Sacramentals of the Holy Church

Preface

This little book does not profess to exhaust the subject of the Sacramentals; to do so would require a detailed exposition of the whole Liturgy of the Church. All the ceremonies of divine worship, all the blessed articles used in ecclesiastical functions, all the prayers of the Missal, the Ritual, the Pontifical, and the Breviary, are Sacramentals, that is, they participate of the nature of Sacraments without being Sacraments. They are signs and channels of actual grace, instituted by ecclesiastical authority. The Sacraments are signs and channels of sanctifying, or habitual grace, instituted by divine authority. The present volume is, however, complete in itself. Each sacred rite is, of itself, intelligible, and teaches its own holy lesson to the Catholic mind and heart.

I have endeavoured to select from the beautiful treasures which the Liturgy offers, in almost inexhaustible variety to the choice of even a careless explorer, those which fall more frequently under the observation of the faithful, and which are, consequently, of greater present utility. To explain the historical origin of the Sacramentals on which I have written, their mystical meanings, and the practical lessons to be drawn from them, constitutes the triple end kept in view in the composition of this treatise. Whether I have succeeded is a question which I leave to the decision of my readers.

No statement, historical or rubrical, is advanced which has not been substantiated by the authorities at my disposal.

The Treatise on the Festivals , by Benedict XIV; Migne's Cursus Theologiae et Seripturae; the Liturgical Institutions of Fornici, the Authentic Decrees of the Sacred Congregation of Rites; Cardinal Bona's Treatise on the Liturgy, Hierurgia, and the Church of our Fathers, by Dr. Rock; and the large Catechisms of Guillois and Gaume, are the books which I have most frequently consulted.

That the blessing of God may attend this little work, that, through the intercession of the Immaculate Virgin Mary and of all the Saints, it may increase the love of the faithful, be it in ever so small a degree, for the holy things and holy rites of Mother Church, is the sincere prayer of the author.

- Father William James Barry Mount Saint Mary's of the West Cincinnati, Ohio Feast of Saint Gregory III 28 November 1857

Introduction

The Gospel presents to us the record of our Saviour's birth and public life, but passes over, in almost total silence, the years of His Egyptian exile and His abode at Nazareth. His childhood's days, wherein His little hands assisted His dear Mother in easy household work, or, with the unskillfulness of His age, used the plane and chisel of Saint Joseph - the glorious evenings of the Jewish summer, when, in early manhood, He went to the brow of the cliff that overhung Nazareth, and gazed wistfully to the south, towards Jerusalem, and wept to think that whilst all round was so fair, the hearts of His countrymen should be curtained by the shades of sin; the moonlight nights He passed on that same mountain's top in the "prayer of God," all have been hidden from our view. This mystic period is the "sealed fountain" and the "closed garden" of the Canticles. Many a bright stream of grace that flows over the green fields of the Church.springs from that hidden fount; and many a zephyr, richly laden with the perfume of lowliest yet sweetest flowers, blows from that mysterious garden. Even in our Lord's public life He said much in familiar converse with His disciples which the multitude never heard. Not that He would conceal His heavenly doctrine, but because of the hardness of the Jews' hearts, and, that having eyes they saw not, and ears and heard not, as He Himself declares. The meanest and most sinful among them might have gone, if he had so chosen, to our Lord in His retirement, as did Nicodemus, to hearfrom His divine lips the explanation of each holy saying and parable, as far as it was for his soul's good.

The Church is a perfect copy of Jesus. She is the Incarnation continued, and if Jesus lived a hidden life, and taught in public and in private, and suffered, she has imitated and still imitates Him in all. Jesus "spoke to the multitude in parables things hidden from the foundation of the world," and so in the first ages the Church explained the great mysteries of the Blessed Eucharist and the Trinity to the children of the household only, whilst to the scoffing Jew and heathen she spoke not at all of them, or in guarded and mystic language. And why? - to exclude them for ever from the fountains of life-giving grace? Little would we know of the tenderness of her motherly heart towards the erring children bought by the Blood of Christ her Spouse if such were our thought. She but obeyed the divine injunction, "cast not your pearls before swine"; she was waiting until, by her holy preaching and holy life, she would soften those hard hearts to receive the impress of love from the Ever Blessed Three and the mystery of Christ's Body and Blood.

