Blessing of icons

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Leon_Bloy

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Hi everybody…

I am a Latin Rite Catholic who sometimes attends the Byzantine liturgy that is in union with Rome. I had a couple of icons that were not blessed, so decided since they come from your tradition to ask the Byzantine rite priest to bless them (I thought there might be something “cool” that he would do). To my surprise, though, he blessed them with a very quick sign of the cross using ordinary water… is this the usual procedure? From a Latin Rite point of view, a priest making the sign of the cross over an object blesses it, so I’m not worried, but I am just wondering. Thanks!
 
The eastern teaching is that they are blessed by having an image of a saint on them. I have 2 icons, never blessed, but I count them as holy.
 
Thanks, John. I neglected to point out that (I am very aware of the background to all this, don’t worry, anybody!) that mine are not “real” icons (made by a real iconographer who fasts, prays, etc.), but just copies.
 
Lent is coming up and there is what we call “The Sunday of Orthodoxy” where icons are normally blessed as part of the Liturgy. You should attend the Divine Liturgy then and have your icons blessed then.

It is the First Sunday of Lent.
 
ConstantineTG said:
Lent is coming up and there is what we call “The Sunday of Orthodoxy” where icons are normally blessed as part of the Liturgy. You should attend the Divine Liturgy then and have your icons blessed then.

It is the First Sunday of Lent.
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Wow, cool! Do you know the actual date? (Not sure if Cheesefare Sunday counts as first one of Lent, etc.)
 
Leon_Bloy said:
To my surprise, though, he blessed them with a very quick sign of the cross using ordinary water… is this the usual procedure? From a Latin Rite point of view, a priest making the sign of the cross over an object blesses it, so I’m not worried, but I am just wondering. Thanks!
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Apparently there are different traditions. A quick sign of the cross and water isn’t one I’ve heard before. 🙂 I’m curious, what made you think it was “ordinary water”?

What I am familiar with is to simply lay the icon on the Holy Table/altar where it remains during the Divine Liturgy and is returned to the person afterwards. For some reason we also had an additional blessing after DL of an icon written by a member. Photo attached shows altar server holding the holy icon, deacon holding the prayer book, priest praying the blessing, altar server holding blessed water and sprinkling brush. That was one super blessed icon. 😉 I know from taking the class myself a previous year that the icons were all blessed on the final day of class by the priestmonk who was our teacher, plus it sat on the Holy Table during our DL before receiving these prayers and sprinkling. 😃
 
Leon_Bloy said:
Wow, cool! Do you know the actual date? (Not sure if Cheesefare Sunday counts as first one of Lent, etc.)
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No. Lent in the East starts 2 days before the RC Lent. So this will be the First Sunday after the RC Ash Wednesday. Lent starts the Monday after Cheesefare Sunday.

edit: Check to see which calendar the parish uses. If its Julian/Revised Julian, then it would be on a different date than the RC calendar for Lent this year as Easter will be different. I think this year they are one week later.
 
ConstantineTG said:
edit: Check to see which calendar the parish uses. If its Julian/Revised Julian, then it would be on a different date than the RC calendar for Lent this year as Easter will be different. I think this year they are one week later.
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Are there Eastern Catholic Churches who celebrate Pascha on the new calendar?

This year East and West are just a week apart. The new calendar date for Easter is April 8. In the old calendar it is April 15. Next year Pascha will be in May.
 
5Loaves said:
Are there Eastern Catholic Churches who celebrate Pascha on the new calendar?

This year East and West are just a week apart. The new calendar date for Easter is April 8. In the old calendar it is April 15. Next year Pascha will be in May.
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Depends on where you live and which branch you belong to.

Byzantine and Ruthenian Catholics in Slovakia, the USA and Canada will celebrate on April 8th.

Ukrainian Catholics in Ukriane will celebrate on April 15th.

Most Ukrainian Catholics in the USA will celebrate on April 8th.

hope this helps…
 
5Loaves said:
Are there Eastern Catholic Churches who celebrate Pascha on the new calendar?

This year East and West are just a week apart. The new calendar date for Easter is April 8. In the old calendar it is April 15. Next year Pascha will be in May.
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You know what, I don’t know. The last 2 Easters have been the same East and West. I’ve always assumed we are on the Gregorian Calendar.
 
Patchunky said:
Depends on where you live and which branch you belong to.

Byzantine and Ruthenian Catholics in Slovakia, the USA and Canada will celebrate on April 8th.

Ukrainian Catholics in Ukriane will celebrate on April 15th.

Most Ukrainian Catholics in the USA will celebrate on April 8th.

hope this helps…
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Interesting. I did assume all Eastern Catholics used the old calendar for Pascha. I wonder when those who use the new calendar for Pascha started to use the Latin Church dates rather than the Orthodox dates.
 
