Summa Theologica

Reply to Objection 3. Names are given to things considered in reference to their end and state of completeness. Now a disposition is not an end, whereas perfection is. Consequently things that signify disposition to holiness are not called sacraments, and with regard to these the objection is verified: only those are called sacraments which signify the perfection of holiness in man.

Thomas Aquinas. Summa theological, III, q.60, in First Complete American Edition in Three Volumes. Vol. 2. Trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province. (New York,NY: Benziger, 1947), #’s.


In the process of distinguishing sacraments he kind of accidentally defines sacramentals without addressing them directly, and guess what, the distinction is made upon that which disposes and that which perfects and actualizes. This fits in great with what I've been thinking is the primary significance of sacramentals and thus blessings, that by them we may really be disposed, by an operation of grace which disposes, in other words, actual grace.

Pohle-Pruess

The fruits or effects of the sacramentals may be similarly divided into three categories. Consecration results in the eefecive withdrawal from profane use the person or thing upon whichit is betstowed, and its dedication to the purpose of divine worship. Benediction....(having four distinct effects) and ... Lastly, material benefits.

-Joseph Pohle and Arthur Pruess, The Sacraments: A Dogmatic Treatise. Vol.1. (St.Louis:B. Herder Book, 1945), 119.

The order that these distinctions are made is significant because it gives another schema by which all of the separate issues concerning sacramentals/blessings which need to be addressed in order to explain the analogy.

Gallagher - Article on Manuals of Moral Theology

His moral theology is a particular example of the theology of grace which is the characteristic mark of Alphonsus' life and work: the love of God is abundant, close and operative. Men may be marked by sin, original and personal, but grace is not destroyed. And this grace is available to all, not just the elect and the justified.

- Raphael Gallagher, "The Manual System of Moral Theology Since the Death of Alphonsus." Irish Theological Quarterly 51, no. 1 (1985), 2.

This article on the tradition of Moral Theology Manuals following St.Alphonsus gives insight into the significance of these works.

This is significant because this appears to be the context in which the distinction between sacraments and sacramentals is explored, and in which the analogy between them is further specified.

Feingold

The term "actual grace" first came into common usage after the Council of Trent. Nevertheless, the notion goes back to the Gospel and Apostalic Tradition. It was one of the merits of St.Thomas Aquinas to distinguish clearly between actual and habitual grace (sanctifying grace).

Dr.Feingold explains/defends this assertion in his section on the distinction between sacntifying and actual grace.

I think this insight is significant because I want to make the case that the notion between the sacramental and the sacrament is not only related to this distinction between actual and sanctifying grace but like it, rooted in scripture and tradition only to be more precisely formulated later. Though there doesn't seem to be a particular person behind elaborating this distinction, this is more like, trying to see ordinary magisterium at work...

Navarre Commentary on Canon Law

This resemblance borne by sacramentals with regards to sacraments is also indicated in the canon by the term "imitation"….The scope of that imitation is - subject to the ontological nature - indeed a broad one. As has been shown by the doctrine, they resemble eachother in that:

In this commentary on canon 1166 of the new Code of Canon Law, the author outlines five points of "imitation", namely: 1.sensible signs, 2.public means of sanctification, 3.they are intended to produce spiritual effects, 4.their confection and administration belong to the public worship of the Church hence are regulated by law, 5.their efficacy flows from the passion, death and resurrection of Christ.

Augustine's Commentary on Canon Law

This is not a dogma, as the Council of Trent has not defined this power directly, but only negatively determined that the rites accompanying the administration of the Sacraments may not be arbitrarily condemned, omitted, or changed.

- Charles Augustine, A Commentary on the New Code of Canon Law. Vol.3.(St.Louis:Herder Book, 1920), 559.

Augustine cites session 7, canon 13 saying that Trent's protection of the ceremonies surrounding the sacraments logically, but not positively extends to the ceremonies of the sacramentals. (my other note from Denziger says Session 22, Canon 7?)

This is significant because it bolsters my thought that the analogy between the sacraments and sacramentals is implicit at Trent.

Augustine's Commentary on Canon Law

The Sacramentals are objects or actions resembling the Sacraments which the Church makes use of by way of intercession to obtain especially spiritual effect. ...The Sacramentals resemble the Sacraments in this that they ordinarily consist of matter and form, or external signs which produce a spiritual as well as a temporal effect, though the former is chiefly intended. They differ from the Sacraments inasmuch as they do not convey sanctifying grace nor produce their effects ex opere operato, but ex opere operantis, or through the intercession of the Church.

- Charles Augustine, A Commentary on the New Code of Canon Law. Vol.3. (St.Louis:Herder Book, 1920), 558.

Augustine provides an interpretation of the analogy between sacraments and sacramentals. He goes on to emphasize that the most important difference is that the sacraments are of divine institution.

