Book of Blessings: Approved for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and Confirmed by the Apostolic See (Roman Ritual)

Rating:
Summary: Great resource for Catholic parishes
Review: The Book of Blessings (BB) contains a great many blessings for various ocassions, including: birthday blessings, blessing of mothers before/after childbirth, blessing of animals, blessing of mothers/fathers/families, blessing of liturgical/pastoral ministers etc. This great resource recalls the Catholic tradition that God has touched every moment of our lives by his incarnation, and that we are called to be people of blessing.

BB actually highlights the Church's teachings that objects are blessed for the benefit of the people by the way the blessings are structured. The focus is not so much on the object, but on the people who will benefit from the use of the objects, thus emphasizing the faith of the Church that all things are created for the good of human beings. The overt focus on the liturgy of the word might hamper its use at certain ocassions though, and guidelines for the adaptation of rites to particular circumstances could be provided in the coming revision.

Overall, this book produced by the Liturgical Press is beautifully crafted. It uses the NAB with revised NT for its scriptural texts.

Rating:
Summary: Official but Unfortunate
Review: The new "Book of Blessings" is practically necessary for Catholic ministries, but one might (without the least disrespect for its authors or the Holy See) observe that, unfortunately, it does not represent the fullness of the Catholic tradition.

Page after page the new ritual shies away from actually blessing THINGS, opting instead for prayers that the people who use or see the things will be blessed. One might wonder whether someone's quasi-Manichaean tendencies are not at work here -- the Church, after all, gladly blesses a variety of material creatures (candles, oil, fire, water, palms, etc) in her liturgy without thinking that she thereby makes them into good-luck charms or magical objects. Moreover, the blessing of houses, animals, fields, devotional articles, etc., outside the liturgy is deeply engrained in Catholic tradition. (And speaking of such blessings: it is really necessary to have a liturgy of the Word for every little blessing? This seems like a good idea gotten out of hand!)

Although the B of B is our current official ritual book, one may hope for improvements. Since the whole creation is renewed in Christ, perhaps it is not so wrong to consecrate THINGS to the purposes of the Kingdom.

Rating:
Summary: Official but Unfortunate
Review: The new "Book of Blessings" is practically necessary for Catholic ministries, but one might (without the least disrespect for its authors or the Holy See) observe that, unfortunately, it does not represent the fullness of the Catholic tradition.

Page after page the new ritual shies away from actually blessing THINGS, opting instead for prayers that the people who use or see the things will be blessed. One might wonder whether someone's quasi-Manichaean tendencies are not at work here -- the Church, after all, gladly blesses a variety of material creatures (candles, oil, fire, water, palms, etc) in her liturgy without thinking that she thereby makes them into good-luck charms or magical objects. Moreover, the blessing of houses, animals, fields, devotional articles, etc., outside the liturgy is deeply engrained in Catholic tradition. (And speaking of such blessings: it is really necessary to have a liturgy of the Word for every little blessing? This seems like a good idea gotten out of hand!)

Although the B of B is our current official ritual book, one may hope for improvements. Since the whole creation is renewed in Christ, perhaps it is not so wrong to consecrate THINGS to the purposes of the Kingdom.

Rating:
Summary: A Blessing itself
Review: This book contains rites for blessing all manner of church articles, holy reminders, religous goods and peoples. I am thankfull that this resource is available and is being used. Too many priests, when asked to bless something ignore these approved rites and opt to simply make the sign of the cross over whatever it is they are blessing. Personally I will not go to a priest that does not use the full rite of blessing. I hope you will all like this book as much as I do.



Rating:
Summary: De Benedictionibus...
Review: This is the official English translation of the Latin "De Benedictionibus" and is the authorized text for Roman Catholic blessings. Some things deserve mention beyond these basic facts, however. In practice I do not see this book receiving widespread use. It will surely be used for those occasions when a bishop blesses a new organ or set of bells for a parish, or when ministers are installed for service...but when an elderly woman wants her rosary beads blessed, I doubt whether any priest will celebrate a Liturgy of the Word with optional singing and general intercessions. Also, scanning these prayers of blessing one often wonders exactly when the objects are blessed...there is a lot of talking about blessing but not much actual explicit blessing...many of the prayers of the former Roman Ritual for blessing were far better from the literary sense and actually conveyed to lay people without a theological training in blessings the idea that their cars-bibles-crosses were actually being blessed.

Rating:
Summary: Great resource for Catholic parishes
Review: This is the official English translation of the Latin "De Benedictionibus" and is the authorized text for Roman Catholic blessings. Some things deserve mention beyond these basic facts, however. In practice I do not see this book receiving widespread use. It will surely be used for those occasions when a bishop blesses a new organ or set of bells for a parish, or when ministers are installed for service...but when an elderly woman wants her rosary beads blessed, I doubt whether any priest will celebrate a Liturgy of the Word with optional singing and general intercessions. Also, scanning these prayers of blessing one often wonders exactly when the objects are blessed...there is a lot of talking about blessing but not much actual explicit blessing...many of the prayers of the former Roman Ritual for blessing were far better from the literary sense and actually conveyed to lay people without a theological training in blessings the idea that their cars-bibles-crosses were actually being blessed.