The Old Testament
In the morning of Creation God blessed the living creatures that came from His hands, bidding them increase and multiply and fill the earth. [5] When Noah emerged from the Ark, he received God's benediction, [6] which he transmitted through his sons Shem and Japheth to posterity. The Old Testament shows that, in the patriarchal ages, heads of tribe and family seem privileged to bestow blessings, and priests when directed by God, administered it to the people. "Thus shall you bless the children of Israel... and the Lord will turn His countenance and give them peace". [7] The great value attributed to blessings is seen in Rebecca's effort to secure Jacob's blessing for her son. It was regarded as a sure way to secure God's benevolence, peace and protection.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, "Every baptized person is called to be a 'blessing' and to bless. Hence lay people may preside at certain blessings; the more a blessing concerns ecclesial and sacramental life, the more its administration is reserved to the ordained ministry (bishops, priest, deacons)" [8]
Priestly blessing
"Blessing" in the liturgical sense, is a rite consisting of a ceremony and prayers performed in the name and with the authority of the Church by a duly qualified minister by which persons or things are sanctified as dedicated to Divine service or by which certain marks of Divine favour are invoked upon them. [9]
The adoption of this rite by Jesus and his followers ensured its adoption at a very early stage in the Church's history. Blessings, in the sense in which they are being considered, are entirely of ecclesiastical institution: the Church has confined their administration to those in sacerdotal orders. Priests are ordained "that whatsoever they bless may be blessed, and whatsoever they consecrate shall be consecrated". In other words, priests can bless anything. The only case in which one inferior to a priest may bless is when the deacon blesses a candle on Holy Saturday, acting as a deputy and employing incense already blessed by the celebrant.
Some blessings are reserved to the Pope, some to bishops and some to parish priests. The first class includes the right to bless the pallium for archbishops, Agnus Deis, the Golden Rose, the Royal Sword and persons to whose blessing an indulgence is attached. He may depute others to give these. To bishops belongs the privilege of blessing abbots at their installation, priests at their ordination and virgins at their consecration; of blessing churches, cemeteries, oratories and all articles for use in connection with the altar, such as chalices, vestments and cloths, as well as military standards, soldiers, arms, and swords, and of imparting all blessings for which Holy Oils are required. Some of these may, on delegation, be performed by inferiors. Of the blessings which priests are generally empowered to grant, some are restricted to those who have external jurisdiction, like rectors or parish priests, and others are the exclusive prerogative of persons belonging to a religious order. An inferior cannot bless a superior or exercise ordinary powers in his presence. The priest, for instance, who is the principal celebrant of a Mass at which a bishop is present but is not the principal celebrant, is still not to give the final blessing without permission from the bishop.
Liturgy
Before a minister gives any blessing he should first satisfy himself that he is qualified, either by his ordinary or delegated powers. For the simple blessings of the Ritual, a soutane, surplice, and stole of the requisite colour will usually be sufficient. A clerk should be at hand to carry the Holy Water or incense if required or to prepare a lighted candle. The blessings are ordinarily given in a church but if necessary they can be administered elsewhere and without any sacred vestment.
The Roman Ritual is a treasury of ecclesiastical blessings. The Missal, besides the blessing given at the end of Mass, contains only blessings associated with functions incidental to certain days of the year such as the blessing of palms and ashes. In the Pontifical are found the blessings that are performed de jure by bishops, such as blessing persons, kings, emperors, and princes at their coronation and the above-mentioned episcopal prerogatives.
Blessing people
There is a blessing for the departure and return of pilgrims to the Holy Land, containing prayers and allusions to the Magi's journey, to Abraham setting his face towards the distant land of Canaan and to the Angel companion of the younger Tobias before an appeal to God to send solace on the journey, shade from heat, shelter in storms and a haven of safety.
There follow blessings of persons with Holy Water before Mass, an adult who is sick, a number of sick people, a woman on the approach of confinement and another after childbirth, infants, children come to the use of reason or arrived at years of discretion, children on their presentation in Church, that they may lead good Christian lives and for boys and girls on the Feast of the Holy Infancy that they may grow up to imitate the virtues of the Saviour and reach salvation under His guidance.
