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A. 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.
A. The Sacramentals excite good thoughts by recalling to our minds some special
reason for doing good and avoiding evil; especially by reminding us of some
holy person, event or thing through which blessings have come to us. They
increase devotion by fixing our minds on particular virtues and by helping us
to understand and desire them.
A. The Sacramentals of themselves do not remit venial sins, but they move us to
truer devotion, to greater love for God and greater sorrow for our sins, and
this devotion, love and sorrow bring us grace, and the grace remits venial
sins.
A. The Church uses Sacramentals to teach the faithful of every class the truths
of religion, which they may learn as well by their sight as by their hearing;
for God wishes us to learn His laws by every possible means, by every power of
soul and body.
A. Sacramentals aid the ignorant in learning the truths of faith as children
learn from pictures before they are able to read. Thus one who cannot read the
account of Our Lord's passion may learn it from the Stations of the Cross, and
one who kneels before a crucifix and looks on the bleeding head, pierced hands
and wounded side, is better able to understand Christ's sufferings than one
without a crucifix before him.
A. The Stations or Way of the Cross is a devotion instituted by the Church to
aid us in meditating on Christ's passion and death. Fourteen crosses or
stations, each with a picture of some scene in the passion, are arranged at
distances apart. By passing from one station to another and praying before
each while we meditate upon the scene it represents, we make the Way of the
Cross in memory of Christ's painful journey during His passion, and we gain the
indulgence granted for this pious exercise.
A. Prayers and ceremonies of the Church are also Sacramentals because they
excite good thoughts and increase devotion. Whatever the Church dedicates to a
pious use or devotes to the worship of God may be called a Sacramental.
A. The Church makes use of ceremonies:
- (1) After the example of the Old Law, in which God described and commanded
ceremonies;
- (2) After the example of Our Lord, who rubbed clay on the eyes of the blind
to whom He wished to restore sight, though He might have performed the miracle
without any external act;
- (3) On the authority of the Church itself, to whom Christ gave power to do
whatever was necessary for the instruction of all men;
- (4) To add solemnity to religious acts.
A. Persons may sin in using Sacramentals by using them in a way or for a
purpose prohibited by the Church; also by believing that the use of
Sacramentals will save us in spite of our sinful lives. We must remember that
Sacramentals can aid us only through the blessing the Church gives them and
through the good dispositions they excite in us. They have, therefore, no
power in themselves, and to put too much confidence in their use leads to
superstition.
A. The difference between the Sacraments and the sacramentals is:
- 1st. The Sacraments were instituted by Jesus Christ and the sacramentals
were instituted by the Church;
- 2nd. The Sacraments give grace of themselves when we place no obstacle in
the way;
- 3rd. The sacramentals excite in us pious dispositions, by means of which we
may obtain grace.
A. The Church can never increase nor diminish the number of Sacraments, for as
Christ Himself instituted them, He alone has power to change their number; but
the Church may increase or diminish the number of the Sacramentals as the
devotion of its people or the circumstances of the time and place require, for
since the Church instituted them they must depend entirely upon its laws.
A. The chief sacramental used in the Church is the sign of the cross.
A. 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."
A. A common fault with many in blessing themselves is to make a hurried motion
with the hand which is in no way a sign of the cross. They perform this act of
devotion without thought or intention, forgetting that the Church grants an
indulgence to all who bless themselves properly while they have sorrow for
their sins.
A. 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.
A. 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.
A. 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.
A. 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.
A. Another sacramental in very frequent use is holy water.
A. 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 powers of darkness.
A. The water blessed on Holy Saturday, or Easter Water, as it is called,
differs from the holy water blessed at other times in this, that the Easter
water is blessed with greater solemnity, the paschal candle, which represents
Our Lord risen from the dead, having been dipped into it with a special
prayer.
A. Water is sometimes blessed in honor of certain saints and for special
purposes. The form of prayer to be used in such blessings is found in the Roman
Ritual -- the book containing prayers and ceremonies for the administration of
the Sacraments and of blessings authorized by the Church.
A. Beside 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.
A. Candles are blessed in the Church on the feast of the Purification of the
Blessed Virgin -- February 2nd. They are used chiefly to illuminate and
ornament our altars, as a mark of reverence for the presence of Our Lord and of
joy at His coming.
A. A praiseworthy custom now in use in many places is the offering by the
faithful on the feast of the Purification of candles for the use of the altar
during the year. It is pleasing to think we have candles burning in our name
on the altar of God, and if the Jewish people yearly made offerings to their
temple, faithful Christians should not neglect their altars and churches where
God Himself dwells.
A. Ashes are blessed in the Church on Ash Wednesday. They are used to keep us
in mind of our humble origin, and of how the body of Adam, our forefather, was
formed out of the slime or clay of the earth; also to remind us of death, when
our bodies will return to dust, and of the necessity of doing penance for our
sins. These ashes are obtained by burning the blessed palms of the previous
year.
A. Palms are blessed on Palm Sunday. They remind us of Our Lord's triumphal
entry into Jerusalem, when the people, wishing to honor Him and make Him king,
strewed palm branches and even their own garments in His path, singing: Hosanna
to the Son of David.
A. A cross has no figure on it and a crucifix has a figure of Our Lord. The
word crucifix means fixed or nailed to the cross.
A. The Rosary is a form of prayer in which we say a certain number of Our
Fathers and Hail Marys, meditating or thinking for a short time before each
decade; that is, before each Our Father and ten Hail Marys, on some particular
event in the life of Our Lord. These events are called mysteries of the
Rosary. The string of beads on which these prayers are said is also called a
Rosary. The ordinary beads are of five decades, or one-third of the whole
Rosary.
