Did I Accidentally Commit Sacrilege?

[Metaron]

My sister was down visiting and she got me this cool little picture-frame rear-view mirror ornament that you can put pictures into. I had some holy cards of Mother Mary and King Jesus, but they wouldn’t fit, so without thinking I cut them up and put 'em in the frames. When I saw the left-over pieces I began to feel bad and if I had done something wrong by cutting them up, I kind of did it without thinking. Was it ok? And when is it ok to disassemble or cut up something holy like a picture of a saint, etc.? Just wondering. And what should I have done with the left-overs of the holy cards?

 

[jmm08]

I don’t think you did anything wrong.

Your intent was to make the cards more useful to yourself, by making them fit the frame so you could view them very often in your car. Maybe you feel bad about it. But honestly you were only trying to bring Mary and Jesus closer to yourself by having prayer cards more available to yourself. And I think that is pleasing to Mary, so don’t worry.

Keep what you will use. And discard what you cannot.

jmm08

 

[Metaron]

I don’t think you did anything wrong.

Your intent was to make the cards more useful to yourself, by making them fit the frame so you could view them very often in your car. Maybe you feel bad about it. But honestly you were only trying to bring Mary and Jesus closer to yourself by having prayer cards more available to yourself. And I think that is pleasing to Mary, so don’t worry.

Keep what you will use. And discard what you cannot.

jmm08

Yeah, I think that’s right. I guess it matters what your intent is. On a more philosophical note, though, the Iconoclast who were destroying images of our Lord and the Cross and the saints thought they were doing God a favour. They were intending to honour God, you could say, albeit in a very wrong way, and by going against Church rulings. Did they also commit sacrilege?

 

[blessedstar]

newadvent.org/cathen/13321a.htm

Here is a link that describes all forms of sacrilege. You did not commit sacrilege. You merely trimmed a Holy Card so it would fit into a frame in order to honour our Blessed Virgin Mother Mary and to inspire love, worship and praise of Christ Jesus.

The trimmed pieces of the Holy Card, if they are blessed, should be burnt. If they are not blessed you can still burn them if this makes you feel more comfortable or you may bury them, or you may throw them into the paper recycle bin.

I have trimmed many pictures of Jesus and Mary in order that they may adorn cards for Christmas and Easter and the left over pieces I have thrown away in the recycler because the images were not blessed and were only bits of white paper with some colour on the edge and not a complete image of Jesus or Mary.

Your tender devotion to our Lady and your firm love of Jesus is beautiful but you must not let this make you afraid at every step you make with good intentions, your intent is what is important. You can read the Encyclopaedia online using the link above or you may use the one that CAF provide to help you to become more familiar with the ins and outs of the Catholic faith and this will eradicate much of your fear because you will know what you are to do in future.

Have a peaceful nights sleep and I hope your car, yourself, your journies and all who see them are blessed by the images displayed.

In the Living Prayer of my life

 

[blessedstar]

Yeah, I think that’s right. I guess it matters what your intent is. On a more philosophical note, though, the Iconoclast who were destroying images of our Lord and the Cross and the saints thought they were doing God a favour. They were intending to honour God, you could say, albeit in a very wrong way, and by going against Church rulings. Did they also commit sacrilege?

They did because they rejected Church teaching and wilfully and irreverently destroyed sacred items as outlined in the link in my last post.

They committed the ‘grave matter’ of sacrilege and ‘wilfully’ did so against Church teaching, but whether it was a mortal sin on their individual souls is between God and the soul and the Majesterium.

In the Living Prayer of my life

 

[Metaron]

They did because they rejected Church teaching and wilfully and irreverently destroyed sacred items as outlined in the link in my last post.

They committed the ‘grave matter’ of sacrilege and ‘wilfully’ did so against Church teaching, but whether it was a mortal sin on their individual souls is between God and the soul and the Majesterium.

In the Living Prayer of my life

Thanks, I thought as much. As for the revisionist (called “reformers”) they are so very against the Church and call Her all sorts of vile names, and destroy the ligitimately used images of Christ and the saints, defacing their portraits, etc, etc, they knew about the rulings of the iconoclasm, yet they continued to defile the Cross and the images. I believe there was more guile on thier part. But does anyone know if they ever committed sins against the Eucharist during the Protestant “Reformation”? Did they ever go that far?