Tag Archives: Blessing

Symbolic Superstition

Church, Church Authority, Devils, Sacramentals, , ,

Over on X, there is a video circulating of a woman who, while struggling during a particularly hard season of life, decided to pour grape juice around her yard in order to protect her and her family with the Blood of Christ. While claiming that it is just a symbol, nevertheless she is willing to roll the dice that it might work saying, “at worst, I wasted $6 on grape juice, and at best my house is protected by the blood of Jesus and we finally hop off this wild, chaotic, awful rollercoaster that we’ve been stuck on.” 

Not surprisingly she was met with accusations of superstition which seems to be fair given she has no faith that it will actually work.  She seems particularly prone to this given that she claims to have recently thrown out her crystals.  She, like many others in our day and age, fell victim to the what is best described as “Self-help Witchcraft”.  In both cases it is not so much the superstition that is noteworthy but the fact there is an expectation that symbols when combined with faith ought to have some power to effect a situation.  In other words, what is worth examining is that there seems to be an innate desire among Christians for Sacramentals.

Sacramentals and Scripture

This desire is more than just an intuition, it has a biblical basis.  St. Paul, in writing to the Romans speaks of creation waiting “with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:19-22).  Every element in Creation was meant to serve man in worshipping and revealing God.  With the Fall, that purpose “was subjected to futility,” but with the dawn of the New Creation in Christ, it is eager to have the power to do this restored.  This capacity it made more explicit when St. Paul tells St. Timothy “Everything created by God is good…for it is made holy by the invocation of God in prayer” (1Tim 4:4-5). 

The battle over creation is ongoing and Christians have the power to take it back.  In fact it becomes a key element of spiritual warfare to take individual things in creation and make or constitute them as holy so that they can be put to service of God and are no longer under the dominion of the devil.  Jesus, when he made mud and put it in the eyes of the blind man was taking the cursed dust of the earth and restoring it to a holy use (John 6:6-7).  Likewise, to make holy water is to render the water no longer under the control of the devil who is prince of this world.  This is why the best way to fight the use of crystals and amulets is by using Sacramentals.

Many Catholics would not immediately pick up on the fact that the woman is looking for a Sacramental.  This is because, for the most part, they have fallen into disuse in the last fifty years.  Sacramentals, in order to be effective, require that those who use them be educated in their use.  This is because, unlike Sacraments, they depend on the faith and moral condition of the recipient in order to be effective (referred to theologically as ex opere operantis—”from the work of the doer”).  They are causes of actual grace that disposes person to receive Sanctifying grace.  The effectiveness of sacramentals depends upon three things—(1) disposition of minister (2) disposition of recipient (3) intercessory power of the Church.

The Prayer of the Church

This third element, in a certain sense, is the most integral part.  The Sacraments are instituted by Christ and of a fixed number.  Sacramentals are instituted by the Church and there is no fixed number of them.  It belongs to the Church’s binding and loosing power and it gives to the Church the power to affect a blessing.  It is also an essential element of the Church’s holiness—“The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects” (James 5:16).  The power comes from the prayer of the Church which is efficacious.  For example, when a candle is blessed and the priest asks that the light from it drive away the powers of darkness, it really does drive demons away when it is lit.

Since it depends upon the prayer of the Church, it is the actual formula of blessing that matters.  One of the changes that was made shortly after the Second Vatican Council was to the Book of Blessings.  Many of the specific blessings of objects were dropped in favor of a generic blessing and an emphasis on blessing persons rather than things.  What has emerged from that is a set of Sacramentals that is less powerful and consequently used less frequently.

As a comparison, look at the older blessing of the St. Benedict medal versus the one recommended in the Book of Blessings:

In the name of God the Father + almighty, who made heaven and earth, the seas and all that is in them, I exorcise these medals against the power and attacks of the evil one. May all who use these medals devoutly be blessed with health of soul and body. In the name of the Father + almighty, of the Son + Jesus Christ our Lord, and of the Holy + Spirit the Paraclete, and in the love of the same Lord Jesus Christ who will come on the last day to judge the living and the dead, and the world by fire. Amen.

Let us pray.  Almighty God, the boundless source of all good things, we humbly ask that, through the intercession of Saint Benedict, you pour out your blessings + upon these medals. May those who use them devoutly and earnestly strive to perform good works be blessed by you with health of soul and body, the grace of a holy life, and remission of the temporal punishment due to sin. May they also with the help of your merciful love, resist the temptation of the evil one and strive to exercise true charity and justice toward all, so that one day they may appear sinless and holy in your sight. This we ask through Christ our Lord. Amen.  

And the Book of Blessings:

May this (name of article) and the one who uses it be blessed, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, + and of the Holy Spirit. 

