Talk:Sacramentals

Foot washing?
What about foot-washing? Should that be on this list? Michael Hardy 01:15, 26 May 2005 (UTC)


 * I have never seen it referenced as a sacramental. On the other hand I am not sure there is an official list of all sacramentals.  It meets some of the criteria for a sacramental.  The main difference I can see is that in Catholicism it is presented as an activity for the clergy to perform (as part of the Holy Thursday liturgy) rather than an activity for the layity--not that there is anything sinful (that I can tell) in the faithful washing each others' feet if they decide to.  My guess is that feet washing would probably be considered a ceremony, rather than a sacramental. --Eoghanacht 13:59, 2005 May 27 (UTC)


 * Note that the Catholic Encyclopedia makes this observation: "...down to the time of St. Bernard we find ecclesiastical writers, at least occasionally, applying to this ceremony the term Sacramentum in its wider sense, by which they no doubt meant that it possessed the virtue of what we now call a sacramental." - http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15557b.htm I would, however, also add that an article on sacramentals need not include an exhaustive list of all sacramentals, since this would prove to be extremely lengthy and there has not been, to my knowledge at any rate, any such official list published by the magisterium of the Church (referring here to the Catholic Church). The few examples given in the article should suffice, I believe, to provide the reader with the basic concept. Michael (talk) 18:20, 17 September 2009 (UTC)

Protestant usage
As a Lutheran, I'd like to see a citation that explains that Lutheranism holds a sacramental (as opposed to a sacrament) being used as a means of grace. Irondog1970 (talk) 21:02, 19 March 2009 (UTC)