Questions about blessings

[Generic_Man]

Can a layman bless an object? If so, are there some things that a priest may bless that a layman cannnot?

If selling something blessed is a sin (simony), then why can one buy a Bible at a book store? Are Bibles blessed? This also applies for any other sort of religious object you could buy.

Is it mandatory to bless any sort of religious object (like a rosary)?

What is the specific explanation of what blesssing an object does to it?

What about blessing a person? Does it differ in any way from blessing an inanimate object?

 

[Mannyfit75]

Can a layman bless an object? If so, are there some things that a priest may bless that a layman cannnot?

Only a priest can bless.

If selling something blessed is a sin (simony), then why can one buy a Bible at a book store? Are Bibles blessed? This also applies for any other sort of religious object you could buy.

Bibles are not usually blessed. Most of the time they can be blessed after purchased. Simony is always wrong. It cannot be justified.

Is it mandatory to bless any sort of religious object (like a rosary)?

No it isn’t mandatory.

What is the specific explanation of what blesssing an object does to it?

I don’t know. You can ask a priest.

What about blessing a person? Does it differ in any way from blessing an inanimate object?

We are blessed often at the End of Mass.

 

[THurifer2]

Only a priest can bless.

.

A priest recieves his faculties to bless objects when he becomes a deacon.

Permanent Deacons can validly bless an object and a deacons blessing is the same blessing that comes from a priest.

 

[MeOnly]

what about eucharistic ministers? When I take my baby up there, they bless them with the sign of the cross and say something along the lines of “may God bless you…”?

Is that not a blessing?

(Sorry if it is a stupid question)

 

[Frogjim]

what about eucharistic ministers? When I take my baby up there, they bless them with the sign of the cross and say something along the lines of “may God bless you…”?

Is that not a blessing?

(Sorry if it is a stupid question)

At our Parish the extraordinary minister of Holy Communion is not allowed to bless anyone… Only the Priest is now allowed to bless little children, babies etc…

 

[Seatuck]

what about eucharistic ministers? When I take my baby up there, they bless them with the sign of the cross and say something along the lines of “may God bless you…”?

Is that not a blessing?

(Sorry if it is a stupid question)

It’s their own personal blessing , no more than what you could do . A priestly blessing is more.

We are not permitted to give blessings as EMOHC either in our Diocese. Eucharistic Ministers are priests and deacons by the way. Lay people are Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion.

 

[MeOnly]

What is the difference between a Eucharistic Minister and Extraordinatry Minister of Holy Communion?

How can you tell them apart?

 

[Seatuck]

What is the difference between a Eucharistic Minister and Extraordinatry Minister of Holy Communion?

How can you tell them apart?

If it is a lay person then they are to be called Extraordinary Minsters of Holy Communion not mistakenly called “Eucharistic Ministers” as is often done. Priests and Deacons generally wear vestments and are easy to recognize at Mass. They are the Eucharistic Ministers or Ordinary Ministers.

 

[TMC]

Can’t lay people pray for a blessing? So a lay person cannot say “I bless (this Bible, this person, this house) in the name of…” but can say “Lord, I ask the You bless this house.” So it seems to me the EMHC could say “May God bless you” or something like that.

 

[John_Lilburne]

Some objects can be blessed by lay people. Ceremonies for blessings are in the “Book of Blessings”. Objects that lay people can bless include:
a new home (n. 661)
various means of transportation (including highways, streets, bridges, railroads, harbors, motor vehicles, ships, aircraft; n. 854).
boats and fishing gear (USA only, n. 880).
technical installations or equipment (n. 901)
tools and other equipment for work (n. 921)
animals (n. 943)
fields and flocks (n. 968)
seeds at planting time (USA only, n. 988)
on the occasion of thanksgiving for the harvest (n. 1008)
blessing before meals (“Bless us, O Lord, and these your gifts …”, n. 1033).
(Book of Blessings, Liturgical Press, Minnesota, 1989, ISBN 0-8146-1875-8).

Some objects cannot be blessed by lay people. In Part III “Blessings of Objects that are Designed or Erected for Use in Churches, Either in the Liturgy or in Popular Devotions” none of the objects can be blessed by lay people.

Some blessing I would describe as mandatory. For example, from the 2002 General Instruction of the Roman Missal, it has:
“309. … It is appropriate that a new ambo be blessed according to the rite described in the Roman Ritual
[footnote 118: Cf. The Roman Ritual, Book of Blessings, editio typica, 1984, Order for a Blessing on the Occasion of the Installation of a New Ambo, nos. 900-918.]
before it is put into liturgical use.”

“Certain blessings have a lasting importance because they consecrate persons to God, or reserve objects and places for liturgical use.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1672. More on blessings is in the Catechism, 1667-1673).

The sin of sacrilege is also described in the Catechism: “2120 Sacrilege consists in profaning or treating unworthily the sacraments and other liturgical actions, as well as persons, things or places consecrated to God.”

 

[Sir_Knight]

Anybody can bless anything but only a priest can bestow a church blessing – the difference being that if I bless water, it does not become Holy Water but if a priest does it, it DOES become Holy Water.