Family Blessings

Many parents bless their children as they lay sleeping at night, before sending them off on long trips or on significant occasions such as birthdays.  Every baptised person is called to be a “blessing” and to bless.  The more a blessing concerns ecclesial and sacramental life, the more is its administration reserved to the ordained ministry.  

Marriage is the source of the family, a primary focus and means of life in the Church.  As a vocation of communion, the Church continually blesses those in marriage. 

Blessings

Blessings are an important part of the Church’s liturgical life.  Many forms of blessing can be found in the Book of Blessings.  They always include a prayer and are often accompanied by a symbolic ritual, such as the laying on of hands, the sign of the cross, or the sprinkling of holy water which recalls Baptism.  

Typically a Rite of Blessing consists of two related parts:  Proclamation of the Word; and, Praise and Petition. Essentially blessings are signs that have God’s Word as their basis and are celebrations of faith’s innate desire to be expressed.

A couple’s mutual exchange of consent during their wedding, recognized as the liturgy’s indispensable element and which brings the marriage ‘into being’ (Canon Law 1057), is blessed in the Rite’s Nuptial Blessing. 

The Church desires to enrich the life of the family through the Proclamation of the Word of God and special blessings.  Married couples often request a blessing on their continuing marriage, especially on significant anniversaries.     

The Church willingly shares with the couple the joy of their married life by providing various rites of blessings for diverse occasions. 

The Church also desires to be part of the celebration of a couple’s engagement by offering blessings for the newly engaged and for their engagement rings.

A couple participating in God’s love through the Sacrament of Marriage, co-operate in the gift of life through the birth of their children.  It is appropriate that they receive God’s blessing as they wait in faith and hope for the birth of a child.  

These and other rites of blessings enrich the life of the family and the community by proclaiming the Word of God, by giving praise to God and by ‘serving to better God’s people’.    (Book of Blessings 11)

The Book of Blessings is a rich source that has many appropriate pastoral uses. In celebrating Blessings the Church praises the Lord and implores ‘divine grace which flows from the paschal mystery’.  (Sacrosanctum Concilium 61)

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This article was originally published in  ‘Vocations & Ministry.  ©  Diocese of Parramatta.  2005, 2007. Reprinted with permission.