lay blessing

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brgregmack

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Is it kosher for the lay faithful to bless objects like medals???
 
No. Only priests and deacons have the authority through ordination to convey blessings at will. The laity may only ask God to bless, but there’s no certainty He will. The only exceptions I know of are holy water, blessed salts, and blessed oils. They “contain” the blessing of a priest and can be used by the laity to bless themselves.
 
So if I get a new medal, I could say a prayer like, “Eternal Father, I ask you to send your Holy Spirit bless this medal…”? … if I didn’t want to go to a priest or deacon??
 
You could, but apart from some kind of miracle occurring you would never be certain that it’s actually blessed.
 
unless a particular grace were asked for right??? such as asking that by wearing the medal I gain the intercession of a saint for say… avoiding error???
 
brgregmack said:
So if I get a new medal, I could say a prayer like, “Eternal Father, I ask you to send your Holy Spirit bless this medal…”? … if I didn’t want to go to a priest or deacon??
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Of course it would be fine to pray that way. But why wouldn’t you want to have the blessing of the church on it? The priest or deacon usually also prays for God to bless the person who uses the object. You could, of course, also pray that God would bless you when you use the object but somehow that’s not the same.
 
Just to keep the discussion going… if the layperson praying in that way were to be a Saint in the making I think we could be absolutely sure that it was blessed.

… I’m not saying that I am… but if I were that would be God’s work and not mine.

I also have had a few of my medals blessed by the very holy Fr. Abbot Gregory at Mount Angel Abbey when I was there for Holy Week (I love the Triduum liturgies there). But since then I have added to my collection and am currently waiting for St. John Chrysostom to get in. So I’m just curious about this. For all intents and purposes I’m a revert, although I never officially left the Church.
 
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