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BENEDICTION (Lat. benedictio, from be...

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 724 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BENEDICTION (See also:Lat. benedictio, from benedicere, to bless) , generally, the utterance of a blessing or of a devout wish for the prosperity and happiness of a See also:person or enterprise. In the usage of the See also:Catholic See also:Church, both See also:East and See also:West, though the benediction as defined above has its See also:place as between one See also:Christian and another, it has also a See also:special place in the sacramental See also:system in virtue of the special See also:powers of blessing vested in the priesthood. Sacerdotal benedictions are not indeed sacraments—means of See also:grace ordained by See also:Christ himself, but See also:sacramentals (sacramenta minora) ordained by the authority of the Church and exercised by the priests, as the plenipotentiaries of See also:God, in virtue of the powers conferred on them at their ordination; " that whatever they bless may be blessed, and whatever they consecrate may be consecrated." The See also:power to bless in this ecclesiastical sense is reserved to priests alone; the blessing of the See also:paschal See also:candle on See also:Holy Saturday by the See also:deacon being the one exception that proves the See also:rule, for he uses for the purpose grains of See also:incense previously blessed by the See also:priest at the See also:altar. But though by some the benediction has thus been brought into connexion with the supreme means of grace, the See also:sacrifice of the See also:Mass, the blessing does not in itself confer grace and does not See also:act on its recipients ex opere operate. It must not be supposed, however, that the Catholic See also:idea of a sacerdotal blessing has any-thing of the vague See also:character associated with a benediction by Protestants. Both by Catholics and by Protestants blessings may be applied to things inanimate as well as animate; but while in the reformed Churches this involves no more than an See also:appeal to God for a special blessing, or a See also:solemn " setting apart " of persons or See also:objects for sacred purposes, in the Catholic idea it implies a special power, conferred by God, of the priests over the invisible forces of evil. It thus stands in the closest relation to the rite of See also:exorcism, of which it is the See also:complement. According to Catholic See also:doctrine, the Fall involved the subjection, not only of See also:man, but of all things animate and inanimate, to the See also:influence of evil See also:spirits; in support of which St See also:Paul's epistles to the See also:Romans (viii.) and to See also:Timothy (1 Tim. iv. 4-5) are quoted. This belief is, of course, not specifically Christian; it has been held at all times and everywhere by men of the most various races and See also:creeds; and, if there be any validity in the contention that that is true which has been held See also:semper, ubique. et ab See also:omnibus, no fact is better established. In See also:general it may be said, then, that whereas exorcism is practised in See also:order to See also:cast out devils already in See also:possession, benediction is the See also:formula by which they are prevented from entering in. Protestants have condemned these formulae as so much magic, and in this See also:modern See also:science tends to agree with them; but to orthodox Protestants at least Catholics have a perfect right to reply that, in taking this See also:line, they are but repeating the See also:accusation brought by the See also:Pharisees against Christ, viz. that he cast out devils "by See also:Beelzebub, See also:prince of the devils." Though, however, the discomfiture of See also:malignant spirits still plays an important See also:part in the Catholic doctrine of benedictions, this has on the whole tended to become subordinated to other benefits.

This is but natural; for, though the progress of knowledge has not disproved the existence of devils, it has greatly limited the supposed range of their activities. According to See also:

Father See also:Patrick Morrisroe, See also:dean and See also:professor of See also:liturgy at See also:Maynooth, the efficacy of benedictions is fourfold: (I) the excitation of pious emotions and affections of the See also:heart, and by their means the remission of venial sins and of the temporal punishments due for these; (2) freedom from the power of evil spirits; (3) preservation and restoration of bodily See also:health; (4) various other benefits, temporal and spiritual. Benedictions, moreover, are twofold: (a) invocative, i.e. those invoking the divine benignity for persons and things without changing their See also:condition, e.g. See also:children or See also:food; (b) constitutive, i.e. those which give to persons or things an indelible religious character, i.e. monks and nuns, or the See also:furniture of the altar. The second of these brings the act of benediction into contact with the principle of See also:consecration (q.v.); for'by the formal blessing by the duly constituted authority persons, places and things are consecrated, i.e. reserved to sacred uses and preserved from the contaminating influence of evil spirits. Thus graveyards are consecrated, i.e. solemnly blessed in order that the powers of evil may not disturb the bodies of the faithful departed; thus, too, the blessing of bells gives them a special power against evil demons. Though the giving of blessings as a sacerdotal See also:function is proper to the whole order of priests, particular benedictions have, by ecclesiastical authority, been reserved for the bishops, who may, however, delegate some of them; i.e. the benediction of abbots, of priests at their ordination, of virgins taking the See also:veil, of churches, cemeteries, oratories, and of all articles for use in connexion with the altar (chalices, patens, See also:vestments, &c.), of military See also:colours, of soldiers and of their arms. The holy oil is also blessed by bishops in the See also:Roman Catholic Church; in the See also:Greek Church, on the other See also:hand, the oil for the See also:chrism at See also:baptism is blessed by the priest. To the See also:pope alone is reserved the blessing of the See also:pallium, the See also:golden See also:rose, the "Agnus-Dei" and royal swords; he alone, too, can issue blessings that involve some days' See also:indulgence. The ceremonies prescribed for the various benedictions are set forth in the Rituale Romanum (tit. viii.). In general it is laid down (cap. i.) that the priest, in benedictions outside the Mass, shall be vested in See also:surplice and See also:stole, and shall give the blessing See also:standing and See also:bare-headed. Certain prayers are said before each benediction, after which he sprinkles the person or thing to be blessed with holy See also:water and, where prescribed, censes them. He is attended by a See also:minister with a See also:vase of holy water, an aspergillum and a copy of the Rituale or See also:missal.

