What does the blessing express? What is its core?

What does the blessing express? What is its core?

In its essence, every blessing is a request to God himself to send his goodness or protection to a specific person, group, place, or even an object – and thus a prayer in which I entrust the person, place, or thing in question to God’s goodness and protection. In a figurative sense, it is any wish for good. It can occur using gestures, words, or perhaps by sprinkling holy water.

Is the blessing reserved only for priests, or can anyone bless?

Anyone can entrust someone to God’s goodness and ask for God’s protection. Blessing, in this sense, also belongs to the laity. We can mention, for example, parental blessings to children. At the same time, the most important thing is always the intention of the lesser – and if it is good and accompanied by a desire for God, it is more than a correctly pronounced blessing prayer, as we find it in the “benediction” – Blessing Rites. In contrast, the priestly blessing has a liturgical and sacramental dimension, resulting from the sacrament of consecration. So anyone can bless another, but everyone in the way that belongs to them.

In addition to people, we also encounter the blessing of cars, ships, banners, or briefcases. What can be blessed?

The palette is extensive: from people to buildings, means of transport, work tools to animals, fields, food, and much more. We always proceed from the fact that a blessing is a wish that the given thing or place serves the reasonable purpose for which it is intended. Conversely, blessing objects or activities that serve evil is impossible. This can be weapons, instruments of torture, occult objects, drugs, gambling, or blessing a person to do something evil.

What does a blessed motorcycle or a rosary gain by blessing? Are they becoming “safer” or “more powerful”?

The blessing does not cause change in the sense of magical understanding, the essence of the object does not change. But the blessing expresses that the given thing belongs to God and is intended for good. At the same time, some blessings make a person grateful – for example, by blessing food, the food does not change, but we are led to realize that we have everything from God, and with this awareness, food also connects us with God. Blessing is meant to serve the relationship between man and God.

“Blessed be you, Lord, God of the whole world…“, we pray at the Mass of St. How can a person bless the Lord?

As I mentioned before, a blessing is a wish for good. So, to bless God is to wish him well and rejoice in his being. If I rejoice in God’s existence and presence, I receive a great gift from God. Therefore, blessing God ultimately means bestowing a person, because I rejoice in the existence of the One who gave me life, and thus also in my life itself.

What place does blessing have in the life of a believer?

There are many things in life that we cannot determine. Parents do not influence which path their children choose, and a doctor does not guarantee that his patient will recover. Often, we can’t do much. But when we bless, we entrust the person in question to the care and protection of the Lord God, that is, to the best hands. It is an act of trust, faith, and goodwill that we show in this way.