Can anyone give me an apologetic for blessed objects?

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Philomena

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I’m teaching a young teen class and they are asking for ways to explain to their non cath friends about blessed objects.
 
Hi Philomena,

A blessing is a prayer to God, through and in the name of Jesus, that a person or an object will be used by God to do good according to His will, and to give greater glory to Him.

Blessing an object shows two things:
  1. that we acknowledge that all things come from almighty God who created them,
  2. that the best use of anything God has made is to serve Him and give Him glory and honor.
That’s why we bless things.

Grace to you,
Paul
 
Holy Water, which is used in blessing, was carried over from Judaism.

See Numbers 5:16

JMJ Jay
 
Something which is dedicated to God and set aside in a special way for use by Him.
 
speaking of - (and let me know if i’m hijacking your thread - i’ll start a new one. this just seemed like a logical place to put this) - i heard ivan, from medjugorje, tonight. he was one of the young people who started seeing marian apparitions (according to him) in 1981, and still sees her today. he saw her at our church tonight. according to ivan, she blessed everyone present and anything we brought with us to be blessed. my friend had on a scapular, which got blessed, and which he subsequently gave me.

so what do you all think about that? i have, according to ivan, a scapular that’s been blessed by the blessed virgin, our Lady, herself!
 
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PaulDupre:
Hi Philomena,

A blessing is a prayer to God, through and in the name of Jesus, that a person or an object will be used by God to do good according to His will, and to give greater glory to Him.

Blessing an object shows two things:
  1. that we acknowledge that all things come from almighty God who created them,
  2. that the best use of anything God has made is to serve Him and give Him glory and honor.
That’s why we bless things.

Grace to you,
Paul
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In my opinion, this is a great apologetic. But why is it important for a priest to bless an object? Obviously if I were to pray over a rosary asking for God’s blessing this would be a great and holy thing, but why as a Catholic is it so cool for a priest in particular to do the blessing? This question isn’t me trying to be all argumentative but asking completely out of curiosity.
 
Why should a Priest bless objects or people?
  1. A priest has been ordained by a Bishop and is a Priest of Jesus Christ. ( Yes I know some will raise an eyebrow here) A Priest has the faculty of blessing.
  2. A Priest decides if an object is worthy of being bless. He would not bless objects of the occult. Ouigi Boards would not be blessed.
 
In acts 19:11-12, Paul sent out handkerchiefs and aprons that he had prayed over, and people were healed.

There are Pentecostals who will send prayer cloths to people for healing or special blessings.
 
Thanks to you all for posting! This was very helpful!

Peace,
Philomena
 
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kage_ar:
In acts 19:11-12, Paul sent out handkerchiefs and aprons that he had prayed over, and people were healed.

There are Pentecostals who will send prayer cloths to people for healing or special blessings.
Click to expand...
Here’s a good scripture reference regarding relics:

Elisha died and was buried. At the time, bands of Moabites used to raid the land each year. Once, some people were burying a man, when suddenly they spied such a raiding band. So they cast the dead man into the grave of Elisha, and everyone went off. But when the man came into contact with the bones of Elisha, he came back to life and rose to his feet.
(2 Kings 13:20-21, NAB).
 
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quintessential5:
In my opinion, this is a great apologetic. But why is it important for a priest to bless an object? Obviously if I were to pray over a rosary asking for God’s blessing this would be a great and holy thing, but why as a Catholic is it so cool for a priest in particular to do the blessing? This question isn’t me trying to be all argumentative but asking completely out of curiosity.
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Thanks for your kind words.

A priest once explained to me that it is perfectly good for you to bless the things that are within your sphere of stewardship (your home, your wife and children, your meals, your rosary, etc.). After all, you bear the common priesthood of the faithful (cf. CCC section 1547) and should use it freely within its proper sphere. People often defer to a priest for such a blessing because they may be unaware or insecure about their own responsibility and ability to bless.

But a priest has stewardship over those things that the Church uses as a community or in public worship. So the priest asks blessings on the altar, the bread and wine for the eucharist, and on people in a sacramental setting, and so forth.

BTW, what really blesses a rosary is your use of it. 😉

Grace to you,
Paul
 
Thank you, everyone. This has also been a minor question of mine, and this thread has been very insightful.
 
I would also go to the Scriptures. Peters Shadow, the cloth from St. Paul, the hem of Christ’s robe.
 
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