Vatican website translation:<\/p>\n
60. Holy Mother Church has, moreover, instituted sacramentals. These are sacred signs which bear a resemblance to the sacraments: they signify effects, particularly of a spiritual kind, which are obtained through the Church’s intercession. By them men are disposed to receive the chief effect of the sacraments, and various occasions in life are rendered holy.<\/p>\n
Latin text:<\/strong><\/p>\n 60. Sacramentalia praeterea sancta Mater Ecclesia instituit. Quae sacra sunt signa quibus, in aliquam Sacramentorum imitationem, effectus praesertim spirituales significantur et ex Ecclesiae impetratione obtinentur. Per ea homines ad praecipuum Sacramentorum effectum suscipiendum disponuntur et varia vitae adiuncta sanctificantur.<\/strong><\/p>\n Slavishly literal translation:<\/p>\n 60. Moreover holy Mother Church has instituted sacramentals. These are sacred signs by which, in a certain imitation of the Sacraments, effects, primarily spiritual ones, are signified and obtained from the Church\u2019s beseeching. By means of them human beings are disposed for receiving the principal effects of the Sacraments and various aspects of life are sanctified.<\/p>\n In contrast to the seven sacraments of classic Roman Catholic sacramental theology, there are an indeterminate number of sacramentals, usually referring to those rites practiced apart from the central \u201cmatter and form\u201d of the seven sacraments. The medieval verse \u201corans, tinctus, edens, confessus, dans, benedicens<\/em>\u201d offered a taxonomy of the effects of sacramentals: 1) public prayer (orans<\/em>) whether communal or private (e.g., the rosary); 2) the use of fluids (tinctus<\/em>) such as holy water and various oils in consecrations; 3) eating (edens<\/em>) blessed food (e.g., foods blessed on Holy Saturday for consumption on Easter); 4) proclamation of one\u2019s faults (confessus<\/em>) as made by one of the Penitential Acts at Mass or in the Liturgy of the Hours; 5) alms-giving (dans<\/em>); and 6) blessings (benedicens<\/em>) of various types, including papal and episcopal blessings, and blessings of palms, ashes, candles, etc. The Catechism of the Catholic Church<\/em> [hereafter CCC] distinguishes blessings (of person, meals, objects, and places) [1671-1672] and exorcisms [1673] as the principal forms of sacramentals.<\/p>\n In classic Roman Catholic sacramental theology sacramentals are distinguished from sacraments on the basis of efficacy: sacraments confer grace ex opere operato<\/em> while sacramentals confer grace in other ways. To quote CCC 1670: \u201cSacramentals do not confer the grace of the Holy Spirit in the way that the sacraments do, but by the Church\u2019s prayer, they prepare us to receive grace and dispose us to cooperate with it.\u201d This distinction will be treated in more detail in the next article of SC.<\/p>\n Pray Tell<\/em> readers may wish to discuss: 1) how useful the distinction between sacrament and sacramental is in the light of contemporary sacramental theologies; 2) how the faithful have been catechized about sacramentals in the past fifty years; 3) what sacramentals seem to be most employed by the faithful and which may have fallen into desuetude (as well as the reasons why).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In classic Roman Catholic sacramental theology sacramentals are distinguished from sacraments on the basis of efficacy: sacraments confer grace ex opere operato while sacramentals confer grace in other ways. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1398,3814,31,32],"tags":[838,1301],"class_list":["post-21873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-missal-implementation","category-re-reading-sacrosanctum-concilium","category-sacramental-theology","category-vatican-ii","tag-ex-opere-operato","tag-sacramentals"],"yoast_head":"\n