The other day I wrote about the special blessing for herbs and flowers in the Rituale Romanum for the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady.
Someone sent a photo and text.
Since you have mentioned a couple of times the tradition of blessing flowers and herbs on the Solemnity of the Assumption, I thought I’d forward you a couple of pictures from Holy Mass last evening at my parish here in Pittsburgh. The pastor is the Very Reverend Brian J. Welding and he has done this the past couple of years.
He’s also made quite a few changes to the sanctuary (the church used to be a trolley barn), [Brick by brick!] including adding the statue of the Blessed Mother you see in the background (St. Joseph is on the other side), new antependiums and dossal curtain, Benedictine altar arrangement, an awesome tabernacle which unfortunately can’t be seen here and the stations which you see in the background. The altar is soon to be redone as well. :-) I’m hoping to have some nice before/after photos once the altar is finished.
Another has come in:
Fr. Mike Morrow blesses herbs and flowers
Loading ...
I forgot my pot of lemon thyme on the back porch.
But we were on time (!) for a beautiful Vigil Mass in the EF. Incense, a half-dozne altar boys, a girls’ schola – our parish rocks. Afterwards, Father spoke to us about plans to rescue the altar rail from our local minor basilica and have it refurb’d and installed in our parish.
Brick by brick!
At St. Michael’s Russian Catholic Chapel (www.stmichaelruscath.org) on Mulberry Street flowers were blessed at the first Vespers of the Dormition.
At Our Lady of Czestochowa in Turners Falls, MA flowers and herbs are blessed every year for the Assumption. Father says this is an old Polish custom.
And if you forget to bring your own, the ladies have nosegays available for a donation.
http://www.chroniclesofczestochowa.com/
I love these devotions, and the lovely church! Our parish has a Polish history, and I have enjoyed the Blessing of the Food custom for Easter. This year I will bring my own lamb cake. These beautiful customs bind us to church and give something to pass along to our children and grandchildren. Children, no matter how they may act indifferently, come to love these practices, and end up sharing them with friends. “Our family always does this…” is a phrase I have come to hear and enjoy. As Tevye said “Tradition!…”
Father Bart Juncer said our High Mass at 7:30 p.m. last night St. John Cantius Church, Chicago IL and as our pastor, Father Frank Phillips had done in previous years, Fr. Juncer blessed herbs and flowers brought by our parishioners. No pictures as scaffolding is up everywhere while our ceiling paintings and wall frescoes are restored to their 1903 splendor.
With these stories about blessing this or that and such and such a time, I wonder: when is the appropriate time to call down curses on rodents and other pesky critters?
By happy chance I wound up singing the Gregorian Chant High Mass (EF) at St. Martin’s Church in Zagreb. I was thus caught in choro without any herbs when the priest came back from the sacristy after Mass to bless them. Luckily, and in true Croatian style, one of the women in the congregation noticed that we were lacking plants and came rushing up with sprigs of basil and rosemary for us just in time for the blessing and aspersion. (Ironically I got the basil, to which my wife is quite allergic, so I had to give it away afterwards).
@dans0622: The appropriate time is when you see one of those little boogers peeking their heads out!