Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 272 - Part II.

YOUCAT Question n. 272 - Part II. What are sacramentals?

(Youcat answer - repeated) Sacramentals are sacred signs or sacred actions in which a blessing is conferred.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 1669) Sacramentals derive from the baptismal priesthood: every baptized person is called to be a "blessing," and to bless (Cf. Gen 12:2; Lk 6:28; Rom 12:14; 1 Pet 3:9). Hence lay people may preside at certain blessings; the more a blessing concerns ecclesial and sacramental life, the more is its administration reserved to the ordained ministry (bishops, priests, or deacons) (Cf. SC 79; CIC, can. 1168; De Ben 16, 18).

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Examples of sacramentals are holy water, the consecration of a bell or an organ, the blessing of a house or an automobile, the blessing of throats on the feast of St. Blaise, receiving ashes on Ash Wednesday, palm branches on Palm Sunday, the Easter candle, and the blessing of produce on the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 1670) Sacramentals do not confer the grace of the Holy Spirit in the way that the sacraments do, but by the Church's prayer, they prepare us to receive grace and dispose us to cooperate with it. "For well-disposed members of the faithful, the liturgy of the sacraments and sacramentals sanctifies almost every event of their lives with the divine grace which flows from the Paschal mystery of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ. From this source all sacraments and sacramentals draw their power. There is scarcely any proper use of material things which cannot be thus directed toward the sanctification of men and the praise of God" (SC 61).

(This question: What are sacramentals? is continued)

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 272 - Part I.

YOUCAT Question n. 272 - Part I. What are sacramentals?

(Youcat answer) Sacramentals are sacred signs or sacred actions in which a blessing is conferred.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 1667) "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 nature, which are obtained through the intercession of the Church. By them men are disposed to receive the chief effect of the sacraments, and various occasions in life are rendered holy" (SC 60; Cf. CIC, can. 1166; CCEO, can. 867). 

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Examples of sacramentals are holy water, the consecration of a bell or an organ, the blessing of a house or an automobile, the blessing of throats on the feast of St. Blaise, receiving ashes on Ash Wednesday, palm branches on Palm Sunday, the Easter candle, and the blessing of produce on the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 1668) Sacramentals are instituted for the sanctification of certain ministries of the Church, certain states of life, a great variety of circumstances in Christian life, and the use of many things helpful to man. In accordance with bishops' pastoral decisions, they can also respond to the needs, culture, and special history of the Christian people of a particular region or time. They always include a prayer, often accompanied by a specific sign, such as the laying on of hands, the sign of the cross, or the sprinkling of holy water (which recalls Baptism). (CCC 1677) Sacramentals are sacred signs instituted by the Church. They prepare men to receive the fruit of the sacraments and sanctify different circumstances of life.

(This question: What are sacramentals? is continued)

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 271 - Part II.

YOUCAT Question n. 271 - Part II. What does it mean to say that the family is a “Church in miniature”?

(Youcat answer - repeated) What the Church is on a large scale, the family is on a small scale: an image of God’s love in human fellowship. Indeed, every marriage is perfected in openness to others, to the children that God sends, in mutual acceptance, in hospitality and being for others.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 1657) It is here that the father of the family, the mother, children, and all members of the family exercise the priesthood of the baptized in a privileged way "by the reception of the sacraments, prayer and thanksgiving, the witness of a holy life, and self-denial and active charity" (LG 10). Thus the home is the first school of Christian life and "a school for human enrichment" (GS 52 § 1). Here one learns endurance and the joy of work, fraternal love, generous - even repeated - forgiveness, and above all divine worship in prayer and the offering of one's life.     

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Nothing in the early Church fascinated people more about the “New Way” of the Christians than their “domestic churches”. Often someone “believed in the Lord, together with all his household; and many… believed and were baptized” (Acts 18:8). In an unbelieving world, islands of living faith were formed, places of prayer, mutual sharing, and cordial hospitality. Rome, Corinth, Antioch, the great cities of antiquity, were soon permeated with domestic churches that were like points of light. Even today families in which Christ is at home are the leaven that renews our society.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 1666) The Christian home is the place where children receive the first proclamation of the faith. For this reason the family home is rightly called "the domestic church," a community of grace and prayer, a school of human virtues and of Christian charity.

(The next question is: What are sacramentals?)

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 271 - Part I.

YOUCAT Question n. 271 - Part I. What does it mean to say that the family is a “Church in miniature”?

(Youcat answer) What the Church is on a large scale, the family is on a small scale: an image of God’s love in human fellowship. Indeed, every marriage is perfected in openness to others, to the children that God sends, in mutual acceptance, in hospitality and being for others.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 1655) Christ chose to be born and grow up in the bosom of the holy family of Joseph and Mary. The Church is nothing other than "the family of God." From the beginning, the core of the Church was often constituted by those who had become believers "together with all [their] household" (Cf. Acts 18:8). When they were converted, they desired that "their whole household" should also be saved (Cf. Acts 16:31; Acts 11:14). These families who became believers were islands of Christian life in an unbelieving world.

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Nothing in the early Church fascinated people more about the “New Way” of the Christians than their “domestic churches”. Often someone “believed in the Lord, together with all his household; and many… believed and were baptized” (Acts 18:8). In an unbelieving world, islands of living faith were formed, places of prayer, mutual sharing, and cordial hospitality. Rome, Corinth, Antioch, the great cities of antiquity, were soon permeated with domestic churches that were like points of light. Even today families in which Christ is at home are the leaven that renews our society.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 1656) In our own time, in a world often alien and even hostile to faith, believing families are of primary importance as centers of living, radiant faith. For this reason the Second Vatican Council, using an ancient expression, calls the family the Ecclesia domestica (LG 11; cf. FC 21). It is in the bosom of the family that parents are "by word and example… the first heralds of the faith with regard to their children. They should encourage them in the vocation which is proper to each child, fostering with special care any religious vocation" (LG 11). 

(This question: What does it mean to say that the family is a “Church in miniature”? is continued)

Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 270 - Part II.

YOUCAT Question n. 270 -  Part II. What is the Church’s stance on people who are divorced and remarried?

(Youcat answer - repeated) She accepts them lovingly, following Jesus’ example. Anyone who divorces after being married in the Church and then during the lifetime of the spouse enters into a new union obviously contradicts Jesus’ clear demand for the indissolubility of marriage. The Church cannot abolish this demand. This retraction of fidelity is contrary to the Eucharist, in which it is precisely the irrevocable character of God’s love that the Church celebrates. That is why someone who lives in such a contradictory situation is not admitted to Holy Communion.

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 2385) Divorce is immoral also because it introduces disorder into the family and into society. This disorder brings grave harm to the deserted spouse, to children traumatized by the separation of their parents and often torn between them, and because of its contagious effect which makes it truly a plague on society.  

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Far from treating all specific cases alike, Pope Benedict XVI speaks about “painful situations” and calls on pastors “to discern different situations carefully, in order to be able to offer appropriate spiritual guidance to the faithful involved” (Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum caritatis, 29)  

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 2386) It can happen that one of the spouses is the innocent victim of a divorce decreed by civil law; this spouse therefore has not contravened the moral law. There is a considerable difference between a spouse who has sincerely tried to be faithful to the sacrament of marriage and is unjustly abandoned, and one who through his own grave fault destroys a canonically valid marriage (Cf. FC 84). 

(The next question is:  What does it mean to say that the family is a “Church in miniature”?)