What is God Bless you?

[fakename]

Is it a prayer, is it a mere friendly saying?

And what about godspeed, would that ever count as a prayer (considering its old english roots)?

 

[Paul_theApostle]

like we are wishing Gods blessing on someone when we say it

if someone helps us out by pushing our broken down car we may say God bless you to them

if someone gives us some small change when we dont have any we may say God bless you

or ‘may God bless you’

or whenever we feel generous and charitable and say to people God bless you,meaning that we wish Gods blessing on them

God Bless you!

 

[tafan]

It is a prayer. I had a thought while watching baseball playoffs this year. When God Bless America is sung during the 7th inning stretch, I wonder why it is never referred to as a prayer. I would speculate that if one of the announcers actually introduced it that way, ie changed “Please join SingerX in singing God Bless America” to “Please join SingerX in praying God Bless America”; there would be an uproar. Would the tradition even survive the “scandal”? The words to the song are clearly a prayer, but no one has taken the time to think about that.