I got fruit blessed. There’s a fruit and herbs blessing (and grain, too, if you want) on Assumption Day that came out of Germany, but I guess it came out the part of Germany that most folks around here didn’t! It’s also a big thing in Armenia, where it coincides with the grape harvest and they mostly bless grapes. In Germany, it often ties in with the barley harvest. The Catholic blessing asks for the “natural powers” of the fruit and herbs to be enhanced, and for them to help with sickness and various kinds of adversity. So you can see why I found it of interest.
My mom hadn’t heard of it, the priest hadn’t heard of it, but it is cool and I got it done. (Downloaded the blessing prayer from Catholic parishes on the Internet, yay! Of course, if you get a special blessing for stuff, you want to give the priest some stipend or stuff afterward. Because they would do it for nothing, but it’s not fair to have them do it for nothing. Of course, if you get the whole parish to do it at Mass, that’s even better.)
Sacramental fruit is cool! I got grapes, tomatoes, and bananas blessed. I forgot to get the cilantro in the basket. so no sacramental cilantro.
Next year, I’m thinking it would be cool to get coffee beans or grounds blessed. Sacramental coffee! Heck, sacramental tea! That would last longer. I do wish I’d had my own fruit and vegetables grown by me, but this has been an unlucky year for my garden.
Obviously there are more harvest blessings coming up later in the year, so anybody who is interested in eating sacramentals should look them up!
