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 kind, which are obtained through the Church's intercession. By them men are disposed to receive the chief effect of the sacraments, and various occasions in life are rendered holy.-Second Vatican Council, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium (4 December 1963), §60, at The Holy See, www.vatican.va.
The focus of the thesis is to understand what this authoritative statement means. What are the effects that are signified, what does the analogy, (here "resemblance") to the sacraments mean. (Latin says "in aliquam Sacramentorum imitationem" which is the same language as Code of Canon law which is translated imitation, in my mind, resemblance is weaker than imitation)
Section 60 of SC defines sacramentals. This is significant because it is an authoritative document which uses the analogy. The definition is in line with the definition used in the Code of Canon law, hinted at in Trent and developed by the manualists.
Disposition plays an important part in this definition.
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