SACRAMENTALS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
FROM THE BALTIMORE CATECHISM NUMBER 4
Lesson 27: ON THE SACRAMENTALS
Question 292: What is a sacramental?
Question 293: What is the difference between the Sacraments and the sacramentals?
Question 294: Which is the chief sacramental used in the Church?
Question 295: How do we make the Sign of the Cross?
Question 296: Why do we make the Sign of the Cross?
Question 297: How is the Sign of the Cross a profession of faith in the chief
mysteries of our religion?
Question 298: How does the Sign of the Cross express the mystery of the Unity
and Trinity of God?
Question 299: How does the Sign of the Cross express the mystery of the
Incarnation and death of Our Lord?
Question 300: What other sacramental is in very frequent use?
Question 301: What is, holy water?
Question 302: Are there any other sacramentals besides the Sign of the Cross and
holy water?
Question 292: What is a sacramental?
Answer: A sacramental is anything set apart or blessed by the Church to excite
good thoughts and to increase devotion, and through these movements of the heart
to remit venial sin.
Explanation: It is not the sacramental itself that gives grace, but the
devotion, the love of God, or sorrow for sin that it inspires. For example, a
person comes into the church and goes around the Stations of the Cross. The
stations are a sacramental. In looking at one station he sees Our Lord on trial
before Pilate; in another he sees Him crowned with thorns; in another, scourged;
in another,
carrying His Cross; in another, crucified; in another, dead and laid in the
tomb. Before all these pictures he
reflects on the sufferings of Our Saviour, and begins to hate sin, that caused
them. Then he thinks, of his own sins, and begins to be sorry for them. This
sorrow, caused by going around the stations, brings him grace that remits venial
sins. When we receive the Sacraments we always get the grace of the Sacraments
when we are
rightly disposed; but in using the sacramentals, the more devotion we have the
more grace we receive.
Explanation: "Increase devotion." If we knelt down before a plain white wall we
could not pray with the devotion we would have kneeling before a crucifix. We
see the representation of the nails in the hands and feet, the blood on the
side, the thorns on the head; and all these must make us think of Our Lord's
terrible sufferings. The picture of a friend hanging before us will often make
us think of him when we would otherwise forget him. So also will the pictures of
Our Lord and of the saints keep them often in our minds.
Question 293: What is the difference between the Sacraments and the sacramentals?
Answer: The difference between the Sacraments and the sacramentals is: first,
the Sacraments were instituted by Jesus Christ and the sacramentals were
instituted by the Church; second, the Sacraments give grace of themselves when
we place no obstacle in the way; the sacramentals excite in us pious
dispositions, by means of which we may obtain grace.
Explanation: The Church can increase or diminish the number of the sacramentals,
but not the number of the Sacraments.
Question 294: Which is the chief sacramental used in the Church?
Answer: The chief sacramental used in the Church is the Sign of the Cross.
Question 295: How do we make the Sign of the Cross?
Answer: We make the Sign of the Cross by putting the right hand to the forehead,
then on the breast, and then to the left
and right shoulders; saying, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Explanation: It is important to make an exact cross, and to say all the words
distinctly. From carelessness and habit some persons do not make the Sign of the
Cross, though they often intend to bless themselves. They put the hand only to
the forehead and breast, or forehead and chin, or forehead and shoulders, etc.
Some do not even touch the forehead. All these, it is true, are some signs and
movements of the hand, but they are not the Sign of the Cross. Therefore, from
childhood form the good habit of blessing yourself correctly, and you will
continue to do it properly all your life.
Question 296: Why do we make the Sign of the Cross?
Answer: We make the Sign of the Cross to show that we are Christians and to
profess our belief in the chief mysteries of our religion.
Explanation: The cross is the banner or standard of Christianity, just as the
stars and stripes-the flag of the United States-is our
civil standard, and shows to what nation we belong.
Question 297: How is the Sign of the Cross a profession of faith in the chief
mysteries of our religion?
Answer: The Sign of the Cross is a profession of faith in the chief mysteries of
our religion because it expresses the mysteries of the Unity and Trinity of God
and of the Incarnation and death of Our Lord.
Question 298: How does the Sign of the Cross express the mystery of the Unity
and Trinity of God?
Answer: The words: "In the name" express the Unity of God; the words that
follow, "of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" express the
mystery of the Trinity.
Question 299: How does the Sign of the Cross express the mystery of the
Incarnation and death of Our Lord?
Answer: The Sign of the Cross expresses the mystery of the Incarnation by
reminding us that the Son of God, having become man, suffered death on the
Cross.
Explanation: Besides these chief mysteries, we will find, if we think a little,
that the Sign of the Cross reminds us of many other
things. It reminds us of the sin of our first parents, which made the Cross
necessary; it reminds us of the hatred God bears to sin, when such sufferings
were endured to make satisfaction for it; it reminds us of Christ's love, etc.
