I Give You My Blessing...

I remember a scene from my childhood.  I remember when my mother and her siblings would leave the company of each other, before the good byes were said, they would go up to each other, make the sign of the cross upon the forehead of the person to whom they would say good bye, and give them their blessing.
The words might be, "God bless you."
Or
"Via con adios."
(God be with you.)
Or
"God be with you as you drive home."

We children were simply blessed with the words,
"Be good to your parents."
That was only if we could be caught near an adult.

The voice of the blessing is profound.
Words of blessing can be silently prayed,
But
These words gain strength when they are spoken aloud
Because by speaking these blessings aloud
God is publicly invoked.
When there are two or more gathered in prayer,
I AM in your midst.

When God is in our midst,
The blessing gains strength and power.

The power of the blessing is great.
When we invoke God and ask that s/he be blessed in a profound way,
God hears our prayer.

To bless means to invoke divine favor upon someone.
We are not just asking Gòd as an intercessor to grant a petition,
We are invoking God to bless them,
To make them holy,
To make straight their paths.
We are asking God, as did prophets of old,
To lay His divine hands upon this person
And bless them with great spiritual gifts.


His ways are not our ways,
And
His thoughts are not our thoughts,
 

We don't know how God will accomplish what we ask of Him.
Perhaps our blessing to another person might be,
"May you be abundantly blessed by the Love of God."
God will bless this person with His love,
But the outpouring of His Love might be in the form of a serious illness.
God might have been waiting to bless this person with an illness to sanctify him or her.
God's intent maybe to purify that person through suffering or sorrow.
Whereas, we might have intended to bless them with the joy of the Lord,
God saw His chance to bring this person closer to Himself through suffering.

In spite of this possibility,
Never hesitate to bless someone.
When you pray for blessings upon a soul,
You are helping to bring them closer to God.

I met a priest at a funeral who greeted everyone this way,
"May the peace and love of Jesus always be with you."
I wasn't sure how to respond, so I said,
"And with your spirit."
Now, I wish I had blessed him praising his priestly vocation.

Blessings don't have to be complicated.
They can be a simple phrase such as,
"God be with you today and always."
Or
"May God bless you."

If you want to get a bit more complicated you can,
But in my experience I have found that simple blessings do not pull people out of their comfort zones.
When people are comfortable,
They can respond more easily.
"Thank you,"
They might say,
Or
"God be with you, too!"

"Blessing upon blessing.
Grace upon grace."
Traci M.

There is great power in a vocal blessing.
Ask God,
He will invoke His power
And
Bless, Bless, Bless.
Don't be afraid to ask.
Blessings bring great sanctity into our lives.
Bless.
Make Holy.
Invoke God to bring His favor upon others.
Bless.
Bless.
Bless.