Blessing (Roman Catholic Church)

Blessing in Roman Catholicism, in the narrow liturgical sense, is a rite consisting of a ceremony and prayers performed in the name and with the authority of the Church by a duly qualified minister by which persons or things are sanctified as dedicated to Divine service or by which certain marks of Divine favour are invoked upon them. In a wider sense blessing has a variety of meanings in the sacred writings:

In the morning of Creation God blessed the living creatures that came from His hands, bidding them increase and multiply and fill the earth. When Noah emerged from the Ark, he received God's benediction, which he transmitted through his sons Shem and Japheth to posterity. The Old Testament shows that, in the patriarchal ages, heads of tribe and family seem privileged to bestow blessings, and priests when directed by God, administered it to the people. "Thus shall you bless the children of Israel... and the Lord will turn His countenance and give them peace". The great value attributed to blessings is seen in Rebecca's effort to secure Jacob's blessing for her son. It was regarded as a sure way to secure God's benevolence, peace and protection.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, "Every baptized person is called to be a 'blessing' and to bless. Hence lay people may preside at certain blessings; the more a blessing concerns ecclesial and sacramental life, the more its administration is reserved to the ordained ministry (bishops, priest, deacons)"

Blessings may be divided into two classes, invocative and constitutive. The former are those in which Divine benignity is invoked to bring some temporal or spiritual good without changing their former condition. Of this kind are the blessings given to children, and to articles of food. The latter class permanently depute persons or things to Divine service by imparting to them some sacred character, by which they are held to assume a new and distinct spiritual relationship, conferring a sacredness so that they cannot be divested of their religious character or turned to profane uses. Such are the blessings given churches and chalices by their consecration.

Theologians distinguish blessings of an intermediate sort, by which things are rendered special instruments of salvation without at the same time becoming irrevocably sacred, such as blessed salt, candles, etc.

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