Blessing at end of Mass question

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lufty

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Background: I am new to the Catholic Church, and am exploring RCIA. I have attended my 1st Mass, and RCIA meeting.

Question: Tonight I attended Mass at a Dominican Cathedral, which was somewhat different then the Mass I attended on last Saturday. After the Eucharist, and at the “end” of the Mass, members lined up and some kind of blessing was given by the Priests. The Blessing contained the touching of the cheeks with something, and the sign of the Cross. I was unsure if this was an acceptable function for me, as I am not yet Baptized, or Catholic yet (got some time and learning to go, with God’s grace). What was this Blessing?

Thanks,

God Bless

Enoch
 
I’m not sure what this blessing was that you have described. I knew a priest, now deceased, who had the gift of healing. He gave parish missions and at the end of his mission talk, he invited the people to come up to receive a special blessing. He blessed the people on the forehead with blessed oil and while holding a crucifix that contained a relic of the true cross and praying a certain prayer. The blessing had an effect on many people, a force that could actually be felt. I believe that priests must have the permission of the bishop to give blessings like this. This priest was stationed in California and had the permission of his bishop. At one point, he was not allowed by our Archbishop at that time to give this blessing publicly when giving his parish missons or visiting in our state. He obeyed.
 
It’s likely that it was some kind of Dominican saint feastday, and that they were blessing people with some kind of sacramental associated with the feastday. (Or possibly a relic in a reliquary.)

Anybody can receive a blessing from a sacramental or a relic, or just a plain old blessing. Blessings aren’t sacraments, so you don’t usually need to be baptized or anything else to receive them.

UPDATE: Unless connected to some kind of rite, like RCIA blessings just for RCIA members.

You’re right about Dominican Masses often being different – in fact, they have their own Dominican Rite that they can use if they want! A few other religious orders have this also, but usually use the Latin Rite Mass these days.
 
We did have some RCIA members called forward at the end of Mass this past weekend. So I don’t know if this was what you were refering to.
 
zab said:
We did have some RCIA members called forward at the end of Mass this past weekend. So I don’t know if this was what you were refering to.
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No, this was not an RCIA event that I know of. I attended the Mass on my own, and it was a Vigil Mass of the Immaculate Conception for December 7th.

Wonderful Cathedral, more Latin, a singing Gregorian almost version of Our Lords Prayer, which I liked allot.
I’ll go back tomorrow for mass at 5:30 for certain.

I just wonder what the blessing was.
 
If anyone was interested, I spoke to the Church via email, and the blessing for the St. Jude Mass is performed with a Relic of St. Jude at the end of each Mass.

Interesting!
 
Very interesting! If you go on the feast of St. Blaise, they might use crossed candles to bless throats at the end of Mass. Our priest is a very large man, and one year the deacon pulled out two giant outdated Easter candles to bless his throat before turning the the rest of us ordinary-sized folks with regular candles.
 
I don’t know about the touching on the cheek, but I do know that some parishes do a special blessing at the end of Mass for the lay ministers who are going to bring communion to the sick and shut ins.
 
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