Originally Posted by FrDavid96
The vocabulary here can cause some confusion. We use the word “blessing” to mean so many different things. It can range anywhere from a bishop solemnly dedicating a new church, to a completely secular use of the word (like saying “the manager gave his blessing to the new policy”).
If you mean blessing in the sense that a person or thing is actually “blessed” meaning that it is somehow different than it was before, then only a cleric can bless. For example, look at the prayer before meals. We can all say “Grace” before a meal, but the food isn’t actually blessed (some Catholics have taken to using Protestant vocabulary here and say “give the blessing” and that causes further confusion).
In the new Book of Blessings, this distinction is not made very clear (perhaps the English translators intended it that way?) because the introduction and the index pages don’t make much of a distinction. But as DCNBILL noted, when we look at the actual text of the rituals, the blessing properly speaking, is done only by a cleric. When a layperson presides, the gesture of blessing (making the sign of the cross over the person/object) is removed and the layperson makes the cross over himself.
So despite how things might appear at first-glance, the new Book of Blessings doesn’t have any proper blessings that can be done by the laity. Instead what we see are prayers said over the person or object which have value in themselves, but do not make them “blessed.”
Only a bishop, priest, or deacon can impart a blessing.
Father David, I don’t totally agree with your initial post. I think your response further confuses the matter. I’m not an expert and I respect your service to God and his Church and your years of study. Having said that, from what I’ve been reading I don’t think we can fairly say that the Catechism, Book of Blessings and the book “
Catholic Household Blessings….” sold at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ web site; they are not using the correct sense of the word “blessing” when referring to lay ministry.
*Sacramentals derive from the baptismal priesthood: every baptized person is called to be a “blessing,” and to bless.172 Hence lay people may preside at certain blessings; the more a blessing concerns ecclesial and sacramental life, the more is its administration reserved to the ordained ministry (bishops, priests, or deacons). *
[CCC 1669]
What does this section of the Catechism mean? How can one be a blessing or to bless? I see where we can preside at certain blessings as long as they are not within the content of liturgy or consecration.
From the book “
Catholic Household Blessings….”
*Families will use Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers to
• Learn essential prayers that Catholics need to know by memory
• Practice the simple form of the Liturgy of the Hours
• Celebrate the feasts and seasons of the Church year in ritual and prayer
• Bless the advent wreath, Christmas crèche, and Easter foods
• Lead grace before and after meals
• Pray for family members
• Bless the home before a move and in times of trouble *
I agree with you that when it comes to the strict sense of “liturgical blessing” only Clergy can give such blessing. Again any blessing in the content of the Mass, consecrating a person or things (e.g. rosary beads, crosses, Altar). Too, in a gathering of faithful like bible studies, if a member of the Clergy is present it is He who gives the blessing. I also agree that a Clergy’s blessing carries more power, grace or spiritual change. But what I disagree is in that what may appear as a lay asking for God’s blessing on something or some one is just “a nice gesture”, “does not become bless”, it has no change or spiritual effect on our children or things". On those I disagree with you and go with what “I believe the Church is saying”. That is… not to hold the word “blessing” to just strictly to a liturgical sense but as the Catechism says “Every blessing praises God and prays for his gifts”.
*Among sacramentals, blessings (of persons, meals, objects, and places) come first. Every blessing praises God and prays for his gifts. In Christ, Christians are blessed by God the Father “with every spiritual blessing.” This is why the Church imparts blessings by invoking the name of Jesus, usually while making the holy sign of the cross of Christ. *(CCC 1671)
So if the Church uses the more broader sense of the word blessing and we are a blessing (gift) or can bless (ask for gifts), why can we say that “we bless”. If all blessing are a praise to God then we must be getting at least Actual Grace for the person blessing and the person being bless (e.g. our family). In my opinion, other gifts or blessings we get thru lay blessings are deliverance (e.g. The Our Father), spiritual protection and why not gifts of the Holy Spirit.
To get back to the original question posted by " Crown of Thorns". In my opinion we lay persons can “give a blessing” as long as we keep in mind that by blessing we mean praying for God’s gifts on some one, or praising and thanking God for that which we are blessing (e.g. our food).
When you “bless” also keep in mind that you are not consecrating, do not make the sign of the cross over a group of people or things when the faithful are gathered. You can make the sing of the cross on you family or personal things. Again you can still say that you are “blessing” and in some sense you are because, in my opinion, the person or thing becomes blessed (spiritual different) with the gifts that God instill in them.
