How to get icons blessed?

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michaelnrdx

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I am not affiliated with any denomination, but I have two icons (Jesus and the Mother of Perpetual Help) that I would like to get blessed. These aren’t authentic icons, but rather painted copies done by a local street artist. Anyway, I would like to get them blessed by an Orthodox rite, since icons are from that tradition. However, knowing nothing about Orthodoxy, I have no idea how to go about this and avoid doing something disrespectful.

A few questions…
  1. How/when should I ask the priest to bless them? Before/after Divine Liturgy? Can icons be blessed on any day? (I’ve read that there is a specific day for blessing icons, but I’d like to know if I can request a blessing outside of that day as well.)
  2. What is the ritual like?
  3. How should I handle/show respect to the icon after it is blessed? I’d hate to offend anyone if I just wrapped them in a cloth and put them in a box to take home.
I intend to find a place at home where I can hang on the wall and display them.
 
You can approach the priest to bless them at any time. Or better yet come to Liturgy on the first Sunday of Lent, the Sunday of Orthodoxy when icons are blessed. Some would even place the icons on the altar table during a Liturgy and by its mere presence on the table blesses it.

Further, in Eastern tradition, the mere use of icons blesses it. So if you have icons and you pray to God using the icons, the icons are blessed.
 
Glory to Jesus Christ!

One method for blessing icons is for the priest to place the icon on the Holy Table for 40 days. This is how all the icons that my family have in stewardship were blessed.

Fr. Deacon Robert
 
I remember the first time I asked to get my diptych blessed, Father Steve took it an put it on the Holy Table in the Altar and after Liturgy he handed it to me and said “voila!” It was a blessing seeing my diptych on the Altar Table.👍
 
The best time really is the First Sunday of Lent. It is a feast about icons. Its like you can get holy water any time of the year, but the best time is Theophany.
 
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