A sacrament is a celebration. The word “celebration” is rooted in the Latin word celebrare, which does not include balloons and hoopla, an early misunderstanding that led to resistance in speaking of “the celebration of a funeral” or “the celebration of anointing.” Celebrare is a word that refers to repeated actions or ritual patterns. To celebrate means to bring a human religious experience to public, ritual expression, through the use of symbolic language, including words, gestures, objects, music, and even the language of silence.
Kathleen Hughes, Becoming the Sign: Sacramental Living in a Post-Conciliar Church (New York: Paulist Press, 2013), 23-24. ISBN: 978-0-8091-4824-0.