Blessings to non-communicants

[Lapey]

I am an EMHC in my own parish. I would caution others in peremptorily answering someone who has returned to the church in a manner that may be well-meaning but discouraging in phraseology or nuance. I was also a lay minister many years ago, and from then till now we have been told to bless non-communicants. The Sacrament is a visible sign of God’s grace at work, and God can work through anyone or anything, even through stones if He wished. I have never been forbidden by any parish priest whatever church I have served in to bless non-communicants, but rather the reverse.

To answer your original question, sir, there are many different forms and none written in stone. Try May the Lord bless you and keep you. That’s easy enough to remember.

Good post…as a lay minister before ordination we were instructed by the pastor to just make a motion over the persons head, not touching, and simply say, “May God bless you”.

It is not in the rubrics to do this and it is taking liberties, the problem comes in where something is abruptly changed without teaching and catechesis. I have seen teens leave the EMHC in tears because all of a sudden they are ignored if they go up with their arms crossed, which we the Church taught them to do. One girl, about 16 a convert of about 2 years, basically was embarrassed in the front of the entire congregation because she waited for a blessing with her arms crossed for quite a while, and the EMHC insisted that she take the Eucharist and wouldn’t put the host back into the ciborium and confer a blessing. She left the Church in tears of humiliation. There are much more charitable ways of teaching than humiliation, just a thought.

Not saying we did right by teaching them this, but no matter what, we taught them; now its time to reverse this and teach them the proper way.

This is called pastoral care. The parish pastor is the responsible person for his flock. He is held accountable for each and every soul in his care. Please consult your priest before going on your own mission to “fix” the church. Your pastor is not the enemy; he is the pastor of souls, including our soul. If these type things are not handled properly we can do more harm than good.

Peace,
Deacon Gary

 

[Lapey]

I hope people won’t be dredging up my posts from years ago. This was a dead thread. Just let this one die.
This topic has been thoroghly discussed in more recent threads.

Thanks for mentioning this. I didn’t realize this was a 4 year old thread.

 

[benedictgal]

Good post…as a lay minister before ordination we were instructed by the pastor to just make a motion over the persons head, not touching, and simply say, “May God bless you”.

It is not in the rubrics to do this and it is taking liberties, the problem comes in where something is abruptly changed without teaching and catechesis. I have seen teens leave the EMHC in tears because all of a sudden they are ignored if they go up with their arms crossed, which we the Church taught them to do. One girl, about 16 a convert of about 2 years, basically was embarrassed in the front of the entire congregation because she waited for a blessing with her arms crossed for quite a while, and the EMHC insisted that she take the Eucharist and wouldn’t put the host back into the ciborium and confer a blessing. She left the Church in tears of humiliation. There are much more charitable ways of teaching than humiliation, just a thought.

Not saying we did right by teaching them this, but no matter what, we taught them; now its time to reverse this and teach them the proper way.

This is called pastoral care. The parish pastor is the responsible person for his flock. He is held accountable for each and every soul in his care. Please consult your priest before going on your own mission to “fix” the church. Your pastor is not the enemy; he is the pastor of souls, including our soul. If these type things are not handled properly we can do more harm than good.

Peace,
Deacon Gary

However, I believe that it is most uncharitable to pass something off as legitimate and mislead the faithful. With all due respect, I have seen the word “pastoral” thrown out so many times in cases that wind up promoting liturgical abuse. We do more harm than good promoting something that is ilicit.

Please, also, note what the Holy See wrote back on November 22, 2008:

1. The liturgical blessing of the Holy Mass is properly given to each and to all at the conclusion of the Mass, just a few moments subsequent to the distribution of Holy Communion.

1. Lay people, within the context of Holy Mass, are unable to confer blessings. These blessings, rather, are the competence of the priest (cf. Ecclesia de Mysterio, Notitiae 34 (15 Aug. 1997), art. 6, § 2; Canon 1169, § 2; and Roman Ritual De Benedictionibus (1985), n. 18).

1. Furthermore, the laying on of a hand or hands — which has its own sacramental significance, inappropriate here — by those distributing Holy Communion, in substitution for its reception, is to be explicitly discouraged.

1. The Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio n. 84, “forbids any pastor, for whatever reason to pretext even of a pastoral nature, to perform ceremonies of any kind for divorced people who remarry”. To be feared is that any form of blessing in substitution for communion would give the impression that the divorced and remarried have been returned, in some sense, to the status of Catholics in good standing.

1. In a similar way, for others who are not to be admitted to Holy Communion in accord with the norm of law, the Church’s discipline has already made clear that they should not approach Holy Communion nor receive a blessing. This would include non-Catholics and those envisaged in can. 915 (i.e., those under the penalty of excommunication or interdict, and others who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin).

While some will argue that this does not make new liturgical law, the letter refers to liturgical law already in place. We do not have the right to imbed and insert “quasi” liturgical practices on our own initiative in order to be “pastoral”. Sacrosancum Concilium and Redemptionis Sacramentum make that perfectly clear.

 

[benedictgal]

PS. A blessing from a bishop or a deacon confers the same grace as the blessing from the priest.

However, within the context of the Mass, the one who imparts the blessings is the celebrant, be he a bishop or a priest.

 

[zab]

…Not saying we did right by teaching them this, but no matter what, we taught them; now its time to reverse this and teach them the proper way…
Peace,
Deacon Gary

I agree.