A. St. Dominic taught the use of the Rosary in its present form. By it he
instructed his hearers in the chief truths of our holy religion and converted
many to the true faith.
A. To say the Rosary or beads we bless ourselves with the cross, then say the
Apostles' Creed and the Our Father on the first large bead, then the Hail Mary
on each of the three small beads, and then Glory be to the Father, etc. Then
we mention or think of the first mystery we wish to honor, and say an Our
Father on the large bead and a Hail Mary on each small bead of the ten that
follow. At the end of every decade, or ten Hail Marys, we say "Glory be to the
Father;" etc. Then we mention the next mystery and do as before, and so on to
the end.
A. There are fifteen mysteries of the Rosary arranged in the order in which
these events occurred in the life of Our Lord, and divided into five joyful,
five sorrowful, and five glorious mysteries.
A. The five joyful mysteries of the Rosary are:
- (1) The Annunciation -- the Angel Gabriel telling the Blessed Virgin that
she is to be the Mother of God;
- (2) The Visitation -- the Blessed Virgin goes to visit her cousin, St.
Elizabeth, the mother of St. John the Baptist;
- (3) The Nativity, or birth, of Our Lord;
- (4) The Presentation of the Child Jesus in the temple -- His parents
offered Him to God;
- (5) The finding of the Child Jesus in the temple -- His parents had lost
Him in Jerusalem for three days.
A. The five sorrowful mysteries of the Rosary are:
- (1) The Agony in the Garden -- Our Lord was in dreadful anguish and bathed
in a bloody sweat;
- (2) The Scourging at the Pillar -- Christ was stripped of His garments and
lashed in a cruel manner;
- (3) The Crowning with Thorns -- He was mocked as a king by heartless men;
- (4) The Carriage of the Cross -- from the place He was condemned to
Calvary, the place of Crucifixion;
- (5) The Crucifixion -- He was nailed to the cross amid the jeers and
blasphemies of His enemies.
A. The five glorious mysteries of the Rosary are:
- (1) The Resurrection of Our Lord;
- (2) The Ascension of Our Lord;
- (3) The Coming of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles;
- (4) The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin -- after death she was taken body
and soul into heaven;
- (5) The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin -- on entering heaven she was made
queen of all the Angels and Saints and placed in dignity next to her Divine
Son, Our Blessed Lord.
A. According to the pious custom of the faithful, the different mysteries of
the Rosary are usually said on the following days, namely: the joyful on
Mondays and Thursdays, the sorrowful on Tuesdays and Fridays, and the glorious
on Sundays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.
A. The letters I. N. R. I. over the crucifix are the first letters of four
Latin words that mean Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Our Lord did say He
was king of the Jews, but He also said that He was not their temporal or
earthly king, but their spiritual and heavenly king.
A. We may attribute the desire of the Jews to put Christ to death to the
jealously, hatred and ill-will of their priests and the Pharisees, whose faults
He rebuked and whose hypocrisy He exposed. By their slanders and lies they
induced the people to follow them in demanding Our Lord's crucifixion.
A. After the death of Our Lord the Blessed Virgin lived for about eleven years
with the Apostle St. John the Evangelist, called also the Beloved Disciple. He
wrote one of the four Gospels, three Epistles, and the Apocalypse, or Book of
Revelations -- the last book of the Bible. He lived to the age of a hundred
years or more and died last of all the apostles.
A. By the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin we mean that her body was taken up
into heaven after her death. We believe in it:
- (1) Because the Church cannot teach error, and yet from an early age the
Church has celebrated the Feast of the Assumption;
- (2) Because no one ever claimed to have a relic of our Blessed Mother's
body, and surely the apostles, who knew and loved her, would have secured some
relic had her body remained upon earth.
A. The letters I. H. S. on an altar or sacred things means the name Jesus; for
it is in that way the Holy Name is written in the Greek language when some of
the letters are left out.
A. The scapular is a long, broad piece of woolen cloth forming a part of the
religious dress of monks, priests and sisters of some religious orders. It is
worn over the shoulders and extends from the shoulders to the feet. The small
scapular made in imitation of it, and consisting of two small pieces of cloth
fastened together by strings, is worn by the faithful as a promise or proof of
their willingness to practice some particular devotion, indicated by the kind
of scapular they wear.
A. Among the faithful there are many kinds of scapulars in use, such as the
brown scapular or scapular of Mount Carmel worn in honor of Our Lord's passion;
the white, in honor of the Holy Trinity; the blue, in honor of the Immaculate
Conception; and the black, in honor of the seven dolors of the Blessed Virgin.
When these are joined together and worn as one they are called the five
scapulars. The brown scapular is best known and entitles its wearer to the
greatest privileges and indulgences.
A. The seven dolors of the Blessed Virgin are the chief sorrowful events in the
life of Our Blessed Lady. They are:
- (1) The circumcision of our Lord -- when she saw his blood shed for the
first time;
- (2) Her flight into Egypt -- to save the life of the Infant Jesus, when
Herod sought to kill Him;
- (3) The three days she lost her Son in Jerusalem;
- (4) When she saw him carrying the cross;
- (5) When she saw him die;
- (6) When His dead body was taken down from the cross;
- (7) When it was laid in the sepulchre or tomb.
A. Seven dolor beads are beads constructed with seven medals, each bearing a
representation of one of the seven dolors, and seven beads between each medal
and the next. At each medal we meditate on the proper dolor and the say a Hail
Mary on each of the bead following it.
A. An Agnus Dei is a small piece of beeswax stamped with the image of a lamb
and cross. It is solemnly blessed by the Pope with special prayers for those
who carry it about their person in honor of Our Blessed Redeemer, whom we call
the Lamb of God, Who taketh away the sins of the world. The wax is usually
covered with silk or some fine material.
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