The discipline of the secret is no longer in force, but still there are many beautiful doctrines and practices of our religion hidden alike from infidel and Catholic, not that the Church conceals them, but because they will not seek them. We may compare the Church to a glorious temple, whose exterior beauty is a type of the interior. We enter, and the font at the door tells us that by baptism we are buried with Christ unto death, and rise with Him unto life members of His mystic Body. The statues of the Apostles and other Saints tell us that the Church is Apostolic and holy. The sacrifice going on at the altar; the Bishop administering Confirmation; the penitent leaving the sacred tribunal, the calm on his countenance but a faint image of that in his heart; the priest proceeding quickly yet reverently down the aisle, bearing the Viaticum and the Blessed Oils; the whiterobed Levites, like worshipping Angels, in the sanctuary; the bride and bridegroom kneeling for the nuptial benediction, all tell us that the Church has the Seven Sacraments, the seven streams of Precious Blood that flow from the Sacred

Heart of Jesus. We admire and love and then go our way. But; if we had looked closer we might have noticed many rich draperies along the walls. They conceal small yet most beauteous chapels, wherein we might have seem many a rite performed, full of sweet symbolism, yet which has been excluded from the main edifice, reserved as that is for statelier functions.

Now let us apply our comparison. The leading articles of faith, especially the doctrine of the Sacraments, form the great temple itself; whilst what Cardinal Wiseman has called the “Minor Rites and Offices," under which is included our present subject, the "Sacramentals," are the side chapels. These minor points of teaching and practice are today what the discipline of the secret was in the Apostolic times, and the familiar discourse of our Saviour to the little circle of His disciples in the time of His public ministry. The lukewarmness of the faithful has made them so- Unlike the Jews, they receive with respect and love Christ's public instruction delivered by His priests, but like them they do not care to join the company of the disciples, and talk with our Lord as a Friend and a Father. They are guests in the household of the faith rather than children. They pay their homage to Jesus in the grand reception room, but, they do not accept His invitation to repair to the inner apartment, and by examining the beautiful treasures He keeps concealed therein, to have love's dying embers kindled into a bright flame.

We shall love our religion in proportion as we study it. Much study will beget charity, and charity we know blotteth out many sins.

Love is a flower pleasing to the eye;

Sweet to the smell, but Love can droop and die:

Let streams of prayer and study cease to flow,

The root from which Love springs will cease to grow.

Our love for Jesus and Holy Mother Church will become warmer and purer if we examine the minor articles of our belief as well as the more important. Let us endeavour, with the assistance of God, and by following approved Catholic authors, to perform this labour of love in regard to the Sacramentals of the Church.

What Is A Sacramental?

Three things make a Sacrament; the conferring of inward grace, by an outward sign, in virtue of divine institution. Thus, in Baptism, the pouring of water is the outward sign, and by it habitual or sanctifying grace is infused into the soul, because of Christ's institution. Now the Sacramentals, like the Sacraments, have an outward sign or sensible element; but, unlike them, they are mostly of ecclesiastical origin, and do not of their own power infuse grace into the soul, but only excite it to desires whereby it may obtain from God's gratuitous mercy that grace or its increase. Holy Water is a Sacramental, but of its own nature it gashes not the soul from sin and pours not grace into it, as do the waters of Baptism. If, however, a person uses it devoutly, it will, on account of the Church's blessing attached to it, assist his will in forming pious desires.

The Sacramentals may be arranged under two heads, "The Prayers of the Church," and "The Benedictions of the Church."

