Topic:  Is it wrong to bless things yourself?

Source of this posting: Moderator response

Date originally posted: February 9, 2003

Moderator who originally posted this source: Father Phillip

Question:   Is it wrong to bless water, oil, homes yourself? I always believed that these were left up to the priest to do. I have been informing my friend about Roman Catholicism. He asked me this question and I don't know exactly what to say. How should I respond to him? Thankyou for your time. - Jennifer

Answer: 

Good question -- from you AND from your friend! Hummm...how best to respond?

Well, I would say that it is not WRONG for you (or for any Catholic or Christian, for that matter) to ask prayerfully that God send divine blessing to water, oil, and/or homes. In fact, I suspect that we should constantly be asking God for blessings on ourselves, on those whom we love, and on the "things" that are important to us in our daily lives.

However, the teaching of the Church is clear that 'official,' eccelisal, sacramental blessings are reserved for the ordained to offer in God's Name. A Bishop or a priest can offer the Church's blessing to a thing or to a person at virtually any time. A deacon can, I believe, bless people or things if the blessing is offered in a liturgical context.

The question, of course, then becomes: What's the difference between the blessing that an ordained person offers in the name of the Church and a blessing that may come to a person or thing as a result of a non-ordained person praying to God for some type of blessing from God.

And frankly, I'm not sure I can give you an exact answer to that question.

The answer may go something like this: A blessing -- or either sort -- doesn't really change the essential or intrinsic nature of the person or thing. Rather, a blessing is a 'grace' that God gives to the person or thing. In a manner of speaking, we might say that a blessing is "added on to" a person or thing.

(For a point of comparison, you might think of the Eucharist in which the very essence of the bread is changed into the Body of Christ and the intrinsic substance of the wine is changed into the Precious Blood of the Lord.)

Certainly, only God can 'really' give a blessing. And God can choose to give that blessing through an ordained person or through a non-ordained person. The difference, then, is that God calls some persons, that is, the ordained, to a state of life in which that ordained person is so configured to Christ -- through the grace of the Sacrament of Holy Orders -- that the ordained person is "always" able to be the 'conduit' through whom God generously and graciously gives the divine blessing. Not to be irreverent, but in the case of the ordained person, the blessing "always 'works'!"

God is 'free,' of course, to offer divine blessing in response to the prayer of a non-ordained person as well. In this case, though, the blessing is not, so to speak, as "sure a thing" because the non-ordained person has not been configured to Christ through the Sacrament of Holy Orders. That is NOT to say, though, that the blessing which God can give as a response to the prayer of a non-ordained person is worthless.

It's just that we can be absolutely "sure" that when God gives a blessing through the ministry of a person who has been ordained that, because of the goodness of God (not because of anything having to do with the relative goodness or lack thereof on the part of the ordained person), the blessing has, in fact, been imparted.

Hope this may help :-) And many BLESSINGS to you as you continue to explain our faith to your friend!

Blessings,
Father Phillip