What is a blessing
Blessing is the good that comes from the word itself. A powerful spiritual action that is taught verbally or in prayer. Often ritual actions with hands are added to it. The words are addressed to the person being blessed, the corresponding grace, protection and help of God are called upon him. The one who asks for a blessing admits his humility, does not rely on himself, waits for help and hope from God or his mediator. With the words “Bless, father,” the person asking confirms that he recognizes the servant of God, recognizes him, honors him, and asks for the opportunity to receive God’s grace.
In second place in terms of power after church blessing is parental blessing. The Lord himself commanded to honor your parents. To secure the natural grace power over children, God gave power to parents (blessing or curse). Using the example of the forefathers Abraham, Noah, Jacob and Isaac, we see this from Scripture. Often God controls people through their parents. Humble and intelligent people always honor their father and mother.
Blessing creates and bears fruit
Words of blessing are certainly divine prerogative. But Jesus himself transferred these powers to Christians back in the Sermon on the Mount, saying that we need to bless those who curse us, do good to those who hate us, and pray for those who persecute and abuse us. In another way, we can say that Christ called us to speak words of blessing not only to those who deserve it, but also to those who curse and hate you. Our world was created by God's word, and everything that happens in our world is also the result of our words. At the beginning of any human actions, deeds, or achievements there is a word. And the corresponding result depends on whether this word is good or evil.
All words in our world are divided into two fronts - curses or blessings. The Bible says that those who curse will be cursed and those who bless will be blessed. Words of curses, accusations, and grumblings come from an evil person, and, passing through himself, through his lips, these words first of all defile him. Sometimes it seems to us that words mean nothing, but the seed we sow will produce the fruit. Words of blessing carry kindness and light. Evil statements, condemnations, denials give room to the devil. The fruits will be appropriate - disappointment, tears, insults, losses. Humiliation and the like.
Place of Grace
Now the place of God's grace is Anathoth. This place of fulfilled prayers was purchased for us by Jesus Christ and now belongs to us. Now you have the right to accept the blessing. Why didn't God give us simply fulfilled prayers?
Why would Jesus pay for this?
Because God is fair. God's love wants to give to us, but God's justice says, "You must be completely obedient in order to be in that place of grace, in the place of fulfilled prayers."
A comment!
None of us can be obedient. Therefore Jesus came as the Redeemer. He received the place of grace by paying with His Blood, and in that place of grace there is a place of fulfilled prayers - Anathoth.
God is going to show evidence of His redemption in our lives. And he put His seal on it.
(Jer 32:10 -12) And he wrote it in a book and sealed it, and called witnesses to it, and weighed out the money on the scales. And I took the bill of sale. Both sealed by law and charter, and open. And I gave this bill of sale to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, in the sight of Hanameel the son of my uncle, and in the sight of the witnesses who signed this bill of sale, in the sight of all the Jews who sat in the courtyard of the guard;
Someone has received a testimony of the work of redemption.
Heals, thanks
We build our future with words. Blessings are those words that give us the opportunity to develop and move on. By blessing others, we put material in the form of words into the hands of God, and he will already prepare the future for us. Blessing is like a medicine that counters the “viruses” that infect our body and our soul, restoring our strength. You can’t slander yourself, claim that I can’t do anything, I don’t have the funds for it, and the like. Thank the Lord for what you have (health, children), and he will increase your wealth.
Gratitude is also a blessing because it is a sign of humility. And grace descends on the humble. If you thank people for some service or work, you thereby acknowledge the fact that you needed them. By saying words of gratitude, you are sending them words of blessing. What passes through your mouth will come back to you a hundredfold.
Laughing is Allowed in Church: The Birth of Isaac
Receiving a blessing means rejoicing
Abraham did not have children for a very long time. When God came and told Abraham they were having a child, what was the reaction? God came to Abraham with two angels and said that they would have a son.
Sarah overheard and said to herself: “I am already old and should I have pleasure with my master, who is also old?”
And she laughed. She had an interesting question: she didn't say she was having a baby. Her eyes weren't on the result. She wanted to enjoy her master.
As long as you enjoy your Lord, the result will be perfect.