The Prayers of the Church

The Sacraments of the Church and Prayer are the ordinary channels of grace. The first pours richer treasures of heaven into the soul; the second more frequent ones. We cannot receive the Sacraments at all times, but we may and ought to pray always. It becomes of great importance, then, to know how to pray well. Qui novit bene ora re novit et bene vivere, was the saying bf a holy doctor of the Church: "he who knows how to pray well knows how to live well." You ask and receive not, because you ask amiss. (James 4:3) There are different ways of asking amiss. If our prayers are not humble like the poor publican's, if they are riot persevering, if they beg absolutely for the goods of this life, then we ask amiss. If we use forms of prayer which the Church has condemned we ask amiss. Forms are not always useless things; it is not always that they savour of pedantry and affectation. Hold the form, of sound words which thou hast heard from me in faith : this was the instruction which the Holy Ghost gave to Saint Timothy through the inspired epistle of Saint Paul. (2 Timothy 1:13)

There are many prayers which the Church has neither approved nor condemned; Catholic prayer books are full of them. But why should we use them to the neglect of so many other beautiful forms of prayer which have received the highest ecclesiastical sanction? They are generally more rhetorical than the prayers of the Liturgy, but for that very reason they are colder; there is less of the unction of the Holy Spirit in them. We by no means pretend to say that all of them have the "black mark of Saint Peter," but it is certain that many have not his white mark. Why should we prefer them to those that have?

A vocal prayer that is of divine or ecclesiastical institution is a sacramental. No other is unless it has become ecclesiastical by the sanction of the legitimate authorities.

A wide field of Sacramentals at once opens before us. All the prayers said by the priest in the Mass, the Psalms sung in the Divine Office, the forms of prayer used in the administration of the Sacraments, the consecration of bishops, the conferring of orders, the consecration and blessing of churches, bells, vestments, crosses, rosaries, pictures, etc., are Sacramentals. At present we shall dwell upon three forms of prayer: Litanies, the Ange/us, and Hymns.

Litanies

The word Litany is of Greek origin, meaning in that language an entreaty or supplication.

Ecclesiastical waiters make mention of four Litanies: that of the Old Testament, of the Saints, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of the Holy Name of Jesus.

The Litany of the Old Testament is the 135th Psalm (in the Hebrew 136th) Confitemini Domino - Praise the Lord, for He is good. Each of the first three verses addresses God by a different title; Jehova, Elohim and Adonei are the Hebrew words. This preface of the Litany shadows forth the mystery of the Trinity, Three Persons in One God, and corresponds to the triple invocation with which the Church begins her Litanies: Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison: Lord, have mercy on us; Christ, have mercy on us; Lord, have mercy on us\ and to the other in which the Three Divine Persons are expressly named: Pater de coelis Deus, miserere nobis; Fiii Redemptor mundi Deus, miserere nobis; Spiritus 5anote Deus, miserere nobis: God ike Father of Heaven, have mercy on us, etc., etc. The twenty-seven verses of the Psalm recount the Wonders which God wrought in favour of His people, and each concludes with the same phrase, for His mercy endureth for ever ; corresponding to have mercy on us, or pray for us, with which we reply to the several petitions of our Litanies.

The Litany of the Saints is so called because by it we beg the intercession of all the blessed inhabitants of heaven, addressing them sometimes collectively, according to their different classes of Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, etc., and sometimes individually. Many have attributed the authorship of this Litany to Pope Saint Gregory the Great, a.d. 600, but not with sufficient reason, for councils held before the time of that Holy Pontiff mention it. We know from Church history, however, that he had a great devotion to the Litany of the Saints, and had it sung with much solemnity in the sacred processions that marched through the streets of Rome during the prevalence of the plague, begging God to Withdraw His avenging Hand. The Litany of the Saints was used in the east in the time of Saint Basil the Great, who died in 379, more than two hundred years before the pontificate of Saint Gregory. Hence Cardinal Baronius says, in his notes on the Roman Martyrology, that it was impossible for him to determine the origin of the Litany* but that it was certainly of the greatest antiquity. This Litany is sometimes called the greater sometimes the minor Litany. It bears the first appellation on the Feast of Saint Mark the Evangelist, the 25th of April, because the procession of that day, in which it is chanted, is one of the most solemn in the Church. Other reasons for the name are that the procession was instituted by a Pope, and that it directed its march towards the Church of Saint Mary Major or the Greater.

