GOD BLESS YOU

I can’t shake this image.

I was sitting in my place in the unused choir loft during mass a few months back at which was celebrated the Rite of Acceptance for RCIA. This is when the catechumens express their desire to enter into more fully the process of becoming one with Christ’s Church. As part of the ritual the sponsors make the sign of the cross on their person’s forehead, ears, eyes, lips heart, shoulders, hands, and feet. During this time the pastor is reading such things as, “Receive the sign of the cross on your forehead. It is Christ himself who now strengthens you with this sign of His love. Learn to follow Him. Receive the sign of the cross on your ears that you may hear the voice of the Lord. . . .”

Now, in RCIA there is a young couple who is preparing for marriage. He is coming into the Church and she is his sponsor. How moving it was to see her signing and blessing the man she intended to vow her life to and make the father of her children. The priest may have been saying, “Receive the sign of the cross on your lips that you may respond to the word of God,” but it seemed she was saying, “bless these lips with which you show me love, may they be chaste and may the bless our children.” When she blessed his shoulder the priest may have read, “Receive the sign of the cross on your shoulders, that you may bear the gentle yoke of Christ,” but it was as if she were blessing “the shoulders that will bear the labor of man to support the new home we establish in Godly order.”

A desire burned in me then. It was a passionate desire that all couples would love each other to such a degree that not only would they want holiness for each other but that they would take the initiative to manifest that prayer in such a fashion. I don’t have a lot of confidence in many of the things that we do in marriage prep but I do emphasize prayer and especially praying together. But this is even a step further.

I make this plea particularly to men (probably because they can be the least comfortable with it.) As spiritual head of the household do you pray daily for yourself as husband and father, and your family that they may be close to the Lord? Do you fathers bless your children? Unsure of how to do it? Get a copy of the Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers. An example can be as easy as tracing the sign of the cross on your child’s forehead and saying, “May God bless you and protect you.”

If you are not with someone and hope to be, start praying for that person now. Pray that God may bless them and that He may prepare you to be a good partner. And if you are single and plan on staying that way (like me) pray for those who enrich your life, especially your friends. How precious they are.

And finally may God bless you.