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Posts Tagged ‘Blessing’

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Rite for Blessing of a Child in the Womb

In 13 History on 2012/05/18 at 11:11 AM

Vatican City, 3 April 2012 (VIS) – Beginning in the second week of May when many countries around the world celebrate Mother’s Day, the text of the “Rite for the Blessing of a Child in the Womb”, having received the approval of the Holy See, will be made available in parishes throughout the United States. The announcement was made recently in a note issued by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops informing the faithful that the the text – printed in both English and Spanish – has received the “recognitio” of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, archbishop of Galveston-Houston and chairman of the episcopal conference’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities, has explained that the blessing was prepared to “support parents awaiting the birth of their child, to encourage parish prayers for and recognition of the precious gift of the child in the womb, and to foster respect for human life within society”. The blessing may be imparted either during the liturgy or outside of Mass and the text will eventually be included in the Book of Blessings, after it has been revised.

The blessing of unborn children was promoted by Archbishop Joseph Edward Kurtz of Louisville. When bishop of Knoxville he had asked the Committee on Pro-Life Activities to see whether a blessing existed for a child in the womb. When none was found, the committee began preparing a text which was presented to the Divine Worship Committee in March 2008. In November of the same year the full body of bishops approved the prayer and it was sent to the Holy See for the “recognitio”.

Copyright © Vatican Information Service Vatican City

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“Work is a blessing from God”

In 01 Daily Meditations on 2011/06/15 at 8:30 AM

Work is man’s original vocation. It is a blessing from God, and those who consider it a punishment are sadly mistaken. The Lord, who is the best of fathers, placed the first man in Paradise as worker, so that he would work. (Furrow, 482) Work is part and parcel of man’s life on earth. It involves effort, weariness, exhaustion: signs of the suffering and struggle which accompany human existence and which point to the reality of sin and the need for redemption.

But in itself work is not a penalty or a curse or a punishment: those who speak of it that way have not understood sacred Scripture properly. It is time for us Christians to shout from the rooftops that work is a gift from God and that it makes no sense to classify men differently, according to their occupation, as if some jobs were nobler than others. Work, all work, bears witness to the dignity of man, to his dominion over creation. It is an opportunity to develop one’s personality. It is a bond of union with others, the way to support one’s family, a means of aiding in the improvement of the society in which we live and in the progress of all humanity. For a Christian these horizons extend and grow wider. For work is a participation in the creative work of God. When he created man and blessed him, he said: “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and conquer it. Be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven and all living animals on the earth.” (Christ is passing by, 47)