The same Litany said on the Rogation days is called the Minor or Less Litany. Towards the close of the 5th century the diocese of Vienne in France was severely afflicted with different calamities, fires, earthquakes, and the ravages of wild beasts. The hearts of the people were paralyzed with fear. It was then that the holy Bishop Mamerfeus betook himself to prayer for his sorrow-stricken flock. A heavenly inspiration, came to him and was at once acted on. He instituted three days of solemn prayer and penance, selecting for that purpose the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday preceding Ascension Thursday. The beneficial results, both spiritual and temporal, which followed, proved how acceptable the work was to God. The other Churches of France hastened to adopt the practice, and in 816 Pope Saint Leo III established it in Rome. Now it is universal in the

Church under the name of the Rogation days. The Litany sung on these days is called the Minor, because it was local and episcopal in its origin; whereas that on the festival of Saint Mark was Roman and papal.

The Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary has been recited from the earliest ages, both in public and in private. Quarti is of opinion that it originated with the Apostles. It is called the Litany of Loretto because it is sung every Saturday with great solemnity in the Church of Loretto. This magnificent edifice encloses the Holy House of the Blessed Virgin, which was transported by the ministry of Angels from Judea to Italy in the end of the thirteenth century.

The Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus contains the various attributes and praises of the Sacred Name. Every knee in heaven, on earth, and in hell, must bow at the name of Jesus, because in Him, and in Him only, is salvation and hope of life; and therefore with good reason may we cry out whenever it is mentioned, have mercy on us!

Rubricians doubt whether this Litany is approved by the Holy See. Pope Clement VIII, in his Constitution Sanctissimus of the 6th of September, 1601, says of Litanies: "As many private individuals daily publish new Litanies, under pretext of cherishing devotion, to such an extent that almost innumerable forms of Litanies are in vogue, some of which contain puerile sentiments, others dangerous ones; we, out of our pastoral solicitude, wishing to provide for true devotion and the proper invocation of God and His saints, do order and command that whoever wishes to publish, or if published, to recite in churches, oratories, or processions, any other Litanies than those common and most ancient ones contained in Breviaries, Missals, Pontificals, and Rituals, and that of the Blessed Virgin, which is sung in the Holy House of Loretto, shall send such Litanies to the

Congregation of Sacred Kites for approval, and, if necessary, for correction. He cannot without the approbation of the aforesaid Congregation, publish them or recite them in public."

This decree does not include the Litany of the Holy Name amongst those that are approved. Yet Ferraris says that it, and only it, is exempt from the general regulation, because it was approved by Sixtus V, and enriched with three hundred days' indulgence at the instance of the Barefooted Carmelites. But this is not conclusive, because the decree of Clement VIII is later than the alleged grant of Sixtus, and it does not at all allude to the Litany of the Holy Name. In a book purporting to be a collection of authentic decrees of the Sacred Congregation of Rites we find, under the word Litany, the following statement: Many princes and bishops of Germany begged the approval of Rome for the Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus, on the ground that it was constantly recited in public and in private by the people under their care. The reply of the Congregation of Rites was: "The aforesaid Litany is to be approved, if his Holiness deems proper." It seems from the tenor of the passage that the petition was sent to the Pope personally, and by him transmitted to the Congregation of Rites for examination. In a note to this passage the following query and answer occur: Litaniae SS. Nominis Jesu sunt ne approbatae, indulgentiisque ditatae? Resp: Negative in omnibus, Die 7 Sept., 1850, in Ruppeiien ad 8. Are the Litanies of the Holy Name of Jesus approved and enriched with indulgences? Reply: No, in regard to each case. But we are not at liberty to argue that they are disapproved. The practical conclusion to be drawn seems to be that the Litany in question ought not to be recited in public functions, but that it may be recited in private. The decree of Clement VIII speaks only of public recitation: in publicum edere aut pub!ice recitare praesumat. The Constitution Immensa aeterni Dei of Sixtus

V, 22 January 1587, restricts the jurisdiction of the Congregation of Rites to public functions and ceremonies.

