Lesson 4 –
Why Sacraments Are Signs

For each sacrament, there is a specific combination of objects, gestures, and words that signify and bring about a particular spiritual sanctification.

That dynamic of signification responds to who we are as fallen human beings. Through these gestures and words, Christ leads us from “things corporeal and sensible to things spiritual and intelligible.”

Course Reading

Summa Theologiae III q. 60, a. 3 | St. Thomas Aquinas

Summa Theologiae III q. 60, aa. 5-6 | St. Thomas Aquinas

A Companion to the Summa, pp. 250-251 | Walter Farrell, O.P.

Excerpt from the Summa Theologiae III q. 60, a. 3:

[A] sacrament is a sign that is both a reminder of the past, i.e. the passion of Christ; and an indication of that which is effected in us by Christ's passion, i.e. grace; and a prognostic, that is, a foretelling of future glory.

Course Listening

What Is A Sacrament? St Thomas Aquinas On The Sacraments As Signs | Fr Reginald Lynch, O.P.

The Sacraments in the Christian Life | Fr. Dominic Langevin, O.P.