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Jack007
Guest
Are there any sacramentals that the laity can bless? What prayers are to be said then?
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Corki
Guest
As far as I know, the laity are only allowed to bless people. Even then, it’s very limited. Parents can bless their children and catechists can bless their students. Those are the only two I have ever heard of.
IIRC, sacramentals and other objects reserved for a holy purpose require at least a deacon, generally speaking. I think laity are able to bless non-sacred objects for daily use (e.g. cars, harvests, etc.)
I’m not really a fan of the current Book of Blessings though.
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friardchips
Guest
People say bless you all the time so not that limited. In fact, there is a beautiful psalm that reads: ‘O Come bless, the Lord, All you who serve the Lord., Who stand in the House of the Lord, In the Courts of the House of our God…’
If I am to say “bless you”, or “God bless”, I am not doing it in the way the majority do it for a sneeze, although I don’t have a problem with that, I actually mean “God bless you”. So, I’d argue, not that limited.
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twf
Guest
This is not the same thing. To bless an object or person one must have the authority to do so. You do not have spiritual authority over other people unless you are a priest or a parent blessing your children. When we say “God bless” or “God bless you” we are ASKING God to bless the individual, rather than conferring a blessing. This is an important distinction.
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Windmill
Guest
Deacons or above.
That having been said, if one looks at the De Benedictionibus (Book of Blessings), one is hard-pressed to see a deacon/priest/bishop actually blessing the object. They usually ask God to bless the person using the object, not the object itself. While subtle, it does represent a change in the approach to sacramentals.
That having been said, if one looks at the De Benedictionibus (Book of Blessings), one is hard-pressed to see a deacon/priest/bishop actually blessing the object. They usually ask God to bless the person using the object, not the object itself. While subtle, it does represent a change in the approach to sacramentals.
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friardchips
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I misunderstood. Sorry. Thank you. So a priest blesses and it will be a blessing. We can say “bless you”, but because we have not been ordained, it might not be a blessing, because God might not automatically issue it. Is that what you mean - a priest’s blessing is automatic guarantee of a blessing but ours is not guaranteed because we are in effect only asking?
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FrDavid96
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And that’s a mistake. One that the Holy See admits.
A DECREE FOR THE CITY AND THE WORLD
On always making use of the sign of the holy Cross in blessings
Since, from the established usage, the liturgical custom has always been in force that in the rites of blessing the sign of the cross is employed by being traced by the celebrant with the right hand over the persons or things for whom mercy is implored, this Congregation for divine worship and the discipline of the sacraments, in order to dispel any doubts, has established that, even if the text of the part of the Roman ritual entitled “The Book of Blessings” remains silent about the sign itself or lacks an express mention of the appropriate time for this action, nevertheless the sacred ministers should adopt the aforementioned sign of the cross as necessary when carrying out any blessing.
Without a mention, however, the appropriate time should be regarded as when the text of the blessing uses the words blessing, to bless, or similar or, lacking these words, when the prayer of blessing itself is concluded.
Anything to the contrary not withstanding.
From the office of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, on 14 September, 2002, the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
GEORGE A. card. MEDINA ESTEVEZ, Prefect
✠ Francesco Pio Tamburrino
archbishop Secretary
notitiae.ipsissima-verba.org/pdf/aas-2002-684-684.pdf
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Neofight
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I know it wasn’t meant that way, but this statement just sounded odd…like telling a Deacon…“Well, you’re only a Deacon” instead of acknowledging the sanctity of his ordination.
Priests and Deacons are our brothers, not our superiors.
The last will be first, and the first will be last, he told us.
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Jack007
Guest
So laity cant bless rosaries,scapulars,water,etc?
And can someone give a link to de benedictionibus?
And can someone give a link to de benedictionibus?
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Bookcat
Guest
no.
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FrDavid96
Guest
No. They cannot.