Question 300: What other sacramental is in very frequent use?
Answer: Another sacramental in very frequent use is holy water.
Question 301: What is, holy water?
Answer: Holy water is water blessed by the priest with solemn prayer to beg
God's blessing on those who use it, and protection from the power of darkness.
Explanation: The priest prays that those who use this water may not fall into
sin; may be free from the power of the devil and
from bodily diseases, etc. Therefore when they do use the water they get the
benefit of all these prayers, because the priest says: "If they use it, God
grant them all these things."
Question 302: Are there any other sacramentals besides the Sign of the Cross and
holy water?
Answer: Besides the Sign of the Cross and holy water there are many other
sacramentals, such as blessed candles, ashes, palms, crucifixes, images of the
Blessed Virgin and of the saints, rosaries, and scapulars.
Explanation: "Candles," blessed on the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed
Virgin (see Butler's Lives of the Saints, Feb. 2,
Feast of the Purification). The Church blesses whatever it uses. Some say
beautifully that the wax of the candle gathered by the bees from sweet flowers
reminds us of Our Lord's pure, human body, and that the flame reminds us of His
divinity. Again, candles about the altar remind us of the angels, those bright
spirits ever about
God's throne; they remind us, too, of the persecution of
the Christians in the first ages of the Church, when they
had to hear Mass and receive the Sacraments in dark
places, where lights were necessary that priests and
people might see. Again, lights are a beautiful ornament
for the altar, and in keeping with holy things. Lights are
a sign of joy: hence the very old custom of lighting
bonfires to express joy. So we have lights to express our
joy at the celebration of the Holy Mass. Again, if we wish to honor any great
person in the Church or State,
we illuminate the city for his reception. So, too, we
illuminate our altars and churches for the reception of
Our Lord, that we may honor Him when He comes in the
Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and is present at Benediction.
Explanation: "Ashes" are placed on our heads by the priest on Ash
Wednesday, while he says: "Remember, man, thou art
but dust and unto dust thou shalt return." They are a sign
of penance, and so we use them at the beginning of Lent.
Explanation: "Palms, to remind us of Our Lord's coming in triumph
into Jerusalem, when the people out of respect for Him
threw palms, and even their garments, beneath His feet
on the way, singing His praises and wishing to make Him
king. Yet these same people only one week later were
among those who crucified Him. Do we not also at times
honor Our Lord, call Him our king, and shortly
afterwards insult and, as far as we can, injure Him by
sin? Do we not say in the Our Father, "Hallowed, or
praised, be His name," and blaspheme it ourselves?
Explanation: "Crucifix," if it has an image of Our Lord upon it; if not
it is simply a cross, because crucifix means fixed to the
cross.
Explanation: "Images"--that is, statues, pictures, etc.
Explanation: "Rosaries," called also the beads. The rosary or beads is
a very old and very beautiful form of prayer. In the
beginning pious people, we are told, used to say a certain
number of prayers, and keep count of them on a string
with knots or beads. However that may be, the Rosary,
as we now have it, comes down to us from St. Dominic.
He instructed the people by it, and converted many
heretics. In the rosary beads here are fifty-three small
beads on which we say the "Hail Mary" and six large
beads on which we say the "Our Father." In saying the
Rosary, before saying the "Our Father" on the large
beads, we think or meditate for a while on some event in
the life of Our Lord, and these events we call Mysteries
of the Rosary. There are fifteen of these events taken in
the order in which they occurred in the life of Our Lord;
and hence there are fifteen Mysteries in the whole
Rosary. First we have the five Joyful Mysteries.
Explanation: The Annunciation-that is, the angel Gabriel coming to tell
the Blessed Virgin that she is to be the Mother of God.
The Visitation, when the Blessed Virgin went to visit her
cousin St. Elizabeth-the mother of St. John the Baptist,
who was six months older than Our Lord. Elizabeth said
to her, "Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is
the Fruit of thy womb"; and the Blessed Virgin answered
her in the beautiful words of the Magnificat, that we sing
at Vespers while the priest incenses the altar. The
Nativity, or birth of Our Lord, which reminds us how He
was born in a stable, in poverty and lowliness. The
Presentation of the child Jesus in the Temple. According
to the law of Moses, the people were obliged to bring the
first boy born in every family to the temple in Jerusalem
and offer him to God. Then they gave some offering to
buy him back, as it were, from God. The Blessed Virgin
and St. Joseph, who kept all the laws, took Our Lord and
offered Him in the temple-although He Himself was the
Lord of the temple. Nevertheless others did not know
this, and the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph observed the
laws, though not bound to do so, that their neighbors
might not be scandalized in seeing them neglect these
things. They did not know, as she did, that the little
Infant was the Son of God, and need not keep the law of
Moses or any law, because He was the maker of the
laws. We should learn from this never to give scandal;
and even when we have good excuse for not observing
the law, we should observe it for the sake of good
example to others; or at least, when we can, we should
explain why we do not observe the law. The fifth Joyful
Mystery is the finding of the child Jesus in the temple.
