Sacraments or Sacramentals?

Ah! The war of words on which Catholics get hung up. Essentially many Catholics (Anglo or Roman) get fixed on the notion that there are only seven sacraments. Anything else that looks like a sacrament, or has sacramental nature is termed just that - a sacramental. A sort of inferior sacrament! While I heartily concur that there are seven "official" sacraments which I've listed below somewhere, I do believe that God's grace abounds in more than just seven sacraments can express. That's not to say that a seven sacrament belief is deficient in any way, but I'm sure God permits us to receive grace in ways beyond those seven sacraments.

Whilst he was just plain old Cardinal (!), His Eminence Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger wrote in Principles of Catholic Theology (pub. Ignatius pp50-51) that the Church itself a sacrament. He reaches three conclusions:

1. "The designation of the Church as a sacrament is opposed to an individualistic understanding of the sacraments as a means of grace; it teaches us to understand the sacraments as the fulfillment of the life of the Church; in doing so it enriches the teaching about grace; grace is always about the beginning of union."
   
   
2. "The designation of the Church as a sacrament thus deepens and clarifies the concept Church and offers a response to contemporary man's search for the unity of mankind:the Church is not merely an external society of believers..."
   
   
3. "The positive element common to both of these statements is to be found in the concept of unio and unitas: union with God is the content or Grace, but such a union has its consequence the unity of men with one another."

If the Holy Father is right, then we perhaps should regard the seven sacraments as lesser to the sacrament of the Church. For me, this opens up the possibilities that I have been striving for, namely looking for the "other" outward and visible signs of an inward invisible grace. Though Trent did fix the number of Sacraments at seven, the Early Fathers didn't, and it looks as if under the present Pontificate, the Tridentine understanding is being reinterpreted, and I hope will get rid of the unnecessary idea of "sacramentals" as a lesser sacrament which essentially forms a half-hearted nod to an idea that one thinks correct in practice, but wrong in theory.