Proper Disposal of Blessed Plants/Flowers

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Does anyone know if there is a proper way of disposing blessed plants, in particular, flowers?

Would throwing blessed plants or flowers that are already dead in the trash be ok?

Thanks in advance for the responses! 🙂
 
Would someone really bless flowers? It seems odd to me to bless something so ephemeral, but perhaps it happens.
 
I was taught that blessed objects be burned or buried.

However, I posted a similar question in another post some time ago about religious images (i.e. prayer cards, pictures, Christmas / religious greeting cards or any religious images, which we receive by mail). They are not blessed but I don’t want to just put them in garbage. Leaving them in Churches - only gets them quickly removed by ushers. My question was never adequately answered, and I hope this thread might help.

I currently shred paper religious images, which are not blessed, to be included in recycling collection. Does anyone know of or see a problem with this? I don’t want to be doing wrong. Where does recycled shredding go? What use? Am I insulting Holy images - even though they are not blessed? Hoping for someone can educate me on this.
God love you.
 
1ke said:
blessed objects should be interred or burned.
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Since there are specific church blessings for cars and boats, what does that mean when such objects reach the end of their useful lives?
 
VERY good point ! I’ve had my car blessed…didn’t know they did so for boats - but isn’t there a ‘blessing of the fleet’…??? Hope someone can answer. Thanks, for excellent thought !
 
Being a Byzantine Catholic we always have a blessing of flowers and plants on the feast of the Assumption of the BVM. I asked our priest what we should do with the blessed flowers. he just shrugged and walked away??? I felt bad throwing them away but they were dead and really looked bad after a week or so.We are not alowed to burn anything in our area, perhaps I should have burried them.
 
chococat said:
Being a Byzantine Catholic we always have a blessing of flowers and plants on the feast of the Assumption of the BVM. I asked our priest what we should do with the blessed flowers. he just shrugged and walked away??? I felt bad throwing them away but they were dead and really looked bad after a week or so.We are not alowed to burn anything in our area, perhaps I should have burried them.
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I don’t think we are to burn things here either. Not sure of laws but it is a safety issue. You did best by burying them. Once aged / shriviled, they become more able to bury. Items (pics, etc.) pose more difficult problem - especially, when we continue getting them in the mail, etc.
I continue to wonder - if not blessed, is shredding an option? Unsure how shredded paper is used by recycling.
 
SuscipeMeDomine said:
Would someone really bless flowers? It seems odd to me to bless something so ephemeral, but perhaps it happens.
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On the feast of St. Therese a week ago, I received a couple of blessed roses after mass, so it had me wondering what to do when they died.
 
It is usually possible for people who have a small garden, barbecue, or fire pit to bury or burn small natural items like plants or paper, or stone. Or people know someone who can dispose of the item. But one does have to be pragmatic. Some people are simply not going to have the option to give away, burn, or bury blessed items.

I have heard priests suggest that the things you throw in the trash do generally get buried. I believe it is permissible to break, tear, other otherwise render something to be in an unusable state and then dispose of it in the regular trash. One could always wrap it in something since it probably seems more respectable to keep it separated from other waste.
 
SuscipeMeDomine said:
Would someone really bless flowers? It seems odd to me to bless something so ephemeral, but perhaps it happens.
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Yes, there is actually a blessing of herbs, fruits, flowers in the Rituale Romanum (in the “Extraordinary Form”) for the feast of the Assumption of the BVM that can be still used today, just like all the other older forms of blessings in those books.

But I suggest that you just bury them in the ground.
 
Palm fronds are blessed, but the church usually takes those back to be burned for ashes.

I can definately see quite a few situations where it would be very difficult if not almost impossible to burn or bury blessed objects - someone who lives in an apartment in the city for example.

For holy cards and other items that come in the mail that we don’t want, I usually take them to the nursing home and offer them to the residents. Many times though, they have their own stash! 🙂

Our car has been blessed, but blessings are ‘negated’ when you sell the item. So I don’t think we need to start torching blessed cars. 😃
 
SuscipeMeDomine said:
Would someone really bless flowers? It seems odd to me to bless something so ephemeral, but perhaps it happens.
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I’d forgotten - there are blessed lilies of St. Anthony of Padua - usually distributed dried. They are a tradition. Lilies signify purity. So, apparently, it isn’t unusual to bless flowers.
 
One of the ladies on the Altar Flower team asked our priest this question this past week after roses were blessed for the feast day of Little ThÊrèse. He said that if a flower still looks like a flower, then it has to be buried. But once all of the petals have fallen off, it no longer has the substance of the sacramental (i.e. it is no longer a flower), but is now only petals and a stem, and the petals and stems can be thrown away.
 
Tarpeian_Rock said:
Since there are specific church blessings for cars and boats, what does that mean when such objects reach the end of their useful lives?
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I thought the same thing about blessed dogs. Would a person actually have to put out for a private cremation? I would think that once it’s dead, the blessing no longer exists. :confused:
 
The blessing of things ought not come with a heavy burden of dread and worry about them afterwards. The thing which is blessed conveys the blessing; we don’t usually save gift wrap and ribbons after the gift is opened and treasured.

Holy water evaporates from their fonts and comes down as rain upon the heads of the just and the unjust.

Jesus was baptised in water, and the water became holy, and those waters are still circulating in the earth, giving nourishment to zebras in Africa, upholding penguin’s webbed feet in Antarctica, being breathed in by the fishes in the oceans, bathing pilgrims in the Ganges, and washing the dirt and grime off of cars and filled in Gatoraid bottles in America.

A thing can be blessed and not venerated, while if a blessed thing is or has been venerated then special care should be afforded in its disposal.
 
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