How does my st.thomas cincture work?

[tablecorner]

Being enrolled in the Confraternity of Angelic Warfare group, i have to wear a medal or the cincture.
So in regards to sacramental theology, how does this object prepare me to receive the graces associated with the devotion? If i do say the prayers without wearing the cincture, wouldn’t they still work as the object holds no power by themselves.

“By the Church’s prayer they prepare us to receive grae and dispose us to cooperate with it.”
Is this church the church on earth or in heaven?

 

[Vico]

Being enrolled in the Confraternity of Angelic Warfare group, i have to wear a medal or the cincture.
So in regards to sacramental theology, how does this object prepare me to receive the graces associated with the devotion? If i do say the prayers without wearing the cincture, wouldn’t they still work as the object holds no power by themselves.

“By the Church’s prayer they prepare us to receive grae and dispose us to cooperate with it.”
Is this church the church on earth or in heaven?

A medal or cord are sacramentals. Catechism 1670 states “Sacramentals do not confer the grace of the Holy Spirit in the way that the sacraments do, but by the Church’s prayer, they prepare us to receive grace and dispose us to cooperate with it.”

Blessed items are are used to increase devotion, and the efficacy depends on the users faith and on the Church’s indulgenced blessing attached to it (if any). There are indulgences attached to the use of the medal and cincture on certain dates, according the the confraternity, per the normal conditions for indulgences.

The communion of saints binds together the faithful on earth, the souls in purgatory, and the saints in heaven in the unity of the mystical body under Christ.

 

[tablecorner]

thank you Vico, so a sacramental is more than a mental anchor or a photograph reminding you of a loved one it seems.

Are icons sacramentals?

 

[Vico]

thank you Vico, so a sacramental is more than a mental anchor or a photograph reminding you of a loved one it seems.

Are icons sacramentals?

Yes.

Catechism

1159 The sacred image, the liturgical icon, principally represents Christ . It cannot represent the invisible and incomprehensible God, but the incarnation of the Son of God has ushered in a new “economy” of images:

Previously God, who has neither a body nor a face, absolutely could not be represented by an image. But now that he has made himself visible in the flesh and has lived with men, I can make an image of what I have seen of God . . . and contemplate the glory of the Lord, his face unveiled.27