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QUESTION: What is the difference between a blessing and a benediction?
ANSWER: from the Logos/Verbum AI all search synopsis:
A blessing and a benediction are closely related concepts, often used interchangeably, but with some subtle differences. A blessing is generally understood as an expression of good wishes or a prayer for happiness upon someone. It can be a solemn pronouncement invoking happiness or divine favor. A benediction, derived from Latin meaning "good speaking," is often translated as "blessing" and is typically used in religious contexts. In Christian worship services, the term "benediction" is commonly used in Protestant churches, while "blessing" is more prevalent in Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican traditions. Both involve the pronouncement of God's favor upon a congregation, usually at the conclusion of a service. Blessings can also refer to thanksgiving for food and drink, or to gifts and advantages that promote happiness and well-being. In religious practice, blessings or benedictions are often delivered by clergy, based on biblical precedent, to assure believers of God's grace and favor.1
From Harford, George, Morley Stevenson, and J. W. Tyrer, eds. The Prayer Book Dictionary. New York: Longman, 1912.
BENEDICTION, OR BLESSING
1. Definition
By a B. in the liturgical sense of the word is meant the invoking of God’s blessing on some person or thing. A distinction is sometimes drawn between B. on the one hand, and Dedication or Consecration on the other, the latter implying a permanent setting apart to the service of God, which is not of necessity implied in the former. In the present art no distinction is drawn between the two.
2. Benediction of Things
The B. of things is a custom of great antiquity in the Christian Church. Basil (c. 370) says: “We bless the water of baptism and the oil of unction” (On the Holy Ghost 27 66—a passage in which he is giving a list of Church customs so old in his days that they were believed to have been of apostolic origin). In the Middle Ages nothing from a church down to the smallest article of clerical dress was used in the service of God until it had received a blessing.
There were, besides, other Bs. recurring periodically on certain fixed days. Of these we may mention, in the East, the Blessing of the Waters on the Epiphany, and of the Holy Chrism on Maundy Thursday.
Among the more important in the West are the Blessing of Holy Water every Sunday before Mass, the Blessing of Candles on the Purification of B.V. Mary, of Ashes on the first day of Lent, of Palms, etc., on Palm Sunday, of the Holy Oils on Maundy Thursday, of the Paschal Taper and the Font on Easter Even, and again of the Font on Whitsun Even.
The only Bs. of things to be found in the PB are the blessing of the bread and wine in the pr. of Consecr. (see Communion, Holy, § 10) and that of the water in the Baptismal Offices. though some others, such as the Consecration of Churches and Churchyards, have always been and are still in use in the Church of England. There is a tendency in the present day to revive the custom of blessing things, and forms, more or less suitable, may be found in The Priest’s Prayer Book and similar compilations.
3. Benediction of Persons
Under the head of B. of Persons we must distinguish between the special benedictive services by which men are dedicated to some office or position (see arts. Baptism, Confirmation, Marriage Service, Ordinal, Institution, Coronation. etc.), and ordinary Benedictions. It is of the latter that we treat here. Many prayers are in their purpose and meaning benedictive. But to constitute a B. proper, three things are necessary.
(a) The person who gives it must possess authority. “Without any dispute the less is blessed of the better” (Heb. 7:7 RV). In liturgical use this is carried out by putting Bs. in the mouth of a bishop, if present, or, in his absence, of a priest (see Clemens Alex., Pædagog. iii. 11 63; Apost. Constit. 8 28). (b) The recipients of the blessing must be addressed directly in the second person, (c) The blessing must be couched in the imperative or optative mood.
Many such Bs. are to be found in the Bible, e.g., in the OT, Gen. 28:3–4, Num. 6:24–26, and, in the NT, 1 Cor. 16:23, 2 Cor. 13:14. The natural liturgical position of a B. of this kind is at the end of a service, or of some special part of a service. That was the case among the Jews (Ecclus. 50:19–20), and in the early Church (see Conclusions of St. Paul’s Epistles).
4. Benedictions in PB
There are twelve Bs. proper in the PB: (1) Absol. in HC, (2) first half of Absol. in VS, (3) and (4) first half of Words of Administration of Elements in HC, (5) and (6) in the Marriage Service, (7) and (8) in Offices of Ordering Priests and Consecrating Bishops immediately after questions addressed to Ordinands, (9) and (10) at end of VS, (11) first half of final Blessing in HC, (12) second half of final Blessing in HC, repeated (with slight variations) at end of Confirmation Service. (See further, respective arts.) All of these except (10) occurred in PB of 1549, and have remained the same ever since except for minor changes. (10) was introduced in 1662. (1), (2), (3), (4), (5) and (6) are based on Sarum forms. This is possibly the case with (7) and (8) also. (9), (10) and (11) are taken from Scripture:—(9) from Ps. 61:3, Phil. 2:10 and Acts 4:12; (10) from Num. 6:24–26; (11) from Phil. 4:7. (12) is the mediæval episcopal or abbatial blessing, “Benedictio Dei omnipotentis, Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, super vos descendat et maneat semper” (Westminster Missal, HBS, 2 572). The Amer. PB contains a thirteenth B. occurring in Office of Institution of Ministers, and taken from Heb. 13:20–21.
Besides these formal Bs. there are in the PB one or two quasi-Benedictions, as at end of MP and EP, and of Commination Office. These differ from Bs. proper in the use of the first person instead of the second, owing to the speaker being likewise included among those who are to receive the blessing.
5. Ritual of Benediction
It is natural for the priest who pronounces a blessing to stand in token of authority with his face towards the recipients, and for them to kneel. And this is usually ordered, explicitly or implicitly, in the rubrics of the PB. Two other acts of ritual are often associated with Benediction:
(a) The lifting up of the hand. This has Scriptural sanction (Lev. 9:22, Luke 24:50). (b) The sign of the cross. This was constantly used in mediæval Bs., and is of considerable antiquity, as we see from James of Edessa’s letter to Thomas the presbyter (c. 700—Bright man’s Eastern Liturgies, p. 493). In the PB of 1549 it was retained in the Blessings of the Marriage Service, but was omitted in 1552. According to the Lincoln Judgment it is not now lawful, at any rate in the Bs. of the Communion Office.
6. Literature
DCA, art. Benedictions; Cabrol, DAC, arts. Bénédiction’s Bénédictions Episcopales, Bénir (Manière de); Martene, De Antiq. Eccles. Rit., Bk. 2, De Sacris Benedictionibus; mediæval Benedictionals, e.g., Benedictional of Abp. Robert (HBS).—b2. J. W. Tyrer.
1 Merriam-Webster, Inc. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Thesaurus (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1996). and Noah Webster, Noah Webster’s First Edition of An American Dictionary of the English Language. (Anaheim, CA: Foundation for American Christian Education, 2006). and Michelle Anthony and Megan Marshman, 7 Family Ministry Essentials: A Strategy for Culture Change in Children’s and Student Ministries (Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook, 2015), 46. and Walter A. Elwell and Philip Wesley Comfort, Tyndale Bible Dictionary, Tyndale Reference Library (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), 226.
