Today we traditionally have the blessing of throats in honor of St. Blaise. Since yesterday was Candlemas it is logical to associate the blessing with candles.
Did you receive a St. Blaise Day blessing of the throat? The combox is open to those who are registered and approved. You don’t have to be registered to vote… sort of like Chicago. Unlike Chicago, you have to be alive.
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Grades 1-8 at St. Martin of Tours in Amityville, then a Dominican parish (priests and sisters) the candles/throat blessing was an annual event.
Then I miss a few decades, and lose my thyroid…
My parish did the blessing of throats this past Sunday. Despite using extraordinary ministers of holy communion more than I think is necessary, the priests and deacons not celebrating the mass came in to assist with throat blessing (they don’t do that for communion). We also have 3-4 seminarians assigned to our parish who also assisted with blessing throats. I believe one is a transitional deacon, the others are at various lower stages.
In the modern seminary formation process, what is the difference between a blessing from such a seminarian and a lay person?
I think the blessing will be done after mass this Sunday at our parish (as well as today, of course, but I can’t get to mass today so I’ll receive the blessing on Sunday)…by a priest (FSSP parish).
Unless it’s the EFM it’s hard to get excited about attending rituals like this when you know it will likely be a layperson in my parish anyway administering the blessing, if they are in fact even qualified for it.
My parish did the blessing after 9:00 AM Mass this morning. I have to be in at work by 8:00 AM.
Brought two blessed candles from home, politely asked Father to bless my throat before 8:15 Mass. He also gave a communal throat blessing at the end of Mass. Candle-brandishing Lay people will assist at all Masses this weekend. Caveat emptor!
I didn’t receive a throat blessing (can a priest bless himself?), but I gave a bunch.
The priest gave the blessing en masse; that is, he said that because many couldn’t make it to the Mass for the blessing, he did it from the altar by holding up the candles towards the congregation and said the blessing.
Fr offered the blessing (in English) after the EF Mass this morning. He told me this after-noon; I did not attend, unfortunately. Still, I am glad to know that such things go on at our parish.
St. Patrick, run by Dominican friars, in Columbus, OH had three priests giving the blessing after the 11:45 Mass.
My parish will have the blessing on Sunday. If past practices hold true, the priest and laypeople will be giving the blessing and if our deacon if he is there.
In the modern seminary formation process, what is the difference between a blessing from such a seminarian and a lay person?
Both are lay people and lay people can’t give blessings except in a few very limited settings (none of which include the Blessing of Throats).
My family received the St. Blase blessing after Mass at our FSSP parish. Our nearly-two-year old tried to resist, but I think it took anyway. :)
Correction: the St. “Blaise” blessing … there is nothing “blasé” about the St. Blaise blessing.
Yes… at this evening’s Novus Ordo First Friday Mass for the youth group, from a priest who is not noted for traditional leanings. What was nice was the number of teenagers who found it slightly odd but were willing to receive the blessing.
We received the Blessing at the 9AM Mass — Saint Matthews Dix Hills LI. — Fr. Sikorski blessed all out throats during Mass.
Same situation as stpetric – couldn’t bless myself – but gave lots today.
At my school, we had a number students and teachers (all are laity) who blessed everyone individually. But, they each only used one candle. I always thought it had to be two?
Made it to Candlemas but the gas money is short so didn’t get to the Throat Blessing today. It’s a 2 hour drive each way to our EF Mass.
First Friday Mass at 5:45 am. (OF Form.) Before Mass, Lauds and the Angelus, then Mass, with the blessing of throats (Two priests, each with two candles), then exposition and benediction.
The first time I’ve received the blessing of throats in the OF. I had a bad bout of bronchitis last year, so I was glad to renew the blessing.
Just learned that throats will be blessed after this Sunday’s Mass.
I voted “yes, from a priest,” but it in an irregular (and possibly illicit) manner. The priest replaced the final blessing of Mass with the throat blessing, and didn’t use candles.
I’m happy to do it upon request. We don’t do it en masse. I would never think of having an EM do it. And there is no deacon here. I’ve always felt it semi-superstitious and never participated beginning in high school. But if I am asked I will happily do it for somebody.
