Blessing of Sacramentals

[mike6240]

Does anyone on FE know the proper way of having rosaries, crosses, medals, etc blessed?  Is there a special Mass or a day in which the blessing of sacramentals are offered?  Or would you just ask a priest, there and then, to bless the items you have?

[Caesar]

The latter is correct. Just approach your priest and ask to have your sacramentals blessed. After Mass is the best time for this.

You may want to wait for certain days to have various sacramentals blessed though- for example, it might be good to be enrolled in the Brown Scapular on the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, or in the Medal of St. Benedict on his feastday, ect.

[mike6240]

The latter is correct. Just approach your priest and ask to have your sacramentals blessed. After Mass is the best time for this.

You may want to wait for certain days to have various sacramentals blessed though- for example, it might be good to be enrolled in the Brown Scapular on the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, or in the Medal of St. Benedict on his feastday, ect.

Thanks! 

[tonio5555]

My priest has a nice pocket sized book of countless traditional blessings for different sacramentals. Its a shame it must be so long out of print I don't know wheer one could be found. Of course the priest could just use a simple "...name of the Father, Son, Holy Ghost..." formula but having the proper formula is really great.

[Catholic777]

These blessings are all in the Rituale.

A traditional priest who isn't lazy will use it. A rushed or lazy priest, or a novus ordo inclined priest, is likely to just use a simple sign of the cross (even though there is a novus ordo "book of blessings").

And a simple sign of the cross does suffice for a "general blessing" of most items.

But it does NOT suffice for the enrollment in scapulars. Nor does it suffice for the particular graces and effects of certain specific blessings and sacramentals. For example, the rituale contains a ceremony where oil can be blessed in honor of st. serapion...which is different from merely "oil that happens to be blessed"--for example, as a mere victual. And water can be blessed in honor of St. Albert or St. Ignatius or "for the sick in honor of St. Vincent Ferrer"...which are different than simple Holy Water or "water that happens to be blessed".

[Catholic777]

I know a (traditionalist) parish where the priest uses the traditional blessing from the Rituale on a box of salt before mass, and then leaves it next to the Holy Water tank with some baggies after Mass so that people can take some Blessed Salt home also.

If I were a priest, I'd weekly (or at least monthly, depending on demand) have a service after Sunday Mass where there'd be at the door a list with all the specific blessings from the rituale listed. And people would come to the list and "sign in," checking any of the blessings that they wanted that week or had that type of item there with them to be blessed. And then I could look through the list, see which blessings were selected that week and then go up (in cope, with the aspergillium and holy water) and ask, for example, "will all those with rosaries to be blessed now come up" or "will the person who wanted a chaplet of st. joseph blessed come up?" or "will the children to be enrolled in the black scapular come up?" or "will those who have food or victuals to be blessed come up" or whatever, and then do those blessings all at once, under one heading, so that the full traditional ceremony could be used...but it would also be done all at once so that I wouldn't have to keep repeating the rosary blessing throughout the week (unless they really needed it right away during the week, of course I wouldnt deny them)...I could just refer them to the Blessing Service on Sundays. And then at the end I'd do the blessing "for anything" for anything people had brought that didnt have a specific separate blessing in the rituale.

I'd like to think that this would help encourage people to get things blessed more often and make traditional blessings a part of their life, and might help some people who feel awkward always bugging the priest to bless different things to have a formal, official time specifically set aside for doing so.

[jovan66102]

My former pastor announced that blessings would take place in the sacristy after Mass. When I approached him to bless my Dodge van, I apologised that I couldn't bring it into the sacristy to be blessed!

[mike6240]

I know a (traditionalist) parish where the priest uses the traditional blessing from the Rituale on a box of salt before mass, and then leaves it next to the Holy Water tank with some baggies after Mass so that people can take some Blessed Salt home also.

If I were a priest, I'd weekly (or at least monthly, depending on demand) have a service after Sunday Mass where there'd be at the door a list with all the specific blessings from the rituale listed. And people would come to the list and "sign in," checking any of the blessings that they wanted that week or had that type of item there with them to be blessed. And then I could look through the list, see which blessings were selected that week and then go up (in cope, with the aspergillium and holy water) and ask, for example, "will all those with rosaries to be blessed now come up" or "will the person who wanted a chaplet of st. joseph blessed come up?" or "will the children to be enrolled in the black scapular come up?" or "will those who have food or victuals to be blessed come up" or whatever, and then do those blessings all at once, under one heading, so that the full traditional ceremony could be used...but it would also be done all at once so that I wouldn't have to keep repeating the rosary blessing throughout the week (unless they really needed it right away during the week, of course I wouldnt deny them)...I could just refer them to the Blessing Service on Sundays. And then at the end I'd do the blessing "for anything" for anything people had brought that didnt have a specific separate blessing in the rituale.

I'd like to think that this would help encourage people to get things blessed more often and make traditional blessings a part of their life, and might help some people who feel awkward always bugging the priest to bless different things to have a formal, official time specifically set aside for doing so.

Having a formal official time set aside for blessings would be a blessing!  Especially for recent converts (my case) where we have new rosaries, new missals, new crucifixes, medals, etc. etc...... .  Maybe I should just invite my parish priest over to supper some night and ask him do the blessings at my home instead of bringing everything to church.

[jovan66102]

Maybe I should just invite my parish priest over to supper some night and ask him do the blessings at my home instead of bringing everything to church.

 

An absolutely excellent idea! Besides you can't take your house/suite to Church to have it blessed!