Should you say "God bless you" to a priest? What is a kind word you could give to a priest?

[zielwolf]

Funny. This happened to me just today. I go to a traditional parish where the Latin Mass is celebrated and today the priest said “God bless you” to me and I didn’t know how to answer.

I just didn’t feel “holy” enough at the time to return the greeting. Stupid really.

I just said “Have a great day Father” in order not to say anything “inappropriate”.

Afterwards I realized I was probably being way, way too fussy. Priests are human too. If I were one I would sure like to be blessed back rather than having to give them out all the time. Who doesn’t want to be wished God’s blessing on them? It’s not like there’s a Vatican promulgation about to whom you can and can’t say “God bless you”.

Thinking about it more, if a priest were actually to pull me up for returning a blessing which I actually doubt any would and which has never actually happened, then I would ask him flat out why.

 

[IntegraCatholic]

“Dominus vobiscum” is not a greeting for laymen to make. Where texts that include it can be read/sung by either a cleric or a layman (e.g., the Exsultet), they specifically direct that “Dominus vobiscum” is to be omitted unless read or sung by a priest or deacon.

That’s 100% correct. Even subdeacons who traditionally were bound to say the office had to omit such a phrase in their private recitation. Dominus vobiscum would be exponentially worse than God bless you.

 

[zielwolf]

Ultimately this is a question of grammatical miscomprehension. Verbs have three “moods” in English: indicative, imperative and subjunctive, respectively “He goes - Go!. - If he go…”

Because the subjunctive has mostly fallen out of use in everyday English we hear a phrase like “God bless you” as imperative that is, as an “order” (an imperative). But it’s actually in the subjunctive mood: it’s expression of a wish, not a statement of actuality, or an order.

It could soften it a bit if you were to say, "May God Bless You

Adding the modal verb “may” would only soften the tone semantically. Functionally you are saying the same thing.

The phrase "God bless you " is, grammatically, in the subjunctive mood (note no -es on the end of the verb, it’s not indicative mood: “God blesses you” and nor is it like the expression we use after a sneeze “Bless you!” which has more the mood of an imperative), and the subjunctive mood of the verb already conveys the essence of the verb “may”.

So while in ordinary usage you might feel that you are softening the tone by adding the modal verb “may” to the expression, God knows better: that, in functional terms you would still be saying the same thing as “God bless you”, and He knows you are wishing His blessing on the priest, not declaring it

 

[IntegraCatholic]

The best thing to do probably is to ask to be remembered in his prayers, especially at the altar and excuse yourself. If he first says goodbye (hopefully a God bless you or the like), simply say thank you. You can then also ask for his prayers. There is no need to say God bless you to him, and it doesn’t really make sense to do so.

 

[ProVobis]

So while in ordinary usage you might feel that you are softening the tone by adding the modal verb “may” to the expression, God knows better: that, in functional terms you would still be saying the same thing as “God bless you”, and He knows you are wishing His blessing on the priest, not declaring it

That is correct. Otherwise the Latin would be “Domine (or Deus), te benedicat.” And we sort of get a clue in the EF when the priest says “Pax SIT semper vobiscum” or “BenedicAT (subjunctive ending) vos omnipotens Deus.” (Notice the word order too.) Thus we can infer “Dominus sit vobiscum.”

 

[Redwood]

Thank you friends for your helpful and thoughtful replies!

I especially enjoyed learning some of the Latin. Thanks!

May the Lord bless us, protect us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life.

 

[Advocatus_Fidei]

Priests need God’s blessing just as much as us, probably more, they are much higher value targets for the devils after all.

Look at the Mass

Priest: Dominus vobiscum,

Laity: Et cum spiritu tuo

This is us returning the priests blessing.