With stpetric and Joe in Canada, this is the situation we priests in small parishes often find ourselves in. We can give lots of blessings, but we have to seek out a neighboring priests to give each other the blessing. One of my classmates is recovering in hospital from surgery (an answer to prayer) and I have been offering Mass in his room during his recovery. He was able to hold the candles to bless me and then I blessed him. A truly joy-filled moment.
frjim4321, don’t be afraid! Even if some people look on this blessing as if it were magic, it is not. It is a true sacramental of the Church and a great source of actual graces and even physical healing.
Let me encourage you to take the lead here. All that has to happen for our people to be cheated out of some of the riches of their birthright is for us priests to discourage the use of Sacramentals by not taking the lead. Holy Water, Crucifixes, Brown Scapular, Ashes, Palms, Blessed Candles — these are some of the spiritual wealth we have as Catholics. Not strictly necessary for a subsistence level in the Spiritual Life, but since the Church gives them to us, why not use them?
I would have liked to go but the roads in the area were covered in ice and there were many accidents so I stayed home.
1. The FSSP was created by JPII to receive members of the SSPX, and the first few priests came from it. Since then some diocesan priests joined (incl Fr Jackson) and a few from religious institutes. Combined with priests ordained from its own seminaries, the FSSP now has relatively few with SSPX background.
2. I taught in their seminary for four years and never saw any resentment of the SSPX. I do remember one older priest who was apprehensive about vocations should there be reunion with the SSPX. The entering classes, however, have been so big that I doubt that anyone is concerned about future vocations.
3. Except for Latin liturgy and cassocks, the FSSP and SSPX don’t have much in common. The FSSP is much more laid back and doesn’t spend much time raving about VatII.
4. Ministeria Quaedam in 1972 established the clerical state as beginning with the diaconate. It also suppressed first tonsure, minor orders, and the subdiaconate, replacing them with lay ministries. The FSSP and SSPX never replaced them.
We need another option on the poll (perhaps the cuckoo option?). Today, Sunday, the priest replaced the final blessing with the St. Blaise Day throat blessing.
A blessing is asking Our Lord to grant something.We are all called to bless & be blessed.I watched my wife bless each one of our 5 children as they left the house for the past 50 years. Our Lord gave these children to my wife and I for safekeeping and we will be asked how we handled this responsibility. [Great!]
I maintain that her Blessing is more efficacious that the Churches Blessing that is imparted by a priest! [Who knows?] There are times when a priest acts in the “persona of Christ” that are regulated to a priest, such as the Consecration , but a blessing is not one of them. [Wrong.]
There are over 7 thousand times the blessing is mentioned in the bible.
To regulate it to priests & deacons only seems to be clericalism . [Wrong.]
thomas jd
I have to agree with your that your wife’s (and your) blessing of your children is efficacious. God has entrusted your children to you, as you said. and with that comes the power to bless efficaciously. God has also entrusted them (and you) to your Parish Priest through the Bishop’ appointment. He is charged with care of your souls, and so, in addition to his conformation to Christ through his Ordination, he has a special power to bless you because of this “care of souls”.
I expect you did not really mean to suggest that he doesn’t or that your wife’s blessing is somehow not the Church’s blessing in making the comparison above.
I would add, though, that what you offer as a definition of a blessing is really a description of the power of all the baptized to pray for each other. the power to bless, strictly speaking, is more than that. It involves speaking in the name of the Church, so all blessings are the Church’s blessings – including the parents’ blessing of their children) and, as a sacramental, it is efficacious of the (actual)graces it seeks.
It belongs to the Church to regulate blessings, as it belongs to her to regulate all the sacramentals.
The blessing of throats in honor of St. Blaise that we have been talking about is restricted by the Church (who certainly has the power to do this) to priests and Deacons.
I am in formation for the permanent diaconate, and I was fortunate enough that Fr asked me to assist him with the blessing of throats after morning Mass. I call tell you what a privilege it was to pray the prayer of blessing over those individuals, and I look forward to the time (God willing) that I will be able to do this as a regular part of my ministry.
I was very happy that we had the blessing of throats in our sparsely attended daily Mass. It hadn’t been mentioned the previous Sunday, but our new-ish priest came through. Father had one of the lay women read the words and bless his throat. She also made the sign of the cross with her hand over him, as you would see a priest bless someone. It was a bit of a shock, but our deacon wasn’t there, so…
I checked “priest or deacon” because a bishop has priestly and diaconal orders…