Blessings for things
The Catholic Church holds that things used in daily life, particularly in the service of religion, should be rescued from evil influences and endowed with a potency for good. The principal liturgical blessings recognized and sanctioned by Church are contained in the Roman Ritual and the Pontifical.
- In addition to blessings for articles destined for the altar, the Roman Ritual has formulæ for blessing crosses, images of Jesus, Mary and the saints, church organs, processional banners, new bells for church uses and for other purposes, dress and cinctures worn in honour of the saints, monstrances, reliquaries, vessels for Holy Oils, church ornaments, clerical habits, medals, pictures, crosses for the Stations, rosaries, water, candles, the Trisagion of the Holy Trinity, various scapulars. Most receive an "indulgenced" blessing, by which the pious employment and use of them may gain an indulgence.
- There are benedictions for; paschal lamb, eggs, oil, wine, lard, cheese, butter, dripping, salt, and water used as antidote to rabies as well as the fruits of the earth, seeds that are put into the earth, wine and the vintage, herbs and grasses: all may be "sanctified by the word of God and prayer".
- Animals may have blessings invoked upon them in order that their usefulness may be increased. Birds, beasts, bees, horses and oxen broken to the yoke and other beasts of burden are included in the formularies. The Creator is invoked to grant to the brute strength, health and protection from sickness or plague.
- The Ritual has blessings for houses and schools and for the laying of their foundation stones; for stables and every other building of any description for which no special formula is at hand. There is also a special blessing for the bridal chamber.
- Inanimate things that serve society may receive benediction. Such are new ships, railways, trains and carriages, bridges, fountains, wells, cornmills, lime-kilns, smelting-furnaces, telegraphs, steam engines, emergency vehicles and generators.
Anointing is the ritual act of pouring aromatic oil over a person's head or entire body.
Vespers is a liturgy of evening prayer, one of the canonical hours in Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Lutheran liturgies. The word for this prayer time comes from the Latin vesper, meaning "evening".
Divine Liturgy or Holy Liturgy is the usual name used in most Eastern Christian rites for the Eucharistic service.
The epiclesis refers to the invocation of one or several gods. In ancient Greek religion, the epiclesis was the epithet used as the surname given to a deity in religious contexts. The term was borrowed into the Christian tradition, where it designates the part of the Anaphora by which the priest invokes the Holy Spirit upon the Eucharistic bread and wine in some Christian churches. In most Eastern Christian traditions, the Epiclesis comes after the Anamnesis ; in the Western Rite it usually precedes. In the historic practice of the Western Christian Churches, the consecration is effected at the Words of Institution though during the rise of the Liturgical Movement, many denominations introduced an explicit epiclesis in their liturgies.
A benediction is a short invocation for divine help, blessing and guidance, usually at the end of worship service. It can also refer to a specific Christian religious service including the exposition of the eucharistic host in the monstrance and the blessing of the people with it.
In religion, a blessing is the impartation of something with grace, holiness, spiritual redemption, or divine will.
Holy water is water that has been blessed by a member of the clergy or a religious figure, or derived from a well or spring considered holy. The use for cleansing prior to a baptism and spiritual cleansing is common in several religions, from Christianity to Sikhism. The use of holy water as a sacramental for protection against evil is common among Lutherans, Anglicans, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Christians.
Consecration is the transfer of a person or a thing to the sacred sphere for a special purpose or service. The word consecration literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different groups. The origin of the word comes from the Latin stem consecrat, which means dedicated, devoted, and sacred. A synonym for consecration is sanctification; its antonym is desecration.
The Roman Ritual is one of the official liturgical books of the Roman Rite of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church. It contains all of the services that a priest or deacon may perform; and are not contained in the Missale Romanum, Pontificale Romanum, or Caeremoniale Episcoporum, but for convenience does include some rituals that one of these books contains.
