Sacramentality According To Christianity

What is Sacramentality?

Let us begin with the principle of sacramentality as "The notion that all reality, both animate and inanimate, is potentially or in fact the bearer of God's presence and the instrument of God's saving activity on humanity's behalf" (McBrien and Attridge 1995, 1148). My personal interpretation of what McBrien and Attridge are telling us is that everything in nature and for that matter, all of the existence which is both visible and invisible can be considered a sacrament. Also, in view of the fact that we cannot detect anything there, does not exclude it from the sacramentality that it exists, even though we cannot interact with it through our sense of smell, touch, sight, hearing or taste. We essentially realize that

For us Catholics, it is the connection between humans and God through the Grace of his salvation, provided for mankind through the continued practice of the rites of the sacraments. The Catholic Church today discerns seven sacraments as significant for believers; these are Baptism, Reconciliation, Communion, Confirmation, Matrimony, Holy Orders and Anointing of the Sick. These seven signs are a major part of the connection between mankind and God that integrates us into the whole of God's grace. The scholarly professor Doris Donnelly does a great job of explaining that the sacraments are "baffling to nonbelievers unable to decipher them, misrepresented by those who misread can often reduce symbols to mere signs, sacramental symbols are sources of joy, solace, confrontation, peace, healing, strength, and life-giving sustenance to the initiated" (Donnelly 2014, viii). It is in this that we Christians take from the sacraments and go out into the world as the instruments of Christ to evangelize and

According to the official Vatican website," At the last supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Savior instituted the Eucharistic sacrifice of his Body and Blood. This he did in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the ages until he should come again, and so to entrust to his beloved Spouse, the Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a Paschal banquet 'in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us'" (Catechism of the Catholic Church). Here even in the paraphrase above, we observe the word sacrament again. In this instance, it is a sacrament of love that is portrayed, however, any of the phrases used could be considered sacramental as they all carry the mystery of the event. The events of that night are recorded for us in the Bible in the three Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke as well as the events recorded in the Gospel of John. I do not intend to quote just one of these Gospels, but want to give an overview of the happenings that night as I recall them through my own understanding. A special dinner was planned that night with his disciples since they were celebrating the traditional Jewish Passover holiday. At