Leon_Bloy said:
Hi everybody…

I am a Latin Rite Catholic who sometimes attends the Byzantine liturgy that is in union with Rome. I had a couple of icons that were not blessed, so decided since they come from your tradition to ask the Byzantine rite priest to bless them (I thought there might be something “cool” that he would do). To my surprise, though, he blessed them with a very quick sign of the cross using ordinary water… is this the usual procedure? From a Latin Rite point of view, a priest making the sign of the cross over an object blesses it, so I’m not worried, but I am just wondering. Thanks!
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Byzantine Icons are two dimensional only. You will never see three dimensional statues. This is because they accept the inherit to our understanding limitation. Further, the Icons are not painted or drawn. They are written. And they must be written directly to be accurate. Further the icons are accurate only to express the faith as written and known. Meaning it’s not meant to look like Mary but written to reflect her faith and role in the Bible towards Jesus and our meaning from that written word. Byzantine icons also always show Jesus as an Adult in form, even if he is baby, he just looks like a tiny man, maybe with no hair. This again is written to reflect our faith in what is written on Jesus.

Mary will always be the icon to the left of the Holy doors in the center (if there is a screen), and Jesus will alway be the icon to the right, this represents the catholic belief in a New Adam and New Eve. This is similiar to where Mary and the Tabernacle are set up in a Roman Catholic Church, sometimes to the Left (Mary) and right (Jesus) of the main doors after you enter, and sometimes if there is a chapel they will face the entrance again left and right. The tabernacle will almost always be set up center or to the right of the altar/seat.

Mary is almost always written with Jesus in the Icons as this is her written role in the bible, even in the end she is there with her son. The far left Icon to the left of the Deacons door is a icon for Patron Saint for the Eastern Church (if they have a screen with icons), and to the far right near the other Deacon door, there is an icon of the Patron Saint whom the Church is named after.

In a true Byzantine church you will not have pews, but in churches outside of their home countries like in America which are open to all, there will be pews.

The main difference I see in Eastern versus Western, a way which I describe it to understand, is the the Eastern Church view does attempts to identify key theology and it is the same as Western, but they tend to not be as explicit. Thus we have two dimensional icons versus three dimensional statues.
 
5Loaves said:
Interesting. I did assume all Eastern Catholics used the old calendar for Pascha. I wonder when those who use the new calendar for Pascha started to use the Latin Church dates rather than the Orthodox dates.
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Not sure when it began but it does make sense that Good Friday be celebrated on a holiday rather than a regular work day so people can come to Church. Not sure about the US, but Good Friday is a public holiday here in Canada.
 
ConstantineTG said:
Not sure when it began but it does make sense that Good Friday be celebrated on a holiday rather than a regular work day so people can come to Church. Not sure about the US, but Good Friday is a public holiday here in Canada.
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It is a holiday in the US.
 
ConstantineTG said:
Not sure when it began but** it does make sense that Good Friday be celebrated on a holiday rather than a regular work day** so people can come to Church. Not sure about the US, but Good Friday is a public holiday here in Canada.
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:confused:
John_of_Patmos said:
It is a holiday in the US.
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I’m shocked it’s a holiday in Canada given the level of hostility there towards Christian culture we hear about.

It’s not a Federal holiday in the US nor in the state and county where I live. There are still provisions in some places which prohibit discrimination against workers who use personal leave time to take several hours off to attend services.

We can expect more and more erosion of any provisions that support the exercise of our faith.
Friday of Holy Week, when Western Christians commemorate the crucifixion and death of Jesus. Good Friday is a holiday in some individual counties and municipalities, as well as a state holiday in Connecticut,[10] Delaware,[11] Florida,[12] Hawaii,[13] Indiana,[14] Kentucky,[15] Louisiana,[16] New Jersey,[17] North Carolina,[18] North Dakota,[19] Tennessee[20] and Texas.[21] State and local government offices and courts are closed, as well as some banks and postal offices in these states, and in those counties and municipalities where
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We’re on the Julian Calendar for Pascha so it doesn’t make any difference for me. 🙂
 
5Loaves said:
:confused:

I’m shocked it’s a holiday in Canada given the level of hostility there towards Christian culture we hear about.

It’s not a Federal holiday in the US nor in the state and county where I live. There are still provisions in some places which prohibit discrimination against workers who use personal leave time to take several hours off to attend services.

We can expect more and more erosion of any provisions that support the exercise of our faith.

We’re on the Julian Calendar for Pascha so it doesn’t make any difference for me. 🙂
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I believe Good Friday and Eastern Monday are grandfathered in Canada, that is why it continues to be a national holiday. Although Eastern Monday is only observed by government institutions and banks. Its optional for private businesses.
 
5Loaves said:
Apparently there are different traditions. A quick sign of the cross and water isn’t one I’ve heard before. 🙂 I’m curious, what made you think it was “ordinary water”?
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Well, I didn’t want to say, but he used water from the tap (as it was flowing from it) :o
 
ConstantineTG said:
I believe Good Friday and Eastern Monday are grandfathered in Canada, that is why it continues to be a national holiday. Although Eastern Monday is only observed by government institutions and banks. Its optional for private businesses.
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You know I’m an Eastern Catholic when I keep misspelling “Easter” as “Eastern” 😉
 
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