Asperges is the rite of sprinkling a congregation with holy water. The name comes from the first word in the 9th verse of Psalm 51 in the Latin translation which is sung during the traditional form of the rite except during Eastertide. The 51st Psalm is also one of the antiphons that may be sung in the rite under the Mass of Paul VI.
Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, also called Benediction with the Blessed Sacrament or the Rite of Eucharistic Exposition and Benediction, is a devotional ceremony, celebrated especially in the Roman Catholic Church, but also in some other Christian traditions such as Anglo-Catholicism, whereby a bishop, priest, or a deacon blesses the congregation with the Eucharist at the end of a period of adoration.
In Christian tradition the churching of women, also known as thanksgiving for the birth or adoption of a child, is the ceremony wherein a blessing is given to mothers after recovery from childbirth. The ceremony includes thanksgiving for the woman's survival of childbirth, and is performed even when the child is stillborn, or has died unbaptized.
During the Mass of the Faithful, the second part of the Mass, the elements of bread and wine are considered to have been changed into the veritable Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. The manner in which this occurs is referred to by the term transubstantiation, a theory of St. Thomas Aquinas, in the Roman Catholic Church. Members of the Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran communions also believe that Jesus Christ is really and truly present in the bread and wine, but they believe that the way in which this occurs must forever remain a sacred mystery. In many Christian churches some portion of the consecrated elements is set aside and reserved after the reception of Communion and referred to as the reserved sacrament. The reserved sacrament is usually stored in a tabernacle, a locked cabinet made of precious materials and usually located on, above, or near the high altar. In Western Christianity usually only the Host, from Latin: hostia, meaning "victim", is reserved, except where wine might be kept for the sick who cannot consume a host.
The Alexandrian rites are a collection of ritual families and uses of Christian liturgy employed by three Oriental Orthodox churches, and by three Eastern Catholic Churches.
In persona Christi is a Latin phrase meaning "in the person of Christ", an important concept in Roman Catholicism and, in varying degrees, to other Christian traditions, such as Lutheranism and Anglicanism. In Catholic theology, a priest is In persona Christi because, in the sacraments he administers, it is God and Christ who acts through the instrumentality of the priest. An extended term, In persona Christi capitis, “in the person of Christ the head,” was introduced by the bishops of the Vatican Council II in the Decree on the Ministry and Live of Priests, Presbyterorum Ordinis, December 7, 1965.
The sacrament of holy orders in the Catholic Church includes three orders: bishops, priests, and deacons, in decreasing order of rank, collectively comprising the clergy. In the phrase "holy orders", the word "holy" means "set apart for a sacred purpose". The word "order" designates an established civil body or corporation with a hierarchy, and ordination means legal incorporation into an order. In context, therefore, a group with a hierarchical structure that is set apart for ministry in the Church.
The Blessing of the Throats is a sacramental of the Roman Catholic Church, ordinarily celebrated on February 3, the feast day of Saint Blaise of Sebaste. It is also celebrated in some of the Eastern Catholic Churches, and in parishes of the Anglican Communion on the same day as a commemoration.
The Lity or Litiyá is a festive religious procession, followed by intercessions, which augments great vespers in the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic churches on important feast days. Following a lity is another liturgical action, an artoklasia, and either of these terms may be used to describe both liturgical actions collectively.
Among Eastern Orthodox and Eastern-Rite Catholic Christians, holy water is blessed in the church and given to the faithful to drink at home when needed and to bless their homes. In the weeks following the Feast of Epiphany, clergy visit the homes of parishioners and conduct a service of blessing by using the holy water that was blessed on the Feast of Theophany. For baptism, the water is sanctified with a special blessing.
Blessed salt has been used in various forms throughout the history of Christianity. Among early Christians, the savoring of blessed salt often took place along with baptism. In the fourth century, Augustine of Hippo named these practices "visible forms of invisible grace". However, its modern use as a sacramental remains mostly limited to its use with holy water within the Anglican Communion and Roman Catholic Church.
