Blessed

"Bless me, Father, for I have sinned..."

"I'm so blessed to have you as my friend!"

"I bless you, creature of water, in the name of God the Father..."

"I'm just counting my blessings!"

"Bless the Lord, oh my soul, all within me, bless His holy name."

"Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb..."

"Gesundheit!"

St. Turibius Chapel

    Okay, just what is a blessing?

    CCC 2626 says: "Blessing expresses the basic movement of Christian prayer: it is an encounter between God and man. In blessing, God's gift and man's acceptance of it are united in dialogue with each other... because God blesses, the human heart can in return bless the one who is the source of every blessing,"

    That was a lot of words. Time to break down daily life of blessing, with some stories.

    We, as Catholics, get blessed a lot. Liturgically blessed (think mass, adoration), personally blessed (by priests, by parents), and... creatively blessed. That's not an official term, that's my inexperienced lexicon doing the best it can. I'm talking about "counting our blessings"- simply appreciating the gifts we have been given. But we can also bless others; we can be the blessing, the gift, to others.

    I've experienced a lot of blessing in seminary. Liturgically, I have received blessings in mass and in adoration.* Adoration occurs every day at 5:00 in St. Turibius chapel (shown in the photo). This is where I offer up all the intentions of those praying for me, that Jesus may bless them, too! Just in this first week, our priests have blessed me, my brother seminarians, sacramentals... last night, priests blessed all our rooms throughout our dorm building. My parent's have blessed me over the phone, through their roles as my mother and father. And, I have experienced God's blessings, His gifts, in many different ways that I have been called to thank Him for. 

    God's blessing for us does two things. It gives us a gift of grace, and it sets us apart. Think of how holy water is blessed- it is set apart for specific use, and it is a gift for us. This is why Our Lady is the Blessed Mother- She was given an incredible gift by God, to be perfectly immaculate, made holy by the presence of Christ. She was set apart for this purpose. However, she could only do this because she completely received the will of God!

    This is another good reason why we so desperately need the help of the Immaculata! We have so much trouble accepting the will of God, and so we lose so many blessings that He wants for us. The Mediatrix of All Graces, our Mother, Mary, can teach us to receive them as a mother teaches a child to eat vegetables.

    In addition, She can teach us to bless God! it is fitting that directly after benediction in Eucharistic adoration, we cry out, "Blessed be God...!" For after we have been blessed (we receive His gift of His will), we can bless Him (entrust our lives as a fitting oblation to Him). But if we need Our Lady's help to receive blessing, we then also need Her help for our souls to bless God. She will purify our offering, carrying it with Her in the assumption, as angels send sweet incense of our prayers unto the Lord...

    The point is, we need Our Queen, Our Mother, Maria, if we are to be blessed, and to bless. I say again- as Catholics, we are blessed often. We hope to bless often. However, we cannot do this without Her who has given us every blessing, and gives perfect blessing. Think of these blessings often, ask for Her help, and finally, give glory to God. The blessing, the gift of God in Our Lady is beautiful- do not forget it!

*In fact, did you know that the humeral veil (shown here):

...is meant to show that it is not the priest who administers a blessing, but Jesus himself. The veil covers the hands of the priest- they do not touch the monstrance.