Not to mention that we look like nazis when doing so.
CatholicZ09;8007981:
Yeesh, when you got altar servers coming to you and telling you that, you know it’s bad. :sad_yes:Not to mention that we look like nazis when doing so.
Fortunately my hearing is poor. It is easy not to hear some requests.Many priests believe it is appropriate for the laity to “assist” so to speak in a blessing. This happens from time to time at my parish, and I really detest it. Not to mention that we look like nazis when doing so. I believe that it is said to be liturgically incorrect.
Where can I find this in the Book of Blessing?
I can’t seem to find it again but here are a couple of articles talking about the topic.
However, within the context of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the blessings are to be imparted by the celebrant (bishop/priest). Furthermore, Rome, specifically, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments said that:
Furthermore, Ecclesia de Mysterio notes the following:
Thus, these hand extensions are not licit and should not be done.
Thanks, benedictgal, for the quotes, but I have to wonder if they apply to a call by the priest to assist in blessing fathers on Father’s Day, as opposed to liturgical practices of the eucharistic celebration.
As these blessings are done within the context of the Mass, only the celebrant can do this. Furthermore, I posed this question at a liturgical conference wherein an official with the CDWDS was present and he said that this was not licit.
Thanks for the clarification. If my priest invites me to raise my hand in a blessing then I will not hesitate, as I know and trust him, and nothing about any official with the CDWDS, whatever that is. All this second-guessing and back-talking about priests and wanting to vigilantly spring upon supposed liturgical abuses does is to confer doubts and tensions in the minds of the faithful; as an example we often see new threads alleging liturgical abuses when there is none happening at all.
Although you may be correct in saying that it may confer doubts and tensions in the minds of the faithful, I find that the faithful only feel this way because they don’t want to do the work of studying and finding the truth out. The Church is not trying to hide the truth of the liturgy from her children, but She cannot be there to hold our hands at every turn. We must learn to read the girm, the Vatican documents or any other material when we are in doubt, or when we have been told something is done wrongly. If we fail to go out and learn than we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Maybe the real liturgical abuse is to find oneself detesting a blessing done on a sabbath, or to be thinking of Nazis when people are doing something kind to each other, or to think there’s any blame at all in something done with a good heart.
Or maybe the abuse lies in thinking we know better than the Church and thinking we can do our way instead. Yes, giving a blessing is not a bad thing and it has good intention but if this done because we think we know better than to follow the way that Christ has taught than we are in sense putting ourselves above him. And isn’t that how we have gotten so many different denomination in the first place. Think we know better, or thinking that changing this one little thing wont hurt anyone.
The CDWDS is the Congregation for Divine Worship in Rome. It is responsible for regulating liturgical matters, and I think BenedictGal brought out an important bit of info.
With all due respect, this is a sad tone to take, in my opinion. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is not some free form exercise in creativity. Part of the problem is that in some areas, there is a dearth in liturgical catechesis for both clergy and laity. Inviting people to extend their right hands in a “blessing” does not appear anywhere in the authoritative liturgical books of the Holy See. It also causes a serious confusion between the ministerial priesthood of the priest and the priesthood of the laity. It seems to me that it is more uncharitable to promote something that the Holy See does not approve of (and has issued documents against) than it is to point out the error and the abuse.
You may be right, but I’m still wondering why we are doing it in the first pace, and what the reasoning is behind it. After all, it doesn’t change the nature of the blesing at all. …so why not just say “Amen”? Does anyone know what is behind it all? I’m not saying it’s bad, but there must be some pastoral or theological reason for it.
The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, which is the ultimate and prevailing authority here, has already stated that such action is not licit and that it should not be done. Not even the bishop can dispense with this ruling.