She laughed inside herself. Sarah and Abraham had a sense of humor and loved to laugh. God said: I heard Sarah laugh. Is anything hard for God?
"I didn't laugh."
“No, I laughed.”
And then God Himself named the child Isaac - laughter.
The Ishmaels always mock those who laugh - the Isaacs. We didn’t even notice how the generation of Isaacs came - the generation of grace. And Sarah said: “God made me laugh, everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.”
Long after Sarah had mastered laughter, she was laughing inside before she saw Isaac outside.
(Isaiah 54:1) Rejoice, O barren, unbearable woman; shout and shout.
This is talking about Sarah.
Don't worry about the results - those who laugh will get more results. Do it God's way - laugh first. There is a verse in Job 5:22: You will laugh at the desolation and famine, and you will not be afraid of the beasts of the earth.
Blessing of mother and father
To ensure that the connection between generations is never broken and ancestral energies flow freely, a blessing ritual has existed since ancient times. The elders in the family blessed the younger ones. A blessing before the wedding ensured the newlyweds the creation of a strong, friendly family, prosperity in the home, and spiritual compatibility. This ritual was of great importance. It allowed access to those energies that ensure the entire existence of generations. The mother’s blessing is the power of life, the father’s is meaning and reason. Those appeals that are addressed to the Father (both Heavenly and biological) have incredible cosmic power. A mother teaches us the emotional part of life—how to cope with losses or crushed dreams. Don’t forget, when opening a new page in your life, to ask your mother for blessings. This will ensure your success, because every child is essentially an energetic continuation of his mother. Therefore, she can influence his fate. A father must endow his child with masculine strength and energy - determination, responsibility, determination, optimism, nobility. Generosity and self-discipline. If your relationship with your parents is disrupted, then all these components in your life are disrupted.
Jeremiah's prophecy
(Jer 32:10 -12) Who has the testimony?
Baruch - which means blessed, son of Neriah.
Niriyah is the lamp of Yahweh or the light of Jehovah, the son of Maaseiah.
To be blessed is to receive a blessing. This does not mean working harder, it is the result of revelation. Everything is given through the knowledge of Him.
How to Receive Blessings, Peace and Grace
This comes through knowing Jesus Christ.
Knowledge is not just knowing about Him and His merits, but knowing Him.
Revelation is to know Him. You open the Scriptures and He gives you revelation of Himself.
Maaseiah is the work of Yahweh.
A comment!
It is not your work that produces revelation, but God's work that produces revelation. The work of Jesus on the cross, the payment, so that you may have blessing, redemption and also revelation.
The essence of blessing parents
A mother's blessing is a protective cocoon that prevents the child from getting into various unpleasant situations and directs his actions in the right direction. Even over long distances the blessing works. A person who has received a parental blessing becomes invulnerable. The blessing ritual helps to hold the thread that binds generations in the family. Parents and grandparents gave their blessings for accomplishing certain things, for creating a family, and this is how the connection between generations was strengthened. If your parents are still alive, contact them, ask for blessings for yourself, for your children, and you will see how your life will change. It is not necessary to resort to complex rituals. Parental words are enough: “I bless you!” Immediately with these words a click occurs, the connection between generations begins to work. If we lose touch with our roots, we begin to degrade and die. A person who does not have access to the roots of his family has a more difficult time adapting in life and finds it difficult to cope with certain difficult situations.
Meaning of the word
Lord Almighty
It is possible that it appeared among the Slavs during the missionary preaching of Sts. Cyril and Methodius. Translating Greek worship into the Slavic language, they were faced with the fact that the pagans, who did not know Christian values, did not have concepts that would express these values.
Apparently, the Russians also did not have an analogue close to the Greek “εὐλογία” (“eulogia”, that is, a good, good word), so the Equal-to-the-Apostles missionaries created a new term that literally corresponds to the Greek, and means the same thing - a good wish.
Blessing of the Priest
Often in churches you can hear the phrase “I ask for a blessing” - this is how parishioners address the priest. The priest's blessing has several meanings:
- Greetings. Only those equal in rank have the right to shake hands with a priest; everyone else must receive a blessing from him. For this ceremony, you need to fold your palms (right over left), accept the blessing hand and kiss it, showing respect to the priestly office. Just for this! This ceremony has no other meaning. You can receive a blessing from a priest anywhere, even if he is not in church clothes or in church. But you shouldn’t disturb an unveiled priest on the street if he doesn’t know you.
