rdfs:comment
| - In its widest acceptation Blessing has a variety of meanings in the sacred writings:
* It has taken in a sense that is synonymous with praise; thus the Psalmist, "I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall be always in my mouth" (Ps. xxxiii, 1).
* It is used to express a wish or desire that all good fortune, especially of a spiritual or supernatural kind, may go with the person or thing, as when David says: "Blessed art thou, and it shall be well with thee" (Ps. cxxvii, 2).
* It signifies the sanctification or dedication of a, person or thing to some sacred purpose; "Christ took bread and blessed, and broke" (Matthew 26:26).
* Finally it is employed to designate a gift so Naaman addresses Eliseus: "I beseech thee therefore take a blessing of thy servant" (2 Kings 6:
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abstract
| - In its widest acceptation Blessing has a variety of meanings in the sacred writings:
* It has taken in a sense that is synonymous with praise; thus the Psalmist, "I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall be always in my mouth" (Ps. xxxiii, 1).
* It is used to express a wish or desire that all good fortune, especially of a spiritual or supernatural kind, may go with the person or thing, as when David says: "Blessed art thou, and it shall be well with thee" (Ps. cxxvii, 2).
* It signifies the sanctification or dedication of a, person or thing to some sacred purpose; "Christ took bread and blessed, and broke" (Matthew 26:26).
* Finally it is employed to designate a gift so Naaman addresses Eliseus: "I beseech thee therefore take a blessing of thy servant" (2 Kings 6:15). With these various significations it is not the present purpose to deal. Coming, then, to its strictly liturgical and restricted sense, blessing may be described as a rite, consisting of a ceremony and prayers performed in the name and with the authority of the Church by a duly qualified minister, by which persons or things are sanctified as dedicated to Divine service, or by which certain marks of Divine favour are invoked upon them.
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