Statues, Crosses and Medals

[shorin69]

Hi I am aware that I do not need to bless religious items; I have bought some statues and some medals and Obviously I cannot keep disturbing my parish priest every-time I get a religious item. I wonder if touching the items with Holy water; every time I go to my Abbey I get some - will help? Considering that they are sacred representations of Saints, Jesus and the Virgin Mary I think in itself - as the Bible - should be already enough?

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I normally do not get my statues blessed. I have considered taking them to a Spanish Mass for Our Lady of Guadalupe, as I have noticed that a custom there is for people to bring their religious statues of Our Lady and saints to the church and apparently they are blessed by the priest as part of the festivities (I think after the Mass).

With respect to crosses and medals, the way I handle it is to go from time to time to a shrine where the priests presiding routinely bless holy objects after the regular Mass. Typically they do that because people will buy rosaries, medals, crucifixes etc at the shrine gift shop and want to have these items blessed, but you can also bring a bag of your own items from home that you already bought or acquired. I just take a whole backpack of stuff and the priest blesses everyone’s holy objects in attendance by doing one big general blessing. I could also get my statues blessed in this way, except it’s a bit more difficult to carry the statues as they are heavy, some are breakable and they don’t all fit in a backpack like the rosaries, medals and crosses.

 

[UpUpAndAway]

Obviously I cannot keep disturbing my parish priest every-time I get a religious item.

Why not? I do

I haven’t yet come across the priest who felt he was being disturbed when asked to bless items. He might ask the requester to wait until another time if for whatever reason he can’t bless the article(s) at that moment, but that’s not a result of having disturbed him.

I wonder if touching the items with Holy water; every time I go to my Abbey I get some - will help?

Help with what? This action does not “bless” them, if that’s what you’re asking.

Considering that they are sacred representations of Saints, Jesus and the Virgin Mary I think in itself - as the Bible - should be already enough?

Enough for what?

As you already know, it is not required to have religious objects blessed.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I haven’t yet come across the priest who felt he was being disturbed when asked to bless items.

It is also generally a 15-second operation. The priest just makes a sign of the cross over it and says a blessing. I have had a rosary blessed while I was walking past the priest on my way out of church.

 

[midori]

I usually try to get things blessed after a weekday Mass, when I know Father isn’t hurrying off to the next obligation, rather than trying to squeeze it in between Masses on Sunday.

I used to go to one parish that has the old communion rail. Before Mass, parishioners would place whatever objects were in need of blessing on the rail, and at the end of Mass, Father would take a few moments to bless them all in a group. After the Recessional, people could then come up and take them home.

If you want things blessed, you might do it once or twice a year, and put them all in a box or something so they can get blessed in a group. If you don’t want things blessed because you don’t think it’s necessary, rather than merely not wanting to inconvenience someone, then don’t worry about it at all, and save the holy water for yourself.