In Hebrew and Aramaic (which are closely related, like Latin and Italian, but perhaps even closer), the word for blessed refers to a root that means “bending the knee” and therefore means worshipping. Hello and welcome to Focus, the Catholic Answers podcast to live, understand and defend your faith. I`m Cy Kellett, your host. What a blessing it is to have you with us today. Well, here we understand that the blessing is not only to speak well and therefore to pray well or to wish good luck to someone. But it is also almost always presented, I would always say safe, with a gesture that is stretching the hands or touching it with the hands or on the top of the head or lifting the hands. There is a gesture that goes with it. It is therefore not a question of speaking well, but also of making a gesture of blessing. It`s what we usually think about, or it`s more in the sense of what we think of blessings, that there is the power to achieve something good. Throughout the scriptures, we find God saying various blessings. In the creation account, God blessed all living beings, especially Adam and Eve, by telling them to be fruitful, to multiply, to fill and subdue the earth (Gen 1:22,28).

After the Flood, God blessed Noah and his sons (Gen 9:1s). So you basically have God`s blessing, which happens practically, constantly in the divine ministry of the Church, praising God. Then you have the things that make things sacred for sacred use and that are supposed to be channels of divine grace. And then you have the blessings that ask for what you need to accomplish the activities of human life, don`t you? That`s the powerful reasoning there, but blessings are things we should ask for. Now, there are two ways to do something sacred, through fervent prayer for the person, which is like a priestly blessing that you receive, or through a prayer that actually distinguishes the thing for sacred use, as it is strongest with the water of baptism. The Chrisom, other things blessed or consecrated for sacred use, the chalices, the taps, the monstrances, [inaudible 00:14:21] change, you call it. Or the priest puts his finger on it and blesses with it. I don`t care. I bless you.

I don`t care, even if you`re in a bad mood. However, there are other blessings, such as those contained in the blessings and prayers of the Catholic house, that can be prayed to anyone who has been baptized, “by virtue of the universal priesthood, a dignity which he possesses by virtue of his baptism and confirmation” (Book of Blessings, 18). The blessings given by the laity are exercised because of their special ministry, like parents on behalf of their children. Through his blessings and exorcisms, and especially in the establishment of the sacraments, Jesus reveals to us the spirit world, a world that constantly influences us. But we are not aware of it unless he shows it to us. Among the things He has left us are those blessings and people who have the power to bless us. They are very, very powerful. It`s wonderful to be Catholic and to have this wide range of gifts that God has given us. So here we have all levels of meaning, especially for those who worship God in English: “Blessed be he who comes in the name of the Lord”: as in: “He is worshipped on his knees and praised with our audible words, who sanctifies us by sprinkling his blood”. It is practically a verbal description of what happens when the faithful sing or recite Benedictus at Holy Mass, and then kneel with the precious blood of the Lord in anticipation of this astonishing divine sprinkling, thus blessing them with the same blessing of which the Son of God is blessed! Among the sacraments, blessing would come first. In the decree published in the Book of Blessings, Cardinal Mayer, then prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, wrote: “The celebration of the blessing occupies a privileged place among all the sacramentals created by the Church for the pastoral benefit of the People of God.

As a liturgical act, celebration leads the faithful to praise God and prepares them for the main effect of the sacraments. By celebrating a blessing, believers can also sanctify different situations and events in their lives. For believers, blessings are signs of the spiritual benefits obtained through the intercession of the Church. Think of part of the Mass on the feast day of St. Blaise, February 3. On this day, faithful people show up and have blessed throats. The prayer reads: “Through the intercession of St. Blaise, bishop and martyr, may God set you free from every disease of the throat and every other disease: in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” It is a prayer for protection and healing. But consider this: for something to be blessed, it means that it is consecrated for a specific purpose. All those who come forward (and their throats) to be blessed essentially offer their throats to separate for God`s purposes. By celebrating a blessing, believers can also sanctify different situations and events in their lives. So our English word blessing is actually extremely rich, richer than the Latin or Greek word or the Hebrew word, because it actually contains the word blood.

If you think, blah, blah, blessing. It is the same root as blood. All right? So, it`s just by the way. I will not go into that again. But to bless, there are many ways to speak well and we are talking about the things of God here. First, blessing is an act of praise in which we praise God or His saints for their great works. You say, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel. For he visited his people and sent them salvation. Or, “Bless the Lord, you work for the Lord, praise Him, [inaudible 00:04:02]. Or, “Bless yourself.

Bless your heart. All Southerners say just before them: In the Catholic Church, a blessing is a rite consisting of a ceremony and prayers performed in the name and under the authority of the Church by a duly qualified minister, by which persons or things dedicated to worship are sanctified, or by which certain signs of divine favor are invoked upon them. In a broader sense, blessing has a variety of meanings in the scriptures: Why do we do this? Why bless all these ordinary objects that surround us? We do this for the simple reason that we are very similar to ancient Israel. Our tendency is also to want to be like everyone else. Having around us all these memories consecrated to the Lord helps us and reminds us that we too have been consecrated to God. And then, of course, in the medieval dispensation of kings, because they are the fathers or parents or queens of their people, but also parents and many Catholic parents have not learned or forgotten.