The celebration of the blessing provided here is a suitable means of fostering the Christian life in the members of a family, whenever a blessing is requested by the family or suggested by pastoral considerations. To ensure that the celebration serves its purpose, it is to be adapted to each individual situation.
The present order may be used by a priest or deacon. It may also be used by a layperson, who follows the rites and prayers designated for a lay minister.
While maintaining the structure and chief elements of the rite, the minister should adapt the celebration to the circumstances of the place and the people involved
Minister: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
All: Amen.
Priest: The grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
All: And with your spirit.
or
Lay Minister: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all, now and for ever.
All: Amen.
Minister:
My dear friends, from the sacrament of marriage the family has received newness of life and the grace of Christ. The family is specially important to the Church and to civil society, for it is the primary life-giving community.
In our celebration today we call down the Lord’s blessing upon you, so that you may continually be instruments of God’s grace to one another and witnesses to faith in all the circumstances of life.
With God as your help you will fulfill your mission by conforming your entire life to the Gospel and so witness to Christ before the world.
Brothers and sisters, listen to the words of the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians:
As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit. Now the body is not a single part, but many.
The word of the Lord.
All: Thanks be to God.
R. Happy are those who fear the Lord.
Happy are you who fear the LORD,
who walk in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
happy shall you be, and favored. (R)
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life;
May you see your children’s children. (R)
Minister: Christ the Lord, the Word coeternal with the Father, lived among us and chose to be part of a family and to enrich it with his blessings. Let us humbly ask for his favor and protection on this family.
R: Lord, keep your family in peace.
1. Through your own obedience to Mary and Joseph you consecrated family life; make this family holy by your presence. We pray. (R)
2. Your heart was set on the concerns of your Father; make every home a place where he is worshiped with reverence. We pray. (R)
3. You made your own family the model of prayer, of love, and of obedience to your Father’s will; by your grace make this family holy and make it rich with your gifts. We pray. (R)
4. You loved those who were close to you and they returned your love; bind all families together in the bonds of peace and of love for each other. We pray. (R)
5. At Cana in Galilee, when a new family was beginning, you gladdened it with your first miracle, changing water into wine; alleviate the sorrows and worries of this family and change them into joy. We pray. (R)
6. In your concern for the integrity of the family you said: “Let no one separate those whom God has bound together”; bind this husband and wife ever more closely together in the bond of your own love. We pray. (R)
Minister: Let us pray with confidence to the Father in the words our Saviour thought us.
All: Our Father…
A minister who is a priest or deacon says the prayer of blessing with hands outstretched over the family members; a lay minister says the prayer with hands joined.
We bless your name, O Lord, for sending your own incarnate Son to become part of a family, so that, as he lived its life, he would experience its worries and its joys.
We ask you, Lord, to protect and watch over this family, so that in the strength of your grace its members may enjoy prosperity, possess the priceless gift of your peace, and, as the Church alive in the home, bear witness in this world to your glory. We ask this through Christ our Lord.
All: Amen.
May the Lord Jesus, who lived with his holy family in Nazareth, dwell also with your family, keep it from all evil, and make all of you one in heart and mind.
All: Amen.