PRESENTED AT THE DAY OF PRAYER AND FELLOWSHIP

2ND OCTOBER 2011

What are sacramentals?Sacramentals are signs or sacred actions in which a blessing is conferred.

They are instituted by the Church. They prepare Catholics to receive the fruit of the Sacraments and sanctify different circumstances of life.

(CCC # 1677)

Sacramentals are:- anything set apart or used by the Church to

promote good thoughts and aid devotion, thus securing the grace we need to turn away from sin.

obtain favours from God through the prayers of the Church offered for those who make use of them.

prepare us to receive actual grace which is help given to u s by God to offer light to our mind and strength to our will that we may do good and avoid evil.

The object or action in itself has no power to save and help us ie sacramentals do not of themselves give grace. It would be superstitious to say they had any such power. Sacramentals are a means to help us remember and reflect on the constant help of special graces that we need to lead us to Christ and His saving love.

We must use the sacramentals with faith that they may help us as the Church wants them to help us.

Blessings◦ A blessing is a ritual ceremony by which a

priest makes persons or things holy for divine service, or calls down the favour of God on what he blesses.

◦ The Church’s rituals has over 200 such blessings/

◦ Things are blessed not only to ask for God’s protection on their use but to remain us that life of Christians is to consecrate all that they use to the glory of God.

Blessings include:-◦First, blessings given by priests and

bishops◦Second, prayers against evil spirits,

called exorcisms◦Third, blessings of objects of devotion

(eg rosary, crucifixes, palms, holy/prayer cards, etc)

Among the sacramentals, blessings (of persons, meals, objects, places) come first.

Every blessing praises God and prays for God’s gifts.

Both the Old and New Testament give prominence to the sacred action of blessing.

In Christ, Christians are blessed by God the Father “with every spiritual blessing.” (Eph. 1: 3)

This is why the Church imparts blessings by invoking the name of Jesus, usually while making the holy sign of the cross of Christ.

"To be blessed" means 'to be favoured by God'. Blessings therefore are directly associated with God and come from God.

Therefore to express a blessing, is like bestowing a wish on someone that she will experience the favour of God. "May you have a blessed Christmas", therefore can also be translated as: "May you experience the favor of God during this Christmas period."

Only a priest has the power to bless an object and make it a sacramental.

Lay Catholics are free to bless objects, even using the prayers priests use - and we do so often in blessing our children, blessing meals, blessing Advent wreaths or Mary Gardens, etc. -- but our blessing of something (or a person or an action) is a "mere" plea to God.

Priests alone have been given the power to bless with a guarantee, as it were, and it is they and they alone who can take a new Crucifix or Rosary and turn them into sacramentals with the power of the entire Church behind them.

In the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches blessings are bestowed by bishops and priests in a liturgical context, raising their right hand and making the sign of the cross with it over persons or objects to be blessed.

They also make blessings to begin divine services and at the dismissal at the end.

In the Roman Catholic Church a priest or bishop blesses the faithful with the Blessed Sacrament in the monstrance during Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

Exorcisms : (from the Greek word :exorkismos= summoning out.)When the Church asks publicly and authoritatively in the name of Jesus Christ that a person or object be protected from the power of the Evil One and withdrawn from his dominion, it is called exorcism.

Stations of the Cross Rosary Novenas The last 3 comes under ‘popular piety’

Prayer of exorcism for Catechumens

God of infinite wisdom,you chose the apostle Paul to proclaim your Son to every nation.

We pray that these your servants, who look forward to baptism,may follow in the footsteps of Pauland trust not in flesh and blood,but in the call of your grace.

Probe their hearts and purify them,so that, freed from all deception,they may never look backbut strive always toward what is to come.

May they count everything as losscompared with the unsurpassed worth of knowing your Son,and so gain him as their eternal reward,for he is Lord for ever and ever.

SACRED SIGNS AND ACTIONS

•Sign of the Cross•Stations of the cross•Other sacred actions

•Laying of hands (during confirmation, ordination)•Genuflecting•Bowing•Beating one’s breast during the “ (Confiteor) - I Confess”•Folding one’s hands to receive blessing•Clasping one’s hands in prayer

SACRED OBJECTS

•Crucifixes•Rosary•Candles•Holy Water•Holy Oils•Incense•Holy pictures, prayer cards•Icons•Statues •Scapulars

Example of a sacramental – A Holy Card

NOVENAS

•A novena is a nine-day period of private or public prayer to obtain special graces, to implore special favours, or to make special petitions. •Novena is derived from the Latin "novem", meaning nine.•As the definition suggests, the novena has always had more of a sense of urgency and neediness.

NOVENAS

•Examples of novenas:-•Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help.•Novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus (19 days after Pentecost)•Novena to the Holy Spirit (9 days before Pentecost)•Novena to St Francis Xavier (4th to 12th March)

NOVENA PRAYER IN HONOUR OF ST FRANCIS XAVIER

I join with you St Francis Xavier, in bowing before the God of all Creation. When I look at the great things you did during your life, I see what marvels can be achieved by a person blessed by God. I join with you in praising God and giving thanks for all the good things I have been given.

Dear St Francis, please pray to God for me and ask that I may live and die in God’s favour. Please ask God for me (here ask for what you desire), provided of course, that this would be good for me.In the end, my only wish is for whatever gives glory to God and is good for my health in body, mind and spirit.

AMEN

OTHER SACRAMENTALS•Sacred Times

•The liturgical seasons, feasts and fasts of the Church are sacramentals, which are given by the Church to make our faith stronger and to prepare our souls to serve God more generously. These seasons include Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter.

•Feast Days of Saints•We commemorate the return of the saints to the eternal glory of the Father (ie their deaths) in the Feast Days because the Saints proclaim the wonderful workds of Christ in His servants and offer us examples to imitate.

•Sacred Places•Places set aside for Divine Worship – it means that God is there in a presence that is more grace-filled than His usual presence in creation.

•Churches•Shrines – to which pilgrimages are directed

STATUE OF ST FRANCIS XAVIER @ SFX PJ

“…as we struggle along with our earthly cares, we will be mindful of the saints, those friends and co-heirs of Christ who are also our own brothers and sisters and special benefactors; that we will remember how they love us, are near to us, interceded ceaselessly for us, and are joined to us in a marvelous communion.”

What is it? also called “a prayer journal” or “a

spiritual journal” an ancient practice, as old as history, of regularly writing down one’s own experiences relevant to one’s journey of faith.

A Faith journal isa form of prayer - not what we pray in our hearts, or say, or sing, but what we write.a method of capturing and building on those moments we spend with Goda map of our spiritual walk with the Lord a “transcript” of our conversations with God.

What are the benefits?...it can nourish our prayer life...helps us treasure these memories of the depth of our Lord’s love for us.

...we may pray in times of fear, discouragement or despair, and the act of writing calms us; it is therapeutic.

... it helps us express our feelings ... we may want to collect prayers that we love, lyrics of hymns, poems, writings of the saints, lines from scripture.

... we can record insights which can be easily remembered and retrieved. ...it allows us to clarify our thoughts ...we become more focused on our relationship with God...it gives us a greater sense of stability ...it becomes a permanent record of our faith journey.

Prepare

Place

Posture

Presence of God

Passage

Prayer