All the men and boys, from twelve years of age upward,
were obliged, according to the Old Law, to go p to
Jerusalem and offer sacrifice on the great feasts. On one
of these feasts the Blessed Virgin, St. Joseph, and Our
Lord went to Jerusalem. When His parents and their
friends were returning home Our Lord was missing. He
had not accompanied them from the city. Then the
Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph went back to Jerusalem and
sought Him with great sorrow for three days. At the end
of that time they found Him in the temple sitting with the
doctors of the law asking them questions. Our Lord
obediently returned with His parents to Nazareth. At
thirty years of age He was baptized by John the Baptist in
the River Jordan. The baptism of John was not a
Sacrament, did not give grace of itself; but, like a
sacramental, it disposed those who received it to be sorry
for their sins and to receive the gift of faith and Baptism
of Christ. The eighteen years from the time Our Lord
went down to Nazareth after being found in the temple till
His baptism is called His hidden life, while all that
follows His baptism is called His public life. It is very
strange that not a single word should be given in the Holy
Scriptures about Our Lord during His youth-the very time
young men are most anxious to be seen and heard. Our
Lord knew all things and could do all things when a
young man, and yet for the sake of example He remained
silent, living quietly with His parents and doing His daily
work for them. Thus you understand hat is meant by the
five Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary: he Annunciation,
the Visitation, the Nativity of Our Lord, he Presentation
of the child Jesus in the temple, and the finding of the
child Jesus in the temple. You meditate on one of these
before each decade (ten) of the beads.
Explanation: Next in order in the life of Our Lord come the five events
called the Sorrowful Mysteries, namely:
Explanation: The agony in the garden, when Our Lord went there to
pray on Holy Thursday night, before He was taken
prisoner. There the blood came out through His body as
perspiration does through ours, and He was in dreadful
anguish. The reason of His sorrow and anguish has
already been given in the explanation of the Passion. The
scourging of Our Lord at the pillar. This also has been
explained. What terrible cruelty existed in the world
before Christianity! In our times the brute beasts have
more protection from cruel treatment than the pagan
slaves had then. The Church came to their assistance. It
taught that all men are God's children, that slaves as well
as masters were redeemed by Jesus Christ, and that
masters must be kind and just to their slaves. Many
converts from paganism through love for Our Lord and
this teaching of the Church, granted liberty to their
slaves; and thus as civilization spread with the teaching of
Christianity, slavery ceased to exist. It was not in the
power of the Church, however, to abolish slavery
everywhere, but she did it as soon as she could. Even at
present she is fighting hard to protect the poor Negroes of
Africa against it, or at least to moderate its cruelty. The
third Sorrowful Mystery is the crowning with thorns. The
carriage of the Cross to Calvary. It was the common
practice to make the prisoner at times carry his cross to
the place of execution, and over the cross they printed
what he was put to death for. That is the reason they
placed over Our Lord's cross I.N.R.I., which are the first
letters of four Latin words meaning, "Jesus of Nazareth,
King of the Jews." They pretended by this sign that Our
Lord was put to death for calling Himself King of the
Jews, and was thus a disturber of the public peace, and
an enemy of the Roman emperor under whose power they
were. Our Lord did say that He was King of the Jews,
but He also said that He was not their earthly but their
heavenly king. The real cause of their putting Our Lord
to death was the jealousy of the Jewish priests and
Pharisees. He rebuked them for their faults, and showed
the good, sincere people what hypocrites these men were.
The last of the Sorrowful Mysteries is the Crucifixion.
At the foot of the Cross our blessed Mother stood on the
day of Crucifixion, and it must have been a very sad
sight for Our Lord. She was without anyone to take care
of her; for St. Joseph was dead, and her Son was soon to die. Our Lord asked St. John, one of His Apostles, to
take care of her St. John was dear to Christ, and on that
account is called the beloved disciple. He is known to us
as St. John the Evangelist. He was the last of the
Apostles to die. At one time he was cast into a cauldron
of boiling oil, but was miraculously saved by God (see
Butler's Lives of the Saints, Dec. 27). He lived to be
over a hundred years old, and while on the island of
Patmos wrote the Apocalypse or Revelations-the last book
of the New Testament-containing prophecies of what will
happen at the end of the world. The Blessed Virgin lived
on earth about eleven years after the Ascension of Our
Lord. They buried her in a tomb, and tradition tells us
that after her burial the angels carried her body to
Heaven, where she now sits beside her Divine Son. This
taking of her body to Heaven is called the Assumption.
