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To: Señor Zorro
I fail to see how Blessed Salt and Holy Water will help them. Indeed, it is that material point of view that would, IMHO, prevent them from being healed once and for all.

Men are spiritual/physical composites. All of our learning begins with what we perceive sensibly. So it is not unreasonable to believe that God would attach prayers or blessings (spiritual goods) to particular physical objects. Remember that Jesus healed the blind man with mud. He didn't have to, but he chose to.

The special virtue recognized by the Church and experienced by Christians in the sacramentals should consist in the official prayers whereby we implore God to pour forth special graces on those who make use of the sacramentals. These prayers move God to give graces which He would not otherwise give, and when not infallibly acceded to it is for reasons known to His Wisdom. God is aware of the measure in which He should bestow His gifts. All the sacramentals have not the same effect; this depends on the prayer of the Church which does not make use of the same urgency nor have recourse to the same Divine sources of merit.

Sacramentals


54 posted on 05/31/2007 11:41:46 AM PDT by Aquinasfan (When you find "Sola Scriptura" in the Bible, let me know)
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To: Aquinasfan

Of course that is after the exorcism of the “holy water” right?

Can you show me where we are taught that there is any such thing as “holy water” or that it has any power?


61 posted on 05/31/2007 12:11:29 PM PDT by ears_to_hear
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To: Aquinasfan
Men are spiritual/physical composites.

We are spiritual beings. As CS Lewis so brilliantly put it: "You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body." The body part is quite temporary. A composite implies that the two are one, but really we will live long after our bodies have been surrendered to the flames.

So it is not unreasonable to believe that God would attach prayers or blessings (spiritual goods) to particular physical objects.

Give some Biblical precedent that blessings are attached to objects. It is quite true that God has used physical objects in the past, but there is no where in the Bible where the objects themselves remain vested with some higher spiritual power.

Take your own example of the mud Jesus spread across the man's eyes. I have yet to hear of Holy Mud being offered to any who are blind. Or take again the incident where Elisha was on his death bed:

"Then he said, "Take the arrows," and the king took them. Elisha told him, "Strike the ground." He struck it three times and stopped. The man of God was angry with him and said, "You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times."" 2 Kings 13:18-19

I don't recall arrows becoming vested with some eternal spiritual significance. Prove it to me from the Scriptures and plain reason. The proclamation of man alone (any man) is not enough.

221 posted on 05/31/2007 7:10:01 PM PDT by Señor Zorro ("The ability to speak does not make you intelligent"--Qui-Gon Jinn)
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