I don’t think there’s a link to the Book of Blessings. Many people have asked for one over the years, and so far, no one has found one. It’s probably not available because of copyright issues.
It’s mentioned (briefly) in canon law though.
Can. 1169 §1. Those marked with the episcopal character and presbyters permitted by law or legitimate grant can perform consecrations and dedications validly.
§2. Any presbyter can impart blessings except those reserved to the Roman Pontiff or bishops.
§3. A deacon can impart only those blessings expressly permitted by law.
There is no 4.
vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P48.HTM
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friardchips
Guest
vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p2s2c4a1.htm
‘The characteristics of sacramentals *
*
1668 Sacramentals are instituted for the sanctification of certain ministries of the Church, certain states of life, a great variety of circumstances in Christian life, and the use of many things helpful to man. In accordance with bishops’ pastoral decisions, they can also respond to the needs, culture, and special history of the Christian people of a particular region or time. They always include a prayer, often accompanied by a specific sign, such as the laying on of hands, the sign of the cross, or the sprinkling of holy water (which recalls Baptism). *
1669 Sacramentals derive from the baptismal priesthood:* every baptized person is called to be a “blessing,” and to bless.174 Hence lay people may preside at certain blessings]; *the more a blessing concerns ecclesial and sacramental life, the more is its administration reserved to the ordained ministry (bishops, priests, or deacons).175 *
1670** Sacramentals do not confer the grace of the Holy Spirit in the way that the sacraments do, but by the Church’s prayer**, they prepare us to receive grace and dispose us to cooperate with it. "For well-disposed members of the faithful, the liturgy of the sacraments and sacramentals sanctifies almost every event of their lives with the divine grace which flows from the Paschal mystery of the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ. From this source all sacraments and sacramentals draw their power. There is scarcely any proper use of material things which cannot be thus directed toward the sanctification of men and the praise of God."176’
This article looks as if it could be indicating that when I bless a person, I am not in fact asking God to bless the person, but rather co-operating with the grace already given to me at my baptism with faith that God will bless the person, although it states that it is not conferring as in the Sacraments. If ‘asking God’ for, is the same as ‘co-operating with’, grace already given, then fine (I am only enquiring btw, not forming an argument).
**
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Windmill
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It may sound odd, but it is, in fact, true. The priesthood and episcopacy are higher degrees of ordination. It has nothing to do with inherent sanctity of the man, but rather the fullness of ordination. Of course there is sanctity in each degree, but within the realm of Holy Orders, there are degrees.
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Jack007
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Thank you.
,
1669 Sacramentals derive from the baptismal priesthood:** every baptized person is called to be a “blessing,” and to bless.174 Hence lay people may preside at certain blessings.
What blessings can the laity give then? Other than grace before meals and paren5s blessing children, of course.
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friardchips
Guest
Blessing people (and maybe animals) - this is what I am asking. If you say “Bless you”, am I asking God to bless them or am I co-operating with the grace given to me at my Baptism to bless them? Or does ‘co-operating’ mean to be ‘asking’ God, via the Holy Spirit within? Doesn’t being baptised and a practising Catholic mean that over someone unbaptized or lapsed from their faith I have ‘authority’ granted to me by the very fact the Holy Spirit is in me and therefore I am co-operating in a different way that is ‘asking’? It is a baptism of priesthood because to be baptised is a baptism of priesthood in the spiritual understanding. I would have thought, though I am most certainly going to turn out to be wrong which is why I am not arguing but enquiring, that co-operation is more ‘praising’ God - so when I say “Bless you”, I am in invoking the name of God on that person’s soul. I can see how it could still be ‘asking’ in a way though, just want to be certain of what the CCC quotes meant in my previous post.
