Blessing (Roman Catholic Church)
Blessings in Roman Catholicism come under the category of sacramentals. A sacramental is a special prayer, action or object which, through the prayers of the Church, prepares a person to receive grace and to better cooperate with it. Among sacramentals blessings (of persons, meals, objects, and places) come first. Every blessing praises God and prays for his gifts.
In a wider sense blessing has a variety of meanings in the sacred writings:
- Synonymous with praise; thus the Psalmist, "I will bless the Lord at all times; praise shall be always in my mouth."
- A wish or desire that all good fortune, especially of a spiritual or supernatural kind, may go with the person or thing, as the Psalmist says, "Blessed art thou, and it shall be well with thee".
- The sanctification or dedication of a person or thing to some sacred purpose; e.g, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it....
- A gift, as when Naaman addresses Eliseus: "Now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant".
Read more about Blessing (Roman Catholic Church): The Old Testament, Types, Priestly Blessing, Efficacy, Liturgy
Famous quotes containing the words blessing and/or catholic:
“Independence I have long considered as the grand blessing of life, the basis of every virtue; and independence I will ever secure by contracting my wants, though I were to live on a barren heath.”
—Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797)
“It is time that the Protestant Church, the Church of the Son, should be one again with the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of the Father. It is time that man shall cease, first to live in the flesh, with joy, and then, unsatisfied, to renounce and to mortify the flesh.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)