This feast was celebrated in the Church from a very early
age. A very strong proof of the Assumption is that no
persons ever claimed to have any part of the body of the
Blessed Virgin as a relic. We have the bodies of some of
the Apostles, especially St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. James
transmitted to us; and certainly if it had been possible the
first Christians would have endeavored to get some
portion, at least, of the Blessed Virgin's body. Surely St.
John, who knew her so well, would have given to the
church he established some part of her body as a relic;
but since her entire body was taken to Heaven, it was
never possible.
Explanation: After the Sorrowful Mysteries come the five Glorious
Mysteries, and they are:
Explanation: The Resurrection of Our Lord; The Ascension of Our
Lord; The Coming of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles;
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin; and The
Coronation of the Blessed Virgin in Heaven.
Explanation: All but the last have been explained in foregoing parts of
the Catechism. In this last Mystery we consider our
Blessed Lady just after her entrance into Heaven, being
received by her Divine Son, our Blessed Lord, and being
crowned Queen of Heaven over all the angels and saints.
In saying the Rosary we are, as I have told you before,
to stop after mentioning the Mystery and think over the
lesson it teaches, and thus excite ourselves to love and
devotion before saying the "Our Father" and "Hail
Marys" in honor of it. Generally what we call the beads
is only one third of the Rosary; that is, we can only say
five mysteries on the beads unless we go over them three
times. If you say your beads every day you will say the
whole Rosary twice a week and have one day to spare.
Explanation: On Sundays, except the Sundays of Advent and Lent, we
should say always the Glorious Mysteries. You see, the
Mysteries run in the order in which they happen in Our
Lord's life.
Explanation: So on Monday we say the Joyful Mysteries, on Tuesday
the Sorrowful, and on Wednesday the Glorious. Then we
begin again on Thursday the Joyful, on Friday the
Sorrowful, on Saturday the Glorious. In Advent we say
the Joyful, and in Lent the Sorrowful Mysteries on every
day. In Eastertime we always say the Glorious mysteries.
Explanation: I have told you what the letters I. N. R. I. mean; now let
me tell you what I. H. S. with a cross over them mean.
You often see these letters on altars and on holy things.
They are simply an abbreviation for Our Lord's name,
"Jesus," as it was first written in Greek letters. Some
also take these letters for the first letters of the Latin
words that mean: Jesus, Saviour of men. And as the
cross is placed over these letters it can signify that He
saved them by His death on the Cross.
Explanation: "Scapulars." The scapular is a large broad piece of cloth
worn by the monks and priests of some of the religious
orders. It extends from the toes in front to the heels
behind, and is wide enough to cover the shoulders. It is
worn over the cassock or habit. It is called scapular
because it rests on the shoulders. The scapular as we
wear it is two small pieces of cloth fastened together by
two pieces of braid or cord resting on the shoulders. It
is made thus in imitation of the large scapular, and is to
be worn under our ordinary garments. The brown
scapular is called the Scapular of Mount Carmel. It was
given, we are told on good authority, to blessed Simon
Stock by the Blessed Virgin herself, with wonderful
promises in favor of those who wear it. The Church
grants many privileges and indulgences to those who wear
the scapular.
Explanation: We wear the scapular to indicate that we place ourselves
under the special protection of the Blessed Virgin. We
can tell to what army or nation a soldier belongs by the
uniform he wears; so we can consider the scapular as the
particular uniform of those who desire to serve the
Blessed Virgin in some special manner. This wearing of
the brown scapular is therefore a mark of special devotion
to the Blessed Virgin Mary. As it was first introduced
among people by the Carmelite Fathers, or priests of the
Order of Mount Carmel, this Scapular is called the
Scapular of Mount Carmel. We have also a red scapular
in honor of Our Lord's Passion; a white one in honor of
the Holy Trinity; a blue one in honor of the Immaculate
Conception; and a black one in honor of the seven dolors
of sorrows of the Blessed Virgin. When all these are
joined together (not in one piece, but at the top only) and
worn as one, they are called the five scapulars.
Explanation: The seven dolors are seven chief occasions of sorrow in
the life of our Blessed Lady. They are:
Explanation: The circumcision of Our Lord, when she saw His blood
shed for the first time. Her flight into Egypt to save the
life of the little Infant Jesus when Herod was seeking to
kill Him. The three days she lost Him in Jerusalem.
When she saw Christ carrying His Cross. His death.
When He was taken down from the Cross. When He was
laid in the sepulchre.
Explanation: There are beads called seven dolor beads constructed with
seven medals bearing representations of these sorrows,
and seven beads between each medal and the next. At
the medals we meditate on the dolor, and then in its
honor say "Hail Marys" on the beads.
