Can a lay person bless a candle?

[MockSock]

OK, bit of a stupid question but can lay people bless candles?

On Sunday I will light a candle but I don’t have any that have been blessed. Is there some way I can bless it or a prayer I can say over it?

 

[Irishmom2]

Why do you think it needs to be blessed to use it?
And no, you cannot bless something yourself.

 

[MockSock]

No I was pretty sure you couldn’t, just thought I’d ask.

I don’t think it needs to be blessed. I just think it would be nice if it was.

 

[Sirach2]

Yes you can bless a candle. Father Alar, MIC, gave this instruction recently on the Divine Mercy website:

With the situation in various places and dioceses, if you are not able to have a priest bless it, “the Church allows you to invoke a blessing yourself . The Catechism of the Catholic Church [in 1669] teaches that lay people, on account of their baptismal priesthood, may administer certain blessings.”

He instructs: “While making the Sign of the Cross over the object say, ‘O Lord I seek your blessing upon this [candle], in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.’”

It would help if you had some holy water, too, but I don’t think it is required.

 

[MockSock]

The Catechism of the Catholic Church [in 1669]

Does that still apply today?

 

[phil19034]

Yes you can bless a candle. Father Alar, MIC, gave this instruction recently on the Divine Mercy website:

With the situation in various places and dioceses, if you are not able to have a priest bless it, “the Church allows you to invoke a blessing yourself . The Catechism of the Catholic Church [in 1669] teaches that lay people, on account of their baptismal priesthood, may administer certain blessings.”

He instructs: “While making the Sign of the Cross over the object say, ‘O Lord I seek your blessing upon this [candle], in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.’”

It would help if you had some holy water, too, but I don’t think it is required.

Yes, but that’s not the layperson Blessing the Candle him/herself. That’s the layperson asking God to bless the candle.

A priest can bless a candle himself, in persona Christi.

In other words, a priest can say “I bless this candle.” A layperson cannot.

I just want to provide a little clarification here.

Thanks

 

[phil19034]

Sirach2:

The Catechism of the Catholic Church [in 1669]

Does that still apply today?

Yes. The Catechism of the Catholic Church by St. John Paul II does NOT replace other official Catechisms.

It supplements or addresses things that previous Catechisms did not address. But no previous Catechisms are ever considered invalid. If they were, that would be a sign of heresy in the Church.

 

[Margaret_Ann]

NO. (10 char)

 

[Margaret_Ann]

In my UGCC parish, Father always blesses the candles on the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord.

 

[Sirach2]

Does that still apply today?

When I posted [in 1669] that was the actual article in the CCC, not the year. LOL!

 

[Sirach2]

Yes, but that’s not the layperson Blessing the Candle him/herself. That’s the layperson asking God to bless the candle.

You must have misread my reply. I bolded the sentence, "the Church allows you to INVOKE a blessing yourself, invoking the Lord. It did not mean that oneself could ask for the blessing in his own name, but in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Also, the third paragraph where I mentioned, “O Lord, I seek your blessing …”

 

[po18guy]

IIRC, the priest can impart an Apostolic blessing, whereas we can only petition to the Lord to bless the candle.

 

[Sirach2]

NO. (10 char)

I hope you’re not misleading others. It is a valid practice, as I quoted above. Do you use the blessing on Epiphany over your door with blessed chalk? Do you believe it is a valid blessing, even though not done by a priest?

 

[phil19034]

phil19034:

Yes, but that’s not the layperson Blessing the Candle him/herself. That’s the layperson asking God to bless the candle.

You must have misread my reply. I bolded the sentence, "the Church allows you to INVOKE a blessing yourself, invoking the Lord. It did not mean that oneself could ask for the blessing in his own name, but in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Also, the third paragraph where I mentioned, “O Lord, I seek your blessing …”

that’s why I wrote: “I just want to provide a little clarification here.”

 

[MockSock]

Ah . Maybe I should have looked that up first.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

MockSock:

Sirach2:

The Catechism of the Catholic Church [in 1669]

Does that still apply today?

Yes. The Catechism of the Catholic Church by St. John Paul II does NOT replace other official Catechisms.

It supplements or addresses things that previous Catechisms did not address. But no previous Catechisms are ever considered invalid. If they were, that would be a sign of heresy in the Church.

THANK YOU for bringing this out, even though the “1669” reference, as it turned out, referred to a paragraph number and not the year. I was furrowing my brow and saying to myself “1669? What catechism is that? Never heard of that one before. Just a hundred years after Trent?”

I become concerned sometimes at what I call “recentism” — the tendency by some to regard what has been taught or practiced most recently, as being the only thing that is even worthy of consideration. It is also “the Church began in 1962” syndrome, as though John XXIII were the first pope and Vatican II was the first and only council. Noboby explicitly thinks this, but I have seen too much of it, just to dismiss it. Actually, as a practical matter, John Paul II is the first Pope your average Catholic gives any consideration to. Anyone under the age of 50 was only 8 years old when Paul VI died.

 

[C.Ray]

that’s not the layperson Blessing the Candle him/herself. That’s the layperson asking God to bless the candle.

A priest can bless a candle himself, in persona Christi.

Is there a functional difference?

 

[Margaret_Ann]

Do you use the blessing on Epiphany over your door with blessed chalk? Do you believe it is a valid blessing, even though not done by a priest?

In the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church the priest comes to parishioners’ homes and blesses them. We don’t use blessed chalk.

 

[Sirach2]

In the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church the priest comes to parishioners’ homes and blesses them.

I am not familiar with your rite, but in the Roman rite, that is no longer possible for a pastor to bless that many homes. Our church has baskets on the altar with blessed chalk, small bottles of holy water, and the printed prayer. It is a very good practice in the absence of available priests. To be honest, our local priesthood is so devoid of pastors, that one priest in our area must pastor four large parishes alone.

You may have seriously misled some folks by saying they cannot invoke God’s blessing on an article. I quoted not only from the Catechism, but also from a priest who was speaking about our ability to bless the Divine Mercy image before we place it on our front doors. Perfectly lawful.

 

[Margaret_Ann]

The only blessing i know of that laymen can do is that parents can bless their children.

True trivia tidbit: During the time of the apparitions, people were giving a laywoman their rosaries, crosses etc to be blessed and the woman asked St. Francisco of Fatima if he wanted to bless them too. He forcefully replied that he could not do that and neither should she. “Only priests can do that.” The people heard his words, got angry with the woman, and started taking back their rosaries, crosses etc. (I’m doing this from memory but the source is the memoirs of +Sister Lucia.)

I’m not familiar with modern RC practice.