What is this healing ceremony?

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I attended a ceremony at a Catholic Church not long ago in which the priest brought out a gold item that was sort of in the shape of a cross with bright gold bursts…he would hold it only through his robes. Later, the congregation approached the altar, kneeled about it, and the priest would press this gold item against each of their foreheads, saying a prayer. What is this ceremony?
 
Did the golod thing look like this?

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(hope that worked)

If so it’s called a monstrance, and within the circle in the center is a consecrated hose - the Eucharist, which is the body, blood, sould and divinity of Jesus, so it IS Jesus. I’m not familiar with the specific ceremony you’ve described, but the priest and people were honoring Jesus. If it was a ‘healing ceremony’ then the people were asking Jesus to heal them while they touched him.
 
That’s a form of benediction, in which Our Lord, who is Truly Present in the Eucharist actually blesses the people. The priest wears the robe covering his hands to emphsize that it is Jesus Himself giving the blessing.

The gold thing is called a monstrance, it is used to display the Blessed Sacrament for Adoration so people can adore Jesus in the Flesh 🙂
 
MarcoPolo said:
Later, the congregation approached the altar, kneeled about it, and the priest would press this gold item against each of their foreheads, saying a prayer. What is this ceremony?
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Well, the first part sounds like Benediction. However, I don’t think he would press people’s foreheads with the Eucharist. He may individually bless them, but not physically place the monstrance and host on their heads. Perhaps you had Benediction and individual blessings with a certain relic like the True Cross or a relic of some saint. I have seen this done in shrines or during Novenas. It is common practice to have Benediction and veneration or blessings with a relic. The monstrance looks almost similar to a reliquary that would hold a relic so perhaps this is what you experienced. Was this service a sort of Novena service or healing service?
 
Genesis315 said:
The gold thing is called a monstrance, it is used to display the Blessed Sacrament for Adoration so people can adore Jesus in the Flesh 🙂
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Just a point of clarification. In the Eucharist, Christ is sacramentally present, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. However, He is not present in the flesh.
 
Michael_Welter said:
Just a point of clarification. In the Eucharist, Christ is sacramentally present, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. However, He is not present in the flesh.
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Is that true? the very substance of His Flesh would be present. The bread and wine no longer remain. The substance of His Body (including His Flesh), Blood, Soul and Divinity are present. Is that flawed thinking?
 
Are you sure he used the same monstrance on the people’s foreheads or did he place the monstrance down and bring out a smaller monstrance looking item? I really doubt that Father would lay the Eucharist in the monstrance on people and I think its not even allowed.
 
People are allowed to touch the monstrance according to Fr. Serpa:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=146652

It sounds like a sort of adoration. I thought adoration was more specific though. Maybe the priest thought this would be beneficial for his parish. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. Maybe the priest recieved quite a few requests for prayers for the sick, or the book of the sick was filling up quickly, so he held this ‘healing service’. Or maybe it went along with advent and was done in preparation for the birth of Our Lord.
 
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