The word "sacramental" means something connected with a sacrament. When this word was first used it meant the ceremonies that the Church uses in connection with the administration of the sacraments, such as the anointing with oil in Baptism. Later it acquired the meaning of objects blessed by the Church or blessings or exorcisms against the evil spirits, and this is the meaning it has today. The Church is authorized to institute sacramentals because they are useful means toward bringing men to eternal life. We are creatures largely dependent on the use of our senses. Our Blessed Lord established the sacraments as signs appealing to the senses; in establishing the sacramentals, the Church is imitating Him. Of course, there is a vast difference between the sacraments and the sacramentals, inasmuch as the sacraments are instruments of divine power, able of themselves to give grace; whereas the sacramentals inspire to pious sentiments those who use them properly. By means of these pious sentiments they receive grace; the sacramentals also bring to their users the benefit of the Church's prayers. Every day throughout the world millions of Catholics, both the clergy and the laity, unite in prayer to the Almighty. The benefit of these prayers is given to those who devoutly use the sacramentals.
There are many sacramentals. Especially numerous are the blessings given by the clergy of the Church. There are two kinds of blessings, known respectively as constitutive and invocative blessings. The former render a person or object sacred. Such, for example, is the solemn blessing given to a priest when he is made an abbot; also the blessing of a church or a chalice. An invocative blessing is rather a prayer for a person, which is capable of procuring for him spiritual and temporal favors. It may be pronounced directly over the person, like the blessing of the throat on St. Blaise's Day, or it may be pronounced over a thing with the intention of bringing down God's blessings on those who will use it. Such are the blessings of a house or of a ship, or of an automobile. The Ritual, the book used by priests in giving blessings, contains many beautiful prayers composed by the Church to call down divine benediction on her children in the various phases and activities of life. It is well to note that the Church does not hesitate to confer some of her blessings on nonCatholics as well as on Catholics.
Since the evil spirits sometimes obsess or possess a person, the Church has formulated certain solemn exorcisms to be used on such occasions in order to drive the devils away. The law of the Church commands that no one shall perform the solemn ceremony of exorcism except a priest who has been authorized to do so by the bishop. Moreover, the priest is not allowed to use these exorcisms until he has made a diligent examination of the case to discover if the person is really being tormented by the devil. For sometimes people are afflicted with nervous troubles which bear a resemblance to diabolical possession.
In the use of sacramentals Catholics must avoid two extremes. On the one hand, they must not regard them as intended only for children or uneducated persons. They are for all the members of the Church, and no one should consider himself so wise or so cultured as to be above the use of medals and rosaries and scapulars, and the other inspiring sacramentals of the Church. On the other hand, Catholics must not look on sacramentals as charms to bring good luck. They are intended principally for spiritual benefits, and when they do obtain material favors, it is always in conjunction with benefits of soul. There is no infallible assurance that one who wears a scapular will not be drowned, or that one who has a medal of St. Christopher in his automobile will not have an accident. Above all, it would be utterly foolish and contrary to the doctrine of the Catholic Church to imagine that one may lead a bad life, yet because of wearing a medal or a scapular, be assured of the opportunity of conversion when death strikes. Such an attitude toward the sacramentals would be a form of superstition.