Sunday Off-Topic: Blessings

Every Introduction course always has its off-topic tangents, and Catholicism 101 is no different. On Sundays, we'll delve into some aspects of Catholicism that we might not otherwise get to. These areas are kind of up to my whim, but they will usually focus on unusual parts of Catholicism.

Catholics love to have their priests bless them and some of their personal belongings - house, car, pet, etc. Usually, however, they ask for the blessing of a religuous item - a rosary, religuous medal, Bible, etc. Any devotional article or object integral to our lives and faith can be blessed, but that does not mean that it becomes a good-luck charm. A priestly blessing is just a way of showing gratitude to God for his Divine Grace, and putting these objects under his care.

An example of this is a Marian statue. If you see a statue of the Virgin Mary in a Catholic's yard, it has probably been blessed by a priest. It's not a magical object, and doesn't make the yard grow in a special manner. It is just a reminder of Mary, the Mother of God, and of the Catholic love for her.

An unusual, yet popular, blessing in the Church is celebrated on February 3. Throats are blessed on the Feast of St. Blaise, a bishop and martyr who saved a choking boy. Traditionally, candles used on the Candlemas (tomorrow's post) are used to bless the throats and St. Blaise's intercession is asked on all ailments of the throat.

Palm branches are blessed on Palm Sunday (the Sunday before Easter) and Catholics usually take the fronds home and weave them into crosses to place on a wall crucifix. The previous year's palms are burned and used on Ash Wednesday to impose ashes on everyone's forehead to remind them of prayer, fasting, and repentance. Neither the ashes, the throat blessing, nor the palms are magical. They're just symbols representing a spiritual life.

Catholics who don't attend Mass on a regular basis often get the derogatory label of PAT (palms, ashes, and throats) Catholics, meaning that they only go whenever things are given out. These, however, are a small minority of Catholics as a whole.

Whenever a priest blesses an article, like a rosary, statue, or Bible, he makes the Sign of the Cross with his right hand over the object then splashes holy water on it while saying the prayers of blessing. The holy water serves to remind the owner that the object is now reserved for sacred use only (such as to enhance prayer life). Once blessed, the object cannot be used for profane (nonreliguous) purposes.

So pretty much anything can be blessed, as long as the item will be used for moral purposes and will not be sold. Blessings aren't magical, but change an object into a sacramental to remind us of God's generosity, and can invoke God's blessing whenver it is used in conjunction with prayer.