In many ways, the holidays can be considered a season of blessings; and I don’t just mean the blessing of spending time with family and friends to celebrate Our Lord’s birth. This time of year is marked by many special blessings in the life of the Church.
We begin the liturgical year with a blessing of the Advent wreath. The Christmas season is ushered in with the blessing of creches and Christmas trees. It is common to bless families within Mass on the Feast of the Holy Family. Other traditional holiday blessings are less well known, such as the blessing of wine for St. John’s Day on Dec. 27.
There are an abundance of blessings associated with Epiphany. It is a tradition to bless Holy Water on the Vigil of Epiphany, in association with the Baptism of the Lord and Christ’s first public miracle of turning water into wine. There are Epiphany blessings for gold, frankincense and myrrh, as well as for chalk, which is used to mark the doors of the homes of the faithful as part of the Epiphany home blessing. Because the dates of Easter and the moveable feasts are announced on
Epiphany, there is also a tradition of blessing calendars on this day.
The blessings extend beyond the Christmas season to the blessing of candles on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord (popularly known as Candlemas) on Feb. 2. Candles are blessed on this day because the infant Christ is called “light for revelation” by Simeon (Lk 2:32). The blessed candles are used the next day on the feast of St. Blaise, patron against throat ailments, to bless people’s throats. We Catholics don’t just bless things, we bless things with blessed things!
These annual blessings are special, but blessings are a daily occurrence in the lives of many Catholics. We bless our meals. We bless ourselves with holy water as we enter our churches. We are blessed by the priest at the conclusion of each and every Mass. Truly we are a people of blessing.
All of this begs the question: What is a blessing? And why are some blessings only performed by ordained clergy (such as blessing holy water or other objects for devotion), while other blessings are offered by lay people (like the blessing before meals)? Is there a difference?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines a blessing simply as “a prayer invoking God’s power and care upon some person, place, thing or undertaking.” In this broad sense of the word, anytime anyone prays for God to do something good either for themselves or someone else, that is a blessing. Anyone can bless in this sense, and the Catechism says, “Every baptized person is called to be a blessing and to bless” (CCC 1669). But in that same paragraph, a distinction is made between blessings a lay person may offer and those blessings reserved for clergy: “the more a blessing concerns ecclesial and sacramental life, the more its administration is reserved to the ordained ministry.”
While any prayer invoking God’s favor is a blessing, the official blessings of the Roman Rite are found in the Book of Blessings (or in the Roman Ritual prior to 1984). Some blessings in this text may be presided over by lay people who, by virtue of their baptism and confirmation, participate in the universal priesthood.
Others are reserved for deacons, priests or bishops.
The distinction has to do with the type of blessing being offered. Invocative blessings ask for God’s favor upon a person, place or object without any change of condition to what is being blessed. Examples would be a blessing before meals, or a parent blessing a child. Constitutive blessings involve the permanent dedication of a person or object for a sacred purpose. Examples would be the blessing of a rosary or holy water. Constitutive blessings are reserved for ordained ministers.
The effectiveness of a blessing is a matter of spiritual authority. All members of the Church, by virtue of their baptism, possess spiritual authority to some degree, so we can bless ourselves and pray for God’s blessings upon one another. Some exercise a higher degree of spiritual authority because of their relationship to the one being blessed. For example, a parent’s prayer of blessing for their child is more powerful than that of a stranger. Personal holiness also matters, as the scriptures teach that “the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective” (Jas 5:16). In this way blessings are quite different from the sacraments which operate “ex opere operato,” regardless of the personal holiness of the minister.
Constitutive blessings are reserved for clergy who have broader spiritual authority by virtue of their holy orders. Bishops enjoy the fullness of this authority, which is why some solemn blessings are reserved to them. For example, while any priest or deacon can bless a rosary, it belongs to the bishop to consecrate a new church building.
Once an object has been blessed with a constitutive blessing, it can no longer be used for profane purposes. If a blessed object, such as a rosary, holy card or statue becomes damaged beyond repair or otherwise can no longer be used, it should not be thrown away with the trash. The proper way to respectfully dispose of blessed objects is to either bury or burn them. Blessed items should not be sold. The attempt to purchase or sell God’s blessing is called the sin of simony, after Simon Magus who was cursed for attempting to buy Apostolic authority from St. Peter (see Acts 8:18-24).
All blessings ultimately come from God, who is eternally blessed. The fullness of God’s blessing is found in the Person of Jesus Christ, whose abundant blessings are ministered to us today through the Church, principally in the sacraments, but also in the many sacramental blessings we celebrate throughout the year. Marking important days and seasons with special blessings helps us to participate more fully and with greater joy in the everyday blessings God makes available to us throughout our lives.
Deacon Matthew Newsome is the Catholic campus minister at Western Carolina University and the regional faith formation coordinator for the Smoky Mountain Vicariate.