Saturday, July 18, 2015

A protestant (and Orthodox) Guide to using Roman Catholic Sacramentals

Sacramentals are what RC (Roman Catholic) Church calls lesser sacraments. in the
Orthodox world, we would call them (Holy Water for instance) lesser mysteries,
there are seven great Mysteries and then the lesser ones. RC however has some we
don't have.

medals - stamped metal disks honoring various saints, some with a reputation
for having effects. most don't have such a reputation and most require a priestly
blessing to work. Many of these relate to dubious saints and heretical doctrines,
such as the miraculous medal and the green scapular which are about the
immaculate conception of Mary.

However, the St. Benedict Medal (which an Orthodox priest told me he was willing
to bless since it is an icon of a pre schism saint) has a great reputation against evil.
It has letters on it, the first letters of Latin words meaning "begone satan! show me not
your vain things, your cup is full of poison, drink your own poison." and "Let the Cross be my light let not the dragon be my guide."

St. Benedict is depicted with a cup, which shattered when he made the sign of the
Cross over it, not knowing it contained poison meant for him. And a raven, which
came and took away a loaf of poisoned bread someone gave him.

Blessed salt - extremely powerful exorcistic thing, which can be added to food or
placed on doorsteps, windowsills, corners of rooms and around a house.

Oil of Exorcism - I think this is the same as Oil of Catechumens, and it is difficult to
get I think. Best to be had from a traditionalist RC priest, I have no idea of the blessing
used to make it in Novus Ordo, whose Eucharist is okay but maybe problems in lesser
things. In Orthodoxy, instead of the original rite of smearing this all over the
catechumen or at least placing it on the orifices of the head the five senses and on the
heart, hands and feet, as described in early church writings, it has become used in
baptism by pouring it into the baptismal water itself.

Holy Water - has a reputation for driving away evil. some springs and rivers have what
I call Natural Holy Water or NHW, often connected to volcanic locations and may
be an effect of magnesium sulfate in the water. Lake Shasta Dam City has this coming
out the taps, because they get water from Lake Shasta which is NHW. The Adriatic
Sea is another example,  making an entity free zone of about 1/4 mile from the coast.
NHW at least from Lake Shasta will repel evil, but not add good necessarily.  When I
was a wreck and very sensitive, I could tell the difference between this and Church
Holy Water or CHW, the latter added a sanity.

Roman Catholic Holy Water is good,  but Eastern Orthodox Holy Water seems
stronger and tolerates dilution more, and when both were put on a quaternion disinfectant
which breaks up all influences or charges, the RC faded while the EO remained.
Coptic Holy Water is dubious.  The sample I had was apparently blessed on the fly
by the priest in a bottle of standard bottled water, assuming it was blessed at all. Not
the epiphany water or from the Holy Water font as far as I know. It had a slightly
unwholesome glow and the entity I used it against laughed at it, as he did the type
of hypericum fake st. john's wort that is not hypericum perforatum, but sold in CA
for those who like the st. John's Wort look. (hypericum perforatum is considered
invasive and stamped out here in CA. It is hazardous for long term grazing, but this
is opposed even where there is no grazing. I wonder if the "native species" laws
didn't have an occultist agenda with an environmentalist excuse back of them on
this one.)  The ROCOR Holy Water was midway between OCA GOA etc. and
the Coptic, ROCOR Holy Water from the Sunnyvale mission church I went to good but not that good.  A different ROCOR church I got a sample from
after the reunion with MP was up to OCA/GOA/Antiochian snuff but I didn't test
the Holy Water from the original ROCOR church I got it from pre reunion. At
that reunion, the Cathedral bells in SF rang at night no one there, it was figured
St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco, whose relics are there, was applauding this
event. And he used to commemorate the Moscow Patriarch until told not to do so.

Beyond these things, I wouldn't bother with RC sacramentals. the Brown Scapular
maybe. the story back of it has changed a lot been added to etc., but might be
legitimate. Supposedly it started when the Theotokos (Virgin Mary) appeared to
Simon Stock, who took the monks in that the crusaders brought back from Mt. Carmel,
and whose legacy may go back to Elijah and Elisha.  I had some good effects with
the Brown Scapular when I was experimenting with RC and EO before I settled on
EO.

The traditionalists in Orthodoxy consider that RC has  lost grace, but apparently it is
a lessening not a loss. When the focus is on Jesus Christ, you always have some grace.