Children "blessing" others as priests do?

[catechizeme]

Is it appropriate lay people to extend their hands over someone in blessing and then “bless” that person as a priest would (making the sign of the cross over that person). At our school the other day the teacher asked all the kids in school to extend their hands over our graduates, she read a prayer/blessing, then she and everyone else made the sign of the cross over the kids as a priest would who was bestowing a blessing.

Is there any documentation that clarifies whether either of these actions (extending hands / blessing ) is acceptable or not? At the very least, it seems it would confuse kids on what a priest versus a lay person can do, but I can’t find any church documentation that talks about this.

 

[puzzleannie]

no that is not what they are doing, they are blessing as lay people do, by definition. There are prescribed times in rites of the Church-RCIA and baptism come to mind–when lay people bless others with the sign of the cross, and there are blessings in the book of blessings which invite the laity to join in, including of course parents blessing children. When lay people bless they are asking Jesus to bless and the wording of the prayer indicates this. When priests bless, standing as they are in the person of Christ, Christ himself blesses. The different closings of the LOTH reflect this.

 

[Bookcat]

no that is not what they are doing, they are blessing as lay people do, by definition. There are prescribed times in rites of the Church-RCIA and baptism come to mind–when lay people bless others with the sign of the cross, and there are blessings in the book of blessings which invite the laity to join in, including of course parents blessing children. When lay people bless they are asking Jesus to bless and the wording of the prayer indicates this. When priests bless, standing as they are in the person of Christ, Christ himself blesses. The different closings of the LOTH reflect this.

While I certainly hold that a Christian can bless (due to his baptism)…and that it is possible for him to say make the sign of the cross over his Children etc in life…

In the official blessings that Lay Persons can pray from the official book of Blessings and the LOTH …in the rubrics the lay person does not make the sign of the cross over anyone else…but upon themselves. (And their hands are folded during the prayer as I recall in the book of blessings).

So it would seem that in the situation described …(if such can be done) they would do well to look more to the form that Church gives for formal blessings by lay persons…and to avoid confusion between the blessing of a lay person the blessing a Bishop, Priest or Deacon gives.

Again that does not mean that in other blessings one can not make the sign of the cross over someone (like ones kids…though often this is done via tracing the sign on the forehead)…but certainly confusion should be avoided…

 

[paperwight66]

I would guess that it was the teacher’s way of getting all the kids to pay attention and think what they were doing. A kind of acting-out their prayers for the other kids, to make sure they all participated and didn’t just stand gawping at something or playing with their hair or poking at each other.