How to Bless Your Children

You will find many daily occasions for blessing your children, including blessing prayers said at mealtimes.

In the Judaic lifestyle depicted in Scripture, the pious Jew regarded any circumstance as an occasion of awareness of God's presence and thus of praying blessings. In the Catholic faith, a similar perception finds expression in the concept of the domestic church that regards the living out of an awareness of God's presence and of faith practices as equivalent to a transformation of the home into a worship center or church. Parents who adhere to one of these ways of living out their personal faith naturally include blessing of their children into their routine activity.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Prayer books

1. Determine the scope you want to apply to blessing your children. Parents may choose to bless children for particular occasions. Children can benefit most, however, from living in an environment of ongoing blessedness or holiness. Accomplish the establishment of such an environment by consciously applying your personal spiritual beliefs and practices, both separately and as a couple, within your home.

2. Take time and effort to routinely bless each child within your home by offering a prayer of blessing for the child. An occasion for blessing a child can take the form of a routine activity, such as bedtime, or a special effort such as participating in an important sporting competition. Speak your blessing prayer out loud. Pray a formal blessing prayer from a prayerbook or that you have memorized if you prefer that to an improvised prayer of your own.

3. Prompt younger children to respond with an "amen" or other vocalization of agreement to your blessing prayer. Older children who recognize this blessing ceremony will usually respond unprompted. Prompt older children if the ceremony is newly begun until they find responding natural. Establish a routine within your family of praying blessing prayers as frequently as you can manage. Incorporate into your family blessing routine, as your children grