Catholics, Sacraments and Magic

[Michie]

Fr. Dwight Longenecker

As Halloween approaches it brings to mind witches and wizards, magic and mystery, and recent events and experiences in the Catholic Church cause me to ponder the attitude so many of my fellow Catholics seem to have about the sacraments and sacramentals Too many treat them like magic and the priests like magicians.​

I don’t suggest that they do this consciously. The fact that it is unconscious makes the problem even more difficult to assess and address. I can explain what I mean by some examples.

1. Blessed candles and the three days of darkness. The prophecies about the three days of darkness are highly suspect private revelations. If you want to learn more check out Jimmy Akin’s podcast on the subject here. Even if there is to be three days of darkness during which no man made light sources will work how will you light your blessed candles? Don’t get me wrong, blessed candles are just fine, but they’re not magic. They are candles which are blessed for a particular purpose–to function as devotional images. They don’t have magic powers.

Continued below.

Catholics, Sacraments and Magic | Fr. Dwight Longenecker

As Halloween approaches it brings to mind witches and wizards, magic and mystery, and recent events and experiences in the Catholic Church cause me to ponder the attitude so many of my fellow Catholics seem to have about the sacraments and sacramentals Too many treat them like magic and the...

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