In all benedictions the sign of the See also:

cross is made. In the blessing of the holy water (cap. ii.), the essential See also:instrument of all benedictions, the See also:object is clearly to establish its potency against evil spirits. First the " creature of See also:salt " is exorcized, " that . . . See also:thou mayest be to all who take thee health of See also:body and soul; that wherever thou See also:art sprinkled every phantasy and wickedness and wile of diabolic deceit may flee and Ieave that place, and every unclean spirit "; a See also:prayer to God for the blessing of the salt follows; then the " creature of water " is exorcized, " that thou mayest become exorcized water for the purpose of putting to See also:flight every power of the enemy, that thou mayest avail to uproot and expel this enemy with all his apostate angels, by the virtue of the same our See also:Lord Jesus Christ, &c."; and again a prayer to God follows that the water may " become a creature in the service of His mysteries, for the See also:driving out of demons, &c." In the formulae of blessings that follow, the special efficacy against devils is implied by the aspersion with holy water; the benedictions themselves are usually merely invocative of the divine See also:protection or assistance, though, e.g., in the See also:form forblessing sick animals the priest prays that " all diabolic power in them may be destroyed, and that they may be See also:ill no longer." It is to be remarked that the " laying on of hands," which in the Old and the New Testament alike is the usual "form" of blessing,is not used in liturgical benedictions, the priest being directed merely to extend his right hand towards the person to be blessed. The appendix de Benedictionibus to the Rituale Romanum contains formulae, often of much See also:simple beauty, for blessing all manner of persons and things, from the See also:congregation as a whole and sick men and See also:women, to See also:railways, See also:ships, blast-furnaces, See also:lime-kilns, articles of food, See also:medicine and medical bandages and all manner of domestic animals. The Benediction of the Blessed See also:Sacrament, commonly called simply " Benediction " (Fr. salut, Ger. Segen), is one of the most popular of the services of the Roman Catholic Church. It is usually held in the afternoon or evening, sometimes at the conclusion of See also:Vespers, Compline or the Stations of the Cross, and consists in the singing of certain See also:hymns and See also:canticles, more particularly the 0 salutaris hostia and the Tantum ergo, before the See also:host, which is exposed on the altar in a See also:monstrance and surrounded by not less than ten lighted candles. Often litanies and hymns to the Virgin are added. At the conclusion the priest, his shoulders wrapped in the humeral veil, takes the monstrance and with it makes the sign of the cross over the kneeling congregation, whence the name Benediction. The service, the details of which vary in different countries, is of comparatively modern origin. Father Thurston traces it to a See also:combination in the r6th and 17th centuries of customs that had their origin in the 13th, i.e. certain gild services in See also:honour of the Blessed Virgin, and the growing See also:habit, resulting naturally from the doctrine of See also:transubstantiation, of ascribing a supreme virtue to the act of looking on the Holy Sacrament.

In the reformed Churches the word " benediction " is technically confined to the blessing with which the priest or minister dismisses the congregation at the See also:

close of the service. See the See also:article " Benediktionen," by E. C. Achelis in See also:Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopddie (See also:Leipzig, 1897) ; The Catholic See also:Encyclopaedia (See also:London and New See also:York, 1908) s. " Blessing," by P. Morrisroe, and " Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament," by See also:Herbert Thurston, S.J.; in all of which further authorities are cited.

End of Article: BENEDICTION (Lat. benedictio, from benedicere, to bless)

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