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friardchips
Guest
I’d go further and say that one can bless another with one’s presence if one has the Holy Spirit inside and one is fairly in-tune because it is God doing the blessing from within your heart and soul. This is why a person could bless me with something they say or do or merely being in my presence and yet that person may not know they made any difference to my life at all because it was the Holy Spirit in that person doing the blessing! I do take the fact that I can’t bless with my own power but then I don’t think priests have their ‘own’ power either. I think a priest has a special authority given to him whom God’s power is channelled through. This understanding then explains why Saints can bless when not even priests. This only works if we attribute all ‘power’ as belonging to God. When people say they have the power to do something, I think not, rather God works power through them. So when I say “bless you”, maybe I am ‘asking’, or maybe God has opened a channel through my Baptism which a baptised person, as an instrument of God, is then open for God to bless people through. The priest only has authority for certain blessings in which God works His power through - to ‘confer’. This is a question, by the way, I am just reasoning.
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Jamma
Guest
I am Jack007
Now, it is up to FrDavid to answer our questions, friardchips.
Now, it is up to FrDavid to answer our questions, friardchips.
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FrDavid96
Guest
In the English language, we don’t have an adequate vocabulary. The words “blessing” or “to bless” can have many different meanings.
For example, there are many scripture passages which speak of “blessing God.” Abraham blessed God. The psalms (and the Canticle of Daniel and the Canticle of Zacheriah, etc.) say to Bless God or Bless the Lord. None of these uses mean that a human being should make God holy. Of course not, He’s holy no matter what we do. Yet, we can “bless God.” In this sense: in the sense that we speak the Divine Praises “Blessed be God. Blessed be His Holy Name…” Can we do this? Absolutely yes. Do we make God any more holy than before? Of course not.
That’s one sense of the word “bless.”
Another sense is to invoke God. To “call Him down” (a typical and legitimate phrase, but often misused in some settings to connote some kind of magic). For example a simple “May God bless you” or “God be with ye” which becomes “Goodbye” or even something like “May God’s peace be upon this house” or “Bless us O Lord and these Thy gifts…” These are what are known as invocative blessings; because we invoke God. We ask for His presence or grace. Again, can we do this? Again, yes, certainly.
The next sense is to make a person or thing holy, or to dedicate a person or thing for some holy purpose. These are constitutive blessings. In order to do this, one must be ordained. When a thing is blessed with a constitutive blessing, it is now a “holy thing” and must be treated as such. These vary by degree. A chalice is blessed (in the older form, it was consecrated which is a higher level of blessing) and from that moment it must be used for no other purpose. Water is also blessed, and as everyone knows, we call it “Holy Water.”
Here’s the distinction:
When something is blessed by an invocative blessing, although we have invoked God, the object (or even person) is not permanently changed by that. On the other hand, a constitutive blessing does change it.
Here’s a good way to illustrate the point.
Grace before meals is an invocative blessing. We pray “Bless us O Lord and these Thy gifts…” There’s a glass of water on the table. After the meal, half the water is left unconsumed (or should we say “only half the water is consumed”?
). What do we do? We simply pour it down the sink without another thought. If the scraps from the table go into the trash can, we don’t have any problem with this. The prayer “Bless us O Lord…” does not make the glass of water into Holy Water.Contrast that with a constitutive blessing. If the priest blesses water to provide Holy Water, we treat it with respect. We don’t just discard the water anywhere. If algae forms in Holy Water, we dispose of it in an appropriate way, but would never simply throw it into a trash can. If one buys a scented candle at the store but doesn’t like the smell, it can be thrown in the trash. But if a candle is blessed by a priest on Candlemas Day, it’s treated with respect.
Constitutive blessings make an object a sacramental. As such, the ministry of the Church is necessary for these blessings. One must be able to act with the authority of the Church to perform a constitutive blessing. Only a cleric can preside at a constitutive blessing.
When Vatican II (and later, the Catechism) speaks about every Christian “being a blessing and called to bless.” That does not mean that anyone can perform constitutive blessings (which is exactly how it’s been misunderstood). Instead it means that everyone can invoke God’s blessing. That’s nothing new.
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