Blessing objects--"sacramentals"

[ByzantineHeart]

I don’t suppose Byz Catholics (certainly not Orthodox) even use the term sacramental to describe prayer ropes and medals, etc. from my experience in Orthodoxy, I know they’re not big on blessing these objects. (A GOA priest told me “who am I to bless an icon of our Lord Jesus Christ? … The blessing of icons is a new thing, anyway.”). Icons, crosses, and prayer ropes it would seem are blessed by virtue of the images contained therein, and by our prayerful use of them.

So I now ask, having reverted to RC: should I continue that orthodox way of thinking and not bother having icons and neck crosses and medals blessed, because they already contain holy images? Is it appropriate to have a RC priest bless a prayer rope? (Assuming they even know what it is.) or is it better to follow the Orthodox way of assuming “it’s blessed from the moment it’s made, all is good.”? Hope this makes sense.

 

[Zabdi_Premjit]

I don’t suppose Byz Catholics (certainly not Orthodox) even use the term sacramental to describe prayer ropes and medals, etc. from my experience in Orthodoxy, I know they’re not big on blessing these objects. (A GOA priest told me “who am I to bless an icon of our Lord Jesus Christ? … The blessing of icons is a new thing, anyway.”). Icons, crosses, and prayer ropes it would seem are blessed by virtue of the images contained therein, and by our prayerful use of them.

So I now ask, having reverted to RC: should I continue that orthodox way of thinking and not bother having icons and neck crosses and medals blessed, because they already contain holy images? Is it appropriate to have a RC priest bless a prayer rope? (Assuming they even know what it is.) or is it better to follow the Orthodox way of assuming “it’s blessed from the moment it’s made, all is good.”? Hope this makes sense.

The claim that the blessing of icons is a relatively new custom (of only a few centuries old) certainly exists and seems to have merit. Certainly an icon is blessed from its creation, being a window into heaven and having been created with much prayer. However, the practice of blessing icons is still commonplace and most priests would not refuse to bless one. After all, how can more blessing hurt? At worst it doesn’t add anything, but it certainly doesn’t take anything away.

I also think baptismal crosses are blessed too, though I am not sure. I haven’t personally seen a prayer rope blessed, but have anecdotally heard of it being done online.

My point is that the statements made by that GOA priest does not reflect a universal view among Christians of Byzantine-rite tradition. I don’t think it is necessarily more appropriate to bless or not bless your prayer rope, objectively speaking. If you feel moved to do so, I’d say go ahead. Why not? Can’t hurt.