The medal under the Old Blessing has the power to protect the person who devoutly and intentionally uses it from attacks of the evil one.  Under the New Blessing, its power is essentially unknown (other than to “bless” the person) making it practically impossible to use it devoutly and intentionally.  Thankfully, the Old Blessing is still an option, but you usually have to ask for it.

Returning to the video above, it seems that the woman intuitively grasps that Sacramentals are a thing and that they are effective in protecting us.  Perhaps what she was really looking for was the Four Corners’ Blessing with St. Benedict’s medal.

The Power of Sacramentals

Church, Grace, Prayer, Sacramentals, Sacraments, , , ,

As Jesus entered the town of Bethsaida, some people there brought to Him a man who was born blind and asked Him to heal Him.  Jesus took some spittle and rubbed it in his eyes, but it effected only a partial healing.  The man could only see shapes.  It was not until He laid His hands upon the man that the man was able to see clearly (c.f. Mark 8:22-27).  This event has often plagued Biblical commentators who have struggled to interpret it.  At first glance it appears that Jesus was somehow limited in His power to heal, having to do it in stages.  But those who are familiar with the Catholic practice of using Sacramentals will recognize it for what it is, an institution of sorts of the practice.  The man receives the grace of healing after the man has been properly disposed after coming in contact with a consecrated object. It is with this in mind, that we shall discuss the Church’s use of Sacramentals.

Theology of Sacramentals

Any discussion of Sacramentals must begin with making an important distinction between Sacramentals and Sacraments.  As the Catechism puts it, “Sacramentals do not confer the grace of the Holy Spirit in the way that the Sacraments do, but by the Church’s prayer, they prepare us to receive grace and dispose us to cooperate with it” (CCC 1671).  Sacramentals do not work ex opere operato the way Sacraments do, but instead their efficacy comes from the intercessory power of the Church.  In short they do not bestow sanctifying grace but only aid in disposing the person to receive them.

Because the efficacy rests upon the intercessory power of the Church, unlike Sacraments which were instituted by Christ, Sacramentals are instituted by the Church.  By bestowing a prayer of consecration over the object, it becomes a means by which those who use them become disposed to the infusion of sanctifying grace.  The specific grace of the Sacramental depends upon the prayer itself, a prayer that is said by a Priest but has the entire Church.  The consecrated object is given a power to effect a certain blessing, although it is not infallible as with the Sacraments.  Nevertheless, Sacramentals are a powerful help in the pursuit of sanctity.  This is what makes Sacramentals so powerful.  But they are also made powerful through the intercessory power of the whole Church.  In this way they are different from having someone pray for you.  If, as St. James says, “the prayer of a righteous man is indeed powerful and effective” (James 5:16), then the prayer of the whole Church, the spotless Bride of Christ is much greater.

St. Thomas in his Theology of the Sacraments says that the existence of Sacramentals is fitting because none of the Seven Sacraments “was instituted directly against venial sin. This is taken away by certain sacramentals, for instance, Holy Water and such like” (ST III q.65, art.1, ad.8).  This “supplementary power” placed upon some Sacramentals is a key point to grasp in their use so as to keep us from treating them like good luck charms.  They each contain a certain power that comes from the prayer of consecration by which they were made to be Sacramentals.

Some Examples of Sacramentals

Using St. Thomas’ example, this power to take away venial sins is bestowed upon Holy Water because it was specifically consecrated for that purpose by the prayer of consecration:

Blessed are you, Lord, all-powerful God, who in Christ, the living water of salvation, blessed and transformed us.  Grant that, when we are sprinkled with this water or make use of it, we will be refreshed inwardly by the power of the Holy Spirit and continue to walk in the new life we received at baptism.  We ask this through Christ our Lord.

A blessed crucifix is effective in providing both bodily and spiritual protection, especially “against the cruel darts of the enemy” (1962 Rituale Romanum).  Likewise, sacred images, be they of Our Lord, Our Lady, St. Joseph or any of the saints make available the merits and intercession of those who are depicted when a person pays devout homage to them.  In a very real way they make the person in the image immediately present to the person who seeks to speak with them.

Another important Sacramental, especially relevant to Lent is Palms.  As Dom Prosper Gueranger describes in his book The Liturgical Year, palms are blessed using “prayers that are are eloquent and full of instruction; and, together with the sprinkling with holy water and the incensation, impart a virtue to these branches, which elevates them to the supernatural order, and makes them means for the sanctification of our souls and the protection of our persons and dwellings.”   The palms act to give protection to houses and the people in them when they are kept there.  This is a reason why if palms are being offered, even if you can’t get to Mass, that you should seek them out.

Obviously then the efficacy of Sacramentals depends upon the blessing that has been bestowed upon them by the Priest.  When we ask for an object to be blessed then, we are not just asking to make it somehow holy but to have it set aside for a specific purpose.  We should always ask that the proper blessing be said over the object so that it can be used for the purpose that the Church puts forth.  Similarly, we should listen to the words of blessing so that we can learn exactly what the objects do.