Sacramentals Sunday
Please join us after the 8:30am and 10:30am Masses for our 3rd Annual Sacramentals Sunday! This special service will highlight the importance and power of sacramentals in our spiritual lives. Fr. David will exorcise all sacramentals brought to the service. Following this, Fr. David and the Deacons will offer blessings for all attendees and their sacramentals. Please contact Kathryn Melchi kmelchi@reagan.com with questions. We hope to see you there!
What Are Sacramentals?
Sacramentals are sacred signs or rituals instituted by the Church to inspire devotion and prepare the faithful to receive God’s grace through the sacraments.
Examples of Sacramentals
Holy water, oils, relics, religious medals, scapulars, rosaries, candles, sacred images, Ash Wednesday ashes, Blessed Palms.
How Do Sacramentals Work?
They rely on the intercession of the Church, dispose people to receive grace through the sacraments and serve as aids in helping people grow closer to Christ.
Why Are Sacramentals Important?
They are visible signs of God’s grace at work in the world and sanctify daily life, making ordinary moments holy.
Bring your sacramentals to be exorcised and blessed and discover how they can help deepen your faith and make everyday life more holy.
The Catholic Family Toolkit
By Elizabeth Schlueter
Several years ago, a friend gave me a small wooden box containing blessed salt, blessed oil, a holy water bottle, a small candle, and a miraculous medal. She called it a “blessing box.” We had used some of these items before in our family prayer, but assembling them together in a handy box made them so much more accessible. I reach for the “blessing box” many times a year, using it together with the “Shorter Book of Blessings,” an abbreviated text of the official Catholic Blessing Rites which every Catholic family should own.
Christ gives every baptized Christian a share in the baptismal priesthood. As The Second Vatican Council says, the laity (anyone who is not a deacon, priest or religious,) has a special mission: to order “temporal affairs” and family life according to the plan of God: “They live in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life, from which the very web of their existence is woven. They are called there by God that by exercising their proper function and led by the spirit of the Gospel they may work for the sanctification of the world from within as a leaven” (Gaudium et Spes, 31). You can use the lay form for each rite from the Shorter Book of Blessings to sanctify the important people, places, and events of daily family life, from the blessing of a child on his or her birthday, to the blessing of a garden, a meal, athletic events, seeds, the Advent wreath, the Christmas tree, and many more.
Every birthday, we end the celebration with the “Blessing on the Occasion of a Birthday,” and during the prayer the youngest child enjoys liberally sprinkling holy water on the birthday boy or girl. We use the holy water and official house blessing rite every Epiphany to bless our home. We process around the house singing “We Three Kings” and sprinkling every room, often accompanied by comments like, “Soak the boys’ room. They really need it!” As a mother, I always appreciate gathering the family to bless the new dorm room of our College freshmen, and the “Blessing of a Mother Before Childbirth” took on particular significance at my daughter-in-law’s baby shower.
No family can do without a basic toolbox with the essential hammer, screwdrivers, nails, and drill. Just so, every “Domestic Church” needs a sacramental “toolkit” like the blessing box and the “Shorter Book of Blessings,” so parents have the tools needed to exercise their baptismal priesthood in the home.
The Beauty of Sacramentals in the Home
By Kathryn Melchi
As a child, I remember our home as a place deeply imbued with our Catholic faith. Images of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus were prominently displayed, and a Crucifix—commonly referred to as a “sick kit”—hung in an easily accessible place. This kit contained the Sacramentals (Holy Water, Holy Oil, and candles) used to anoint the sick and dying.
My mother’s rosary was her constant companion, her weapon of choice in prayer, often used while visiting the statue of Mary in her garden. I assumed all Catholic homes looked and felt this way until one day, I overheard an elderly Catholic relative say, “I love coming to Mary’s house—you can tell a Catholic lives here.” That simple comment perfectly summed up my mother and her life. She was, at her core, a faithful Catholic, striving to live her faith while using Sacramentals to guide and support her.
As she raised eight children, my mother also opened her home to a steady stream of family, friends, and anyone in need of a meal or a bed. By her example, I learned the value of Sacramentals and how they can shape a home. Now, in my own home, family and friends are greeted by a Holy Water font and an image of the Holy Family—symbols that quietly welcome them into a space rooted in our Catholic faith. My own Crucifix (sick kit) hangs in the foyer, a visible reminder of our faith and a cherished connection to my upbringing.
Does your home reflect your Catholic faith? Bring your Sacramentals to church on Sunday, March 2, to have them blessed. Let this be the first step in building or enriching your own Sacramental home.
Treasures of the Catholic Church
By Kathy Crowley
There are many, many treasures in the Catholic Church! Many of them we are blessed to have available in our homes, such as Sacramentals. For the Crowley home, we look at our home as a “Domestic Church” –our little family church where we gather together, pray and learn.
Our Sacramentals are important in how we do this. We have a crucifix in every room–a reminder of how much our Lord Jesus loved us. The one we have in our bedroom hangs above our bed and was the crucifix of Deacon John’s parents which hung above their bed. Each exit/entrance to our home has a holy water font so we can bless ourselves with the sign of the cross coming and going. We also bless each other, our children and grandchildren, especially at bedtime! On the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi we also bless our dog and chickens with holy water!
And where would our home be without our Blessed Mother Mary! (Mama Mary, as I call her). Every room also has a statue of her or an icon or picture. There are really no words to explain how comforting it is to be reminded of her love and care for us by just looking at or gazing at these Sacramentals of her. And of course, then there is her Rosary–they are everywhere in our home! Our grandchildren love to search through them to find the one they want to pray with at Rosary time, and their favorite place to pray it is around the campfire!
Personally, two of my favorite Sacramentals and treasures are my Miraculous Medal which was a gift
from my husband years ago–I have never seen another like it, beautiful and simple, and also my Scapular–both gifts to all of us from Mama Mary.
Last but not least that I’d like to mention are Holy Cards—mostly of the Holy Saints. I make them and Deacon John blesses them and we give them away throughout the year. Kept in a bible, prayer book, on a night stand, posted to a mirror, a perfect reminder of our help and connection with the communion of Saints!
There are many more Sacramentals (treasures) abounding and available in the Catholic Church and as was stated they are “the visible signs of God’s grace at work in the world to help sanctify our daily life and make ordinary moments holy.”
What Treasures!