Shetler

Finally, the Church uses the sacramentals also to gain temporal favors, as the rituals contain many blessings for objects used in everyday life, such as those of fields and livestock. This is easily explained, “since the efficacy of sacramentals arises from the power of collective prayer, the effect expected from their use must follow the usual norm applicable to petitions to God, namely, that what it is legitimate to desire, it is legitimate to ask.”

- Joseph Shetler, “Some Contemporary Questions on Sacramentals Considered according to the Scholastic Theology of Their Mode of Efficacy.” (STL Thesis, Angelicum, 2007), 14.

The importance of this paper is that it helps me to understand the Spanish jesuits distinction about the mode of efficacy of sacramentals as somewhere between ex opere operato and ex opere operantis.