It is plain to Catholic common sense that we ought to prefer an indulgenced formulary of prayer to one not indulgenced.

What we have said above applies with greater force to the numerous Litanies of individual Saints with which our prayer books abound* Have they received the approbation of the Congregation of Rites in compliance with the decree of Clement VIII? Ought they to be recited in public without that approbation? These are questions which we leave, as in filial reverence bound, to the decision of competent ecclesiastical authority.

In regard to private recitations we would counsel the use of such Litanies as are certainly approved and indulgenced in preference to those whose claims to these privileges are at best doubtful.

The faithful should' not add, of their own devotion, the name of their patron saint, or any other petition, to the Litanies of the Saints and of Loretto. Let us all endeavour, even in these minor points of discipline, to conform to the spirit of the Church.

The Angelus

This prayer, so called from the Latin word with which it begins, is one of the most popular in use amongst the faithful, and it has moreover received the approbation of several Popes. It is said three times a day, morning, noon, and evening, in honour of the Incarnation of our Lord. It is composed of three Hail Marys, preceded by a versicle and response taken from the words which Holy Scripture uses in describing the visit of the Archangel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin, announcing to her that she was to become the Mother of God. The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary - and she conceived by the Holy Ghost. Hail Mary, etc. Behold the handmaid of the Lord - be it done unto me according to thy word. Hail Mary, etc. And the Word was made flesh - and dwelt among us. Hail Mary, etc.

The Incarnation is both the basis and the completion of Christianity. Without that mystery Christ would not be, and therefore His Religion could have no existence. Christ is the name not of the Eternal Word, but of the Eternal Word the second Person of the Blessed Trinity made Man. If there had been no Incarnation, human nature would not have been assumed, and there would have been no Christ. What the world would have been without an Incarnate God we do not know, but we do know that it is now in possession of infinite treasures of grace, each of which is the germ of many degrees of heavenly glory, all of which proceed from the merits of Jesus Christ the Man-God. Hence ail practical religion can be reduced to faith in the Incarnation and love of it. He who believes this Adorable Mystery with a living supernatural belief is irresistibly impelled by the religious cravings of his mind and heart to admit an infallible Church and the Mystery of the Blessed Eucharist. God's works of love succeed each other in an increasing ratio; each seems to surpass its predecessor in its manifestation of divine beauty and condescension. The Law of Moses, though one of fear, was a greater revelation of love than the Law of Nature. Christ's Law of Grace is the reality and the substance of which the Mosaic Dispensation was the type and the shadow. There are these three - Nature, Grace, and Glory, and of these the greatest is Glory.

Let us apply this canon of divine action to the Incarnation. Earth was once blessed with the presence of the God-Man. The mountain winds of Judea had heard the "breathings of His midnight prayer; the storm-lashed waves of its lakes had obeyed His voice and lulled themselves to rest; His feet had wandered through its fields and villages and towns; His words of peace and hope and love had echoed in the ears and spoken to the hearts of its people. But He stayed not always; He passed away from earth to His rest in the Bosom of His Father. Was God's usual loving mode of procedure to be reversed? Were the world's future ages to look upon the Incarnation as a past historic fact, just as the Patriarchs and the Prophets had looked forward to it as future? Men once had their Jesus amongst them, were they and their children to lose Him? Ah, no! our Lord is too good. He would not leave His children orphans. The Incarnation is an abiding fact on earth, in the Church, and in the Blessed Sacrament. There is a divine and a human element in the Church, just as there is the Divine and the Human Nature in Jesus Christ. Its divine element is its infallibility and its sacraments, or, in one word, the Papacy; its human element its individual human members. And what is the Blessed Sacrament but Jesus Himself, the Incarnate God, dwelling with His own unto the end!

