings which are contained in the Missal and Ritual, from the blessing of water up to the blessings to be done by Bishops, or by others having faculty. Yet not a few of them are by right of the pastor, and are noted in the Ritual as to be done by the Pastor, or by another priest, understand, by permission of the pastor, according to the common interpretation. Of this kind are the blessing of nuptials, the blessing of the baptismal font, the blessing of houses on Holy Saturday, the common blessing over produce, and the blessing of fields, at least if it is done solemnly; likewise the blessing of women after childbirth, to which only women who have given birth in legitimate marriage have a right,¹⁷ where custom or synodal statutes so dispose.¹⁸

1445. It is asked: With what rite are blessings to be done?

Resp. "Blessings which by precept or publicly in churches or in public oratories before the people gathered for this are done, outside Mass are to be given with surplice and stole according to the nature of the time, standing and with head uncovered, with hands joined, with a minister carrying the vessel of blessed water and the sprinkler, and with the formula prescribed in the Missal or Roman Ritual, or approved by the Sacred Congregation of Rites. For blessing those things for which no special blessing is had, the blessing ad omnia can be used; or the sign of the cross is to be made over the thing to be blessed, with the formula: 'In the name of the Father, etc.' Then the thing itself is to be sprinkled with blessed water.

"If the cross has the image of the Crucified, the blessing for images is to be used. If the blessing is done at the altar, all things are recited on the Epistle side, and the priest uses a cope. The things to be blessed, if they are priestly vestments, can be placed upon the altar; otherwise, if they are candles and other things of this sort, they are to be placed upon a table before the altar, or on the Epistle side."¹⁹

1446. I. In blessings, in ceremonies, and in our actions we often use the SIGN OF THE CROSS, and most fittingly; for this sign has power: 1. by way of invocation, namely of Christ crucified and His merits; 2. as a work of faith and a profession of the Christian religion; 3. on account of the honor which we give to the cross.¹

II. The use of LUSTRAL OR BLESSED WATER is commended by antiquity; for learned men teach that it flowed from Apostolic tradition and always flourished in the Church. The sprinkling of lustral water is a symbol of interior washing; and, sanctified through the prayers of the Church, it has, from the merits of the same Church, much efficacy for producing salutary effects, and especially for warding off demons. Hence, "the sick are sprinkled with blessed water according to the prescription of the RITUAL, that they may be stronger for repelling the temptations of the demon. The corpses themselves of the dead are sprinkled with prayer, that for the souls of Purgatory the ardor may be mitigated and wholly extinguished."²

Note. 1. To blessed water, when a cause accedes, water not blessed can be added, provided the latter is always in a lesser quantity. 2. In time of Interdict the sprinkling of blessed water can be done, provided the people are sprinkled without any solemnity. For obtaining the effects of blessed water, moral contact suffices.³