Yesterday, I mentioned a third class relic of Bl. Fr. Seelos and included a picture of a first class relic of the same saint.
So what is a sacred relic?
Sacred relics are items that have a direct relationship with the saints. There are three classes of relics.
First class relics are pieces of the body of a saint, a piece of bone, a lock of hair. Second class relics are items that a saint owned, a piece of clothing, or a prayer book. Third class relics are objects that a saint touched or objects touched to another relic.
Now, you might be thinking Catholics have some weird traditions, keeping pieces a saint's bones to venerate. First, to be clear, we do not worship relics; we adore them. The relics are not magical; they are mystical. Scripture teaches us that the Lord chooses to work through sacred relics for powers of healing. From the Old Testament in second Kings, "When the corpse of a man was touched to the bones of the prophet Elisha, the man came back to life and rose to his feet." Another passage from the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament testifies, "When handkerchiefs or aprons that had been touched to Paul were applied to the sick, the people were healed, and evil spirits were driven out of them."
Sacred relics should be treated with special care and reverence. Always remembering, the physical remains of the saints are united with the holiness of their souls already in heaven. The relics are a physical reminder of those who believed in Christ and witnessed this belief with their lives. #livinglent2
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