Did you stand or kneel for the blessing? Was it offered after your Candlemas on Sunday? Did a bishop, priest or deacon offer you the blessing? In a blow against Holy Orders and a perceived clericalism, did a lay person offer you the blessing?
Just what did you experience? Were the candles lighted and if so, did you wear asbestos? And will you bring a lawsuit against the Church for your hair catching on fire or being exposed to a carcinogen? The same for the common chalice, lawsuits for spreading contagions?
Here are some photos to contemplate:
12 comments:
Bee here:
My friend told me at the Mass she attended yesterday in her parish, the priest, at the end of Mass, stood in the front and extended the crossed candles toward the congregation standing in the pews, and said the prayer to St. Blaise. He then pronounced they were all blessed, and that was that.
She was kind of put out about it.
God bless.
Bee
Had my throat blessed, at the Communion rail, by a priest on the feast day. It was great!
The dolly-bird in the last photograph is not qualified to bless anyone, even in the non-liturgical environment of a gymnasium. I would be inclined to throttle her and then ask St Blaise to miraculously restore her to life.
But if he declined to do so, I would not be greatly disappointed.
Well, we DID have Candlemas after all, yesterday, if you count a basketful of disposable little paraffin tapers with paperboard collars liturgical candles suitable for dire need prayer uses at home....however, pretty much all of them pitched back in basket for recycle at Easter. So, everybody grabs a candle at entrance, candles lit before priest enters, blessing said in back, and a quick sprinkle of everyone now holding lit candles, and candles extinguished after the Gloria, and thrown back in basket on way out...wow...the Feast was about recycling, apparently, near as I can tell.
No blessing of throats today pretty much anywhere in Diocese except the city with the Cathedral, as otherwise Mondays are CHURCH CLOSED days in this diocese.
The blessing of throats is in the Book Of Blessings, which can be done by any qualified lay person, with restriction being lay persons may not make the sign of the cross, as for the dolly bird comment.
Bee here:
Throats blessed today after (Novus Ordo) Mass as normal (not at St. John Cantius, but at the chapel of the nursing home where I volunteer). The priest wearing red vestments, said the prayer over each person. The the line processed to the front to get the blessing.
So, pretty normal.
God bless.
Bee
Bob, are you saying that anything in the BoB can be done by a qualified lay person? And what does 'qualified' mean, exactly? Not that I'm bothered, I'll stick with the Rituale Romanum, thanks very much.
The book is a book of ritual and explains its rubrics, including who allowed to do what....in this case, pretty much everything aside from making the sign of the cross....a qualified person is one who is not disqualified....such as not Catholic, not in a state of grace, where such duty might cause scandal, etc etc.
Bob, so let's pretend to be in a state of grace (who is going to know?) and pretend to bless each other using what are reckoned to be liturgical forms in the recent and highly controversial Book of Blessings, which is despised by many priests who are by no means 'traditionalist' in the accepted sense.
What in God's name is the point in this narcissistic charade?
The point is inviting God's blessing upon the person being blessed.
Anonymous
In that case, I can take two crossed candles and bless myself. Not that I would dream of doing so.
Bee here:
"... inviting God's blessing ..." Now there's a turn of phrase that changes the underlying idea that only a priest can confer God's blessing on another as His ordained representative on earth.
Now we find out anyone can "invite God's blessing" in a liturgical function.
It's this kind of massaging of terms that makes me question the people running the Church.
God bless.
Bee
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