Baptism Favors/Bomboniere

[zizki1974]

To bless or not to bless…

We’re having our daughter Baptised this month. We are having a dinner party afterwards to celebrate and are sending our guests home with favors/bomboniere. For our first boys we gave pewter Noah’s Ark piggybanks and a small statue of a praying boy.

With our ever growning Faith, we want these favors to mean something more - for our daughter we’re giving St. Anne medals with St. Anne prayercards tied to a box of chocolates or candies. (Anne being part of her Baptismal name).

The question - would it be appropriate to ask our Priest to bless the medals and if so, what would be a suitable way to let everyone at the party know that they are blessed and the importance of caring for blessed items. Any ideas?

 

[Mary_Gail_36]

Hmm, not sure, I guess it depends on your guests.

Would they all understand the importance of blessed items…or do you think a percentage of the guests might discard them?

BTW are you Italian American…since you referred to them as bomboniere? I am, so the concept of bomboniere is very familiar to me.

God bless your baby and family.

 

[zizki1974]

Hmm, not sure, I guess it depends on your guests.

Would they all understand the importance of blessed items…or do you think a percentage of the guests might discard them?

BTW are you Italian American…since you referred to them as bomboniere? I am, so the concept of bomboniere is very familiar to me.

God bless your baby and family.

Thank you for your kind words!

Yes - that is my fear that unless I mention that they’ve been blessed, and the importance of blessings, that some medals might be discarded carelessly.

I’m from Canada, with Slovenian heritage (neighboring Italy) so the term bomboniere is familiar to me. I used the term because I’m not sure how common it is to give favors to guests here in North America. I know it’s common at weddings, but some people don’t celebrate a Baptism in the same way. In our family, the Sacraments of Initiation are celebrated just as a wedding would be - as they should!

Cheers,
Alan

 

[maryjk]

I guess I would say something like, “the Saint Anne medals are already blessed, of course. Let me know if you need more information about that.”

That way the people that attend Mass 4 times a week, have thousands of blessed items will know that the medals don’t need blessed, and the people that have no idea what you are talking about, will ask you what it means. I am guessing you know who that second group will be, maybe you would want to go up to them and offer more information.