Also, interestingly, in commenting on Canon 1144, where normally he is quick to cite Father's and pontiffs to support his interpretation, he cites two Moral Theology treatesise. Those of Arendt De Sacramentalibus and Pohle-Pruess' - The Sacraments.

This fits with my understanding that the analogy is the result of "scientific" speculation on the part of 18-19thC theologians and after being adapted by Canon Law was "ratified" by authoritative teaching in SC.

Summa Theologica

We must therefore say otherwise, that an efficient cause is twofold, principal and instrumental. The principal cause works by the power of its form, to which form the effect is likened; just as fire by its own heat makes something hot. In this way none but God can cause grace: since grace is nothing else than a participated likeness of the Divine Nature... But the instrumental cause works not by the power of its form, but only by the motion whereby it is moved by the principal agent: so that the effect is not likened to the instrument but to the principal agent

Thomas Aquinas. Summa theological, III, q.62, in First Complete American Edition in Three Volumes. Vol. 2. Trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province. (New York,NY: Benziger, 1947), #’s. (NEED NUMBERS paragraph or page?)

Thomas explains instrumental causality. This is significant because it helps us to understand how a sacramental may be a cause of divine grace, without threatening divine liberty or ascribing power to the priest that he does not have.

I think that when many contemporary authors wring their hands about sacramental power being seen as magic (think here Rivard, Collins/Power) that they are seeing the effects of neglecting this distinction. In the face of this "medieval accretion" many authors try to re-imagine blessing, and even the concilium members seem to have neglected this when authoring the praenotanda.

feb 11, 2011 - this may also be likened to the use of sacramentum tantum, sacramentum and res, res tantum in order to distinguish between the sign, and the thing signified properly.

Summa Theologica

We must needs say that in some way the sacraments of the New Law cause grace.

- Thomas Aquinas. Summa theological, III, q.62, in First Complete American Edition in Three Volumes. Vol. 2. Trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province. (New York,NY: Benziger, 1947), #’s. NEED PAGE NUMBERS

This article is important because it helps me to establish the scholastic tradition / church teaching on the effects of the sacraments. This is significant because it establishes the effects of the sacraments of which sacramentals / blessings are an analogy.

Its worth citing Thomas because he distinguishes between the types of causes and articulates what instrumental causality is.

Sacrosanctum Concilium

Rightly, then, the liturgy is considered as an exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ. In the liturgy the sanctification of the man is signified by signs perceptible to the senses, and is effected in a way which corresponds with each of these signs;

- Second Vatican Council, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium (4 December 1963), §7, at The Holy See, www.vatican.va.

In quote from section 7 of SC we see reflected the sacramental character of the liturgy itself. I take this to be a reflection of the Canons from Trent session 22 cited earlier, though I need to demonstrate why I think that.

This pertains to sacramentals because like the liturgy they are instituted by the church to dispose men to and to actually impart the fruits of Christ's sacrifice. Or as it says earlier in section 7, to sanctify men and give glory to God.

Sacrosanctum Concilium

Thus, for well-disposed members of the faithful, the liturgy of the sacraments and sacramentals sanctifies almost every event in their lives; they are given access to the stream of divine grace which flows from the paschal mystery of the passion, death, the resurrection of Christ, the font from which all sacraments and sacramentals draw their power. There is hardly any proper use of material things which cannot thus be directed toward the sanctification of men and the praise of God.

- Second Vatican Council, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium (4 December 1963), §61, at The Holy See, www.vatican.va.

This paragraph immediately follows the definition of sacramentals as an imitation of the sacraments. I think this paragraph helps us to understand the meaning of the analogy. The "power" referred to is grace, the very life of God shared with man through the sacraments instituted by Christ.

Without using the (what is in my mind scholastic) language, I think this is getting to the distinction between actual and sanctifying grace.

Sacrosanctum Concilium

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.

Council of Trent

CANON VII.--If any one saith, that the ceremonies, vestments, and outward signs, which the Catholic Church makes use of in the celebration of masses, are incentives to impiety, rather than offices of piety; let him be anathema.

-Council of Trent, Session 22 (17 Semptember 1562), in Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, vol. 2, Trent to Vatican II, ed. and trans. Norman P. Tanner (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 1990), 731-741.

This Canon asserts the Church's authority to establish rites. I think I stumbled back to this through Denzinger. There's a connection here in Canon Law, references in Paschang too.

The larger theological import is that Trent asserts the Church's spiritual authority which pertains to the establishment of sacramentals, and their relationship to Christ's sacrifice through the Church.

Book of Blessings

Since they have been established as a kind of imitation of the sacraments, blessings are signs above all of spiritual effects that are achieved through the Church's intercession.

- Book of Blessings Approved for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America. (New York, NY: Catholic Book Publishing, 1989), §10 p.XXV.

This brief statement packs in several topics important to my thesis. That sacramentals cause spiritual effects. That this is achieved through the Church's intercession, and that this can be understood by an analogy between the sacraments and sacramentals.

The preanotanda cites Sacrosanctum Concilium article 60 here.