- The second meaning of blessing is parting words, permission, permission to take some action. Before any important step, you can also ask for the blessing of the priest and kiss his hand.
Other blessings are recited during the service. The priest, with the words “Peace to all” or “Grace of our Lord,” makes the sign of the cross over all parishioners. In response, you need to humbly bow your heads. There is no need to fold your hands.
When overshadowing with sacred objects, you first need to cross yourself, then bow.
How to turn to God before starting any good deed
Before work, or any other task, when the need for support from above is felt, a believer can read:
- “Our Father...” is a prayer commanded by the Lord Himself;
- “To the Heavenly King” is usually read before the start of the teaching;
- special prayers for the beginning of the work, placed in Orthodox prayer books;
- finally, having no time at all for even a short prayer, it is enough to simply cross yourself: seeing a person’s faith, the Lord will help him.
A special form of blessing is a church prayer pronounced by a clergyman. She calls upon pure grace for the work being started, if it is the will of God.
Prayer for blessing: what is it like?
In such cases, believers come to the temple or invite the priest home. Among the prayers read by the priest:
- a prayer to the Holy Spirit about the beginning of any work - read during the prayer service;
- for the blessing of every thing; at the same time, there are special prayers for the consecration of the pectoral cross and icon;
- prayers for travelers - read during a special prayer service;
- prayers for the blessing of the house - are part of a special sequence for the consecration of the home; There is also a separate ceremony for laying the “temple” and blessing the construction.
Interesting fact
In total, the Orthodox Trebnik contains several dozen similar prayers for different occasions.
Special prayers: for the beginning of the New Year, for students and others
There are also prayers performed under circumstances that require the conciliar prayer of the clergy and believers.
Prayer service for the blessing of the New Year
The tradition of this prayer developed relatively recently and is associated with the custom of celebrating the civil New Year. It appeared under Peter I, and took root during the Soviet years, when Christmas ceased to be the main holiday in December.
Despite the fact that the church new year traditionally falls on September 1 (14 New Art), as early as September 30, 1917, the Local Council decided on the desirability of prayer singing on December 31 or January 1. On this day, clergy and believers ask for help for the new “summer of God’s goodness.”
In many churches, a prayer service is held on the evening of December 31, and the festive liturgy begins at 12 o'clock at night. Thus, Orthodox Christians who want to spend the New Year's holiday with spiritual joy have the opportunity to receive Holy Communion on New Year's Eve.
Help for teachers and students
Another tradition in recent years is a special prayer singing on August 31, before the start of classes in schools and universities. Schoolchildren, students, and teachers come to these services. In addition to special prayers, the names of believers who hope for support from above in the new school year are remembered at the prayer service.
“Do not enter into judgment with Your servants...”
Finally, in recent years the Church has prayed:
- about peace in Ukraine, where civil conflict has been going on for several years;
- about overcoming the church schism that arose after the “autocephaly” of the “Orthodox Church of Ukraine”;
- about getting rid of the coronavirus pandemic.
Blessing of Dmitry Donskoy for the Battle of Kulikovo
Words of blessing from the lips of holy people have always had great significance in Rus'. This happened in 1380, before the Battle of Kulikovo, which turned all history upside down and became the starting point in the liberation of Russian lands from the Tatar-Mongol yoke. Everyone remembers from history the blessing of Dmitry Donskoy for the Battle of Kulikovo, which he received from the lips of St. Sergius of Radonezh. Before going to the battle, the prince went to the elder at the Trinity Monastery. After the meal that was given to the arrivals at the monastery, the Reverend blessed Dmitry for the battle, sprinkled him with holy water and sent him away with the words “The Lord will be your intercessor. He will defeat the adversaries and glorify you.” The Mother of God accompanied the soldiers throughout the battle; the icon inspired and protected the soldiers and their leader. The victory was not easy, but it glorified Dmitry Donskoy for all time.