The Angelus is the prayer of the Incarnation; this suffices to recommend it to the reverence and love of the faithful. The thrice-renewed daily sound of the Angelus bell is, in Catholic countries, the signal for general prayer. From the soaring spire of Gothic cathedral, from the modest belfry of the village church, from convent, school, and hospital, the blessed notes of the Angelical salutation float out on the breezes of heaven. For a moment "labour ceases to knock with her hundred hands at the portals of morn, noon, and even." Prince and people, rich and poor, fall on their knees and bend their heads in prayer; they hail the advent of the Word made Flesh.

This beautiful devotion prevails to a great extent even among us, though so far removed in distance, but not in love, wo trust, from the associations and traditions of Catholic Europe. The Angelus is regularly rung from our steeples, but still we do not obey the holy invitation to the extent we might. It is not required, of course, that we should expose ourselves and our religion to insult by kneeling down in the streets of a Protestant or infidel city at the sound of the Angelus bell, but does any valid reason exist why we should not say the prayer at home, faithfully and devoutly? Could we not say it when walking along the streets, and even take off the hat at the versicle, The Word was made Flesh , without at all attracting observation?

Benedict XIII, by a brief, dated 14 September 1724, granted a plenary indulgence once a month, on the usual conditions, to those who say the Angelus three times a day, and a partial indulgence of one hundred days for each recitation.

Benedict XIV has decided that the Angelus is to be said standing on Saturday evening, and the whole of Sunday, but at all other times kneeling. In Lent, however, it is to be said standing on Saturday at noon, because first Vespers have already begun.

The anthem Regina coeli is to be said, in standing posture, in place of the Angelus, during the Paschal time, that is, from Vespers of Holy Saturday to the first Vespers of Trinity Sunday. They who do not know the Regina coeli may continue to recite the Angelus and gain the indulgences. Persons residing in places where the Angelus bell is not rung, or who cannot hear it, do not lose the indulgences, if they are faithful to recite the prayer morning, noon, and evening.

The Popes suspend indulgences for the living during the Jubilee or Holy Year, which occurs every twenty-fifth year. This is done in order to make the faithful more eager to gain the indulgence of the Jubilee. The Angelus, however, is exempted from this general regulation as a mark of the peculiar favour with which it is regarded by the Holy See.

Hymns

Amongst the Pagans a hymn meant a song or ode of praise in honour of their gods or heroes. In Christian language it means a poem in praise of God or His saints, or of some mystery of the Christian faith.

The chanting of hymns has at all times formed a part of divine worship. When the children of Israel saw the hosts of the Egyptians dead on the shore of Red Sea, and the mighty hand that the Lord had used against their enemies, they celebrated His triumph and expressed their gratitude in a magnificent canticle composed by their inspired leader, Moses. Let us sing to the Lord, for He is gloriously magnified. All the Psalms of David are hymns as far surpassing in beauty and sublimity the poetry of earth as the words of God surpass the words of man. The mournful notes of supernatural sorrow, the exultation of unshaken faith, the breathings of hope, the aspirations of ecstatic love, commingle in the odes and lyrics of the Royal Psalmist to form a unity of heavenly music and poetry which masters the Christian soul with the power of Divinity.

The Canticle of Anna, the mother of Samuel, the Magnificat of the Blessed Virgin, the hymn said by Jesus Christ and His Apostles, after participating of the Bread of Angels at the Last Supper, are Scriptural proofs of the propriety of sacred song as a mode of religious worship.

The Council of Braganza, held in 553, forbade any poetical composition to be sung in the churches (with the exception of the Psalms and other parts of the Old and New Testament). In the following century, however, the Council of Toledo removed the prohibition in favour of hymns composed by distinguished writers.

Still it is probable that hymns were not inserted in the Roman Breviary until the thirteenth century, as we find no authentic mention or existing monument of the fact until that period. Urban VIII, who reigned in the seventeenth century, appointed three members of the Society of Jesus to revise the hymns of the Breviary. The present forms of these sacred poems are due to their labours.