Question about sacramentals..........Please, if you are just going to be anti-Catholic, just move along.?

Question

So, non-Catholics, or people who will BE starting RCIA can do everything in the Catholic church (use holy water, receive blessing, like St. Blaise, receive ashes, etc) except receive communion? Is this correct, or are there other things they aren't supposed to participate in?

I have been baptized, and understand what blessing yourself when coming into the church symbolizes. I am starting RCIA classes this fall. I really appreciate everyone's information!!!! Thank you!!!!

Answer 1

basically, the answer is yes.

I'm not sure about the Sacrament of Reconciliation, but if you are going to go through RCIA then you'll need to do it before you can receive your first holy communion, so I don't think anyone will stop you if you want to do it early and often.

Answer 2

One does not receive the Sacraments unless they are Baptized. Some people going through RCIA were baptized but never received the other sacraments. They will go through a re-commitment ceremony before receiving the other Sacraments. Also in some Parishes, if it is so set up this way, the RCIA candidates leave the Church with a teacher, right after the homily of the Sunday Mass. They receive a special blessing by the Priest and the prayers of the other parishioners as they are sent off to discuss the Reading of the Mass.
Any one may use the holy water or receive the Ashes on Ash Wednesday or have their throats blessed on the feast of St. Blaise.

Answer 3

Among Church scholars, there is much discussion as to what is a sacramental and what is not, but from your description, it sounds as though you are asking about the symbolic gestures that take place in Church before, during, after Mass. These are available to anyone who choses to receive them. Blessings, holy water, and ashes all wonderful things for all people to receive.

The key difference is those things are sacramentals, not sacraments. Sacramentals are customs and traditions instituted by the Church, while the sacraments were instituted by Christ and cannot be altered. Sacramentals inspire devotion which can give grace, while the sacraments themselves give grace.

However, there are sacraments that are available to you as a baptised Christian...

The Council of Trent (1551) specified that baptised Christians may participate in the Sacrament of Penance. So if your baptism was a trinitarian baptism (baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), you may participate in that sacrament. You may also receive are the sacraments of penance, anointing of the sick, and matrimony.

The other sacraments (besides the baptism you have already received) of holy orders/ordination, confirmation, and Eucharist are only received by Catholics. While you cannot receive communion, you may go up to the priest in the communion line and receive a blessing. This is done by crossing your arms over your chest, palms against the body, when you reach the priest. He will usually extend his hand and touch your head and say a quick blessing. All you need to say is "Amen". I don't know what would happen if you went to a Eucharist minister, I have only seen people getting this blessing from the priest.

Also worth noting, a person who is not baptised cannot receive any sacraments.

Anyways, congrats on starting the RCIA class this fall. It is always so wonderful to see people joining the Church. May God bless you.

Answer 4

Yep, pretty much. You can even get married in the Church if your partner is Catholic. The only things off limits are fairly obvious. You can't be confirmed unless you are baptized first. You can't be ordained a priest unless you are confirmed first. Oh, and you should not be serving as a Lector (reader) or Eucharistic Minister if you haven't been confirmed. Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist are considered the sacraments of initiation. (Doctrinally, Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Orders can only be administered once, so they have the most restrictions.) Until you have been confirmed, some liturgical ministries are restricted, but everything else is permitted.

The sacrament of Penance (or Reconciliation) is permitted, but it's kind of hard to reconcile to an institution you're not officially part of. Baptism is a more logical place to start.

Answer 5

Among the various dogmas of the Catholic Church there is none which rests on stronger Scriptural authority than the doctrine of the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist, because He promised to give His Flesh as food and His Blood as drink (John vi. 48-70); because He fulfilled this promise at the Last Supper (Matt. xxvi. 20; Mark xiv. 22-24; Luke xxii. 19, 20; 1 Cor. xi. 23-25); because St. Paul declares this was the belief of the Apostolic Church (1 Cor. x. 16; xi. 27-29); because the early Fathers explicitly taught that the Eucharist was "the flesh and blood of the Incarnate Jesus" (St. Justin, Apol., i., 66); because Christ's infallible Church solemnly defined this doctrine against the Reformers of the sixteenth century. "The Holy Synod teaches . . . that in the august Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, after the consecration of the bread and wine, our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and Man, is truly, really and substantially contained under the appearance of those sensible things. ... If anyone denies that in the Sacrament of the most Holy Eucharist are contained truly, really and substantially the Body and Blood, together with the Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently the whole Christ; but says that He is therein only as a sign, or a figure or virtually, let him be anathema" (Council of Trent, Sess. xiii., ch. 1, can. 1).

At the present day every Christian communion throughout the world, with the sole exception of Protestants, proclaim its belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament.

The Nestorians and Eutychians, who separated from the Catholic Church in the fifth century, admit the corporeal presence of our Lord in the Eucharist. Such also is the faith of the Greek church, which seceded from us a thousand years ago, of the Present Russian church, of the schismatic Copts, the Syrians, Chaldeans, Armenians, and, in short, of all the Oriental sects no longer in communion with the See of Rome.

Source(s):

http://www.catholicapologetics.net/qb115...

Answer 6

Well....partially true. Unless you are Baptized, you cannot participate in ANY sacraments (Unction, Matrimony, etc.) - but I've never heard of anybody being turned away from the rail on St. Blaise day or from any of the so-called "sacramentals". Also - I am confused about your question re: "using holy water" - you mean, from the font in the Narthex where there is a small stoop of Holy Water. Unless you are Baptized, you should NOT "bless yourself" - as the reason is to remind yourself of your own Baptism.

Answer 7

You are correct. The reason that we do not give the Eucharist to non-members is that taking communion in any church means that you have already accepted and agreed with that churches teachings. Until you actually do confirmation you have not fully done that yet. I also do not take communion if visiting a non-Catholic church. One of the major reasons that our priests do not give the Eucharist to members of other churches is that other Christians have a wide variety of teachings and practices regarding Holy Communion and not all of them revere it as much as we do. This out of respect for both our church and theirs not because we teach that they could not possibly be Christians.

Answer 8

They can not receive the Sacrament of Confession (Penance). There are other things too that are prohibited but, I think Confession and Holy Communion are the two that they would most likely want to take advantage of.

Actually a priest can listen to anybodies confession but, they can not give absolution unless you are Catholic.

Answer 9

My husband is not Catholic, and I am. I wanted to get married in a church, he didn't. I compromised. We got married in our backyard (we took the money they we would have used for a more formal wedding and bought a house) by a reverend.
A year and a half later when we went to baptize our daughter the question came up about if we were married and in what church. I told him when and were and by whom. He (not so politely) told me that I can no longer accept communion until my marriage is sanctified by the Catholic Church.
Trust me I was pissed off.
I am still a Catholic, and still have not "sanctified" my marriage in the church. (husband would have to be baptized)

Answer 10

Proverbs 3:5
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!


John 3:16
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Ecclesiastes 12:13
Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.