The Principle of Sacramentality
Source: McBrien, Richard P., ed. The HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism (San
Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1995), p. 1148.
The notion that all reality, both
animate and inanimate, is potentially or
in fact the bearer of God’s presence and
the instrument of God’s saving activity
on humanity’s behalf.
This principle is rooted in the nature
of a sacrament as such, i.e., a visible sign
and instrument of the invisible presence
and activity of God.
Together with the principles of mediation
(God works through secondary agents to
achieve divine ends) and communion (the end
of all God’s activity is the union of humanity),
the principle of sacramentality constitutes one
of the central theological characteristics of
Catholicism.