What are the functions of a sacramental?

[Rutherford2]

For example, blessed rosary, blessed prayer cards, blessed bible, etc. Do you use them to repel evil spirits? To connect better with God? Can’t we just use unblessed rosary, unblessed prayer cards and unblessed bible?

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Catechism section Part 2, Chapter 2, Section 1, Article 1, on Sacramentals, covers this in detail. I would note as a general rule for these types of questions, it is a good idea to look them up in the Catechism, as it is likely to answer a lot of your questions without you having to start a thread.

The Catechism says in part:

1667 “Holy Mother Church has, moreover, instituted sacramentals. These are sacred signs which bear a resemblance to the sacraments. They signify effects, particularly of a spiritual nature, which are obtained through the intercession of the Church. By them men are disposed to receive the chief effect of the sacraments, and various occasions in life are rendered holy.”

1674 Besides sacramental liturgy and sacramentals, catechesis must take into account the forms of piety and popular devotions among the faithful. The religious sense of the Christian people has always found expression in various forms of piety surrounding the Church’s sacramental life, such as the veneration of relics, visits to sanctuaries, pilgrimages, processions, the stations of the cross, religious dances, the rosary, medals,180 etc.

1675 These expressions of piety extend the liturgical life of the Church, but do not replace it. They "should be so drawn up that they harmonize with the liturgical seasons, accord with the sacred liturgy, are in some way derived from it and lead the people to it, since in fact the liturgy by its very nature is far superior to any of them."18

So basically a sacramental is a way of expressing piety and of practicing one’s faith.

The blessing of an object is itself an additional sacramental, and more important than the object itself as “blessings come first”.

1671 Among sacramentals blessings (of persons, meals, objects, and places) come first. Every blessing praises God and prays for his gifts. In Christ, Christians are blessed by God the Father "with every spiritual blessing."177 This is why the Church imparts blessings by invoking the name of Jesus, usually while making the holy sign of the cross of Christ.

It is possible to use an unblessed rosary or prayer card, but since blessings are themselves a sacramental and “come first”, a normal pious Catholic would prefer to have these items blessed as soon as they have an opportunity. However, one needs to take into account that a blessed object needs to be treated specially and disposed of in a certain way, so you do not want to have more things blessed than you can properly watch out for and treat with reverence. We don’t bless every little thing. I have hundreds of prayer cards but they’re mostly unblessed.

(continued next post due to char limit)

 

[Tis_Bearself]

As for “use them to repel evil spirits”, it seems like there is some obsession on this forum with repelling evil spirits from a lot of posters. I understand this is a worldwide forum and some people and cultures are more concerned with “evil spirits” than the average American Catholic, but evil spirits are not the main thing on my mind when I use a sacramental. Some sacramentals like a St. Benedict medal, holy water and blessed salt might be used for driving away evil spirits, but that is not the main reason we have sacramentals around.

I hope this helps and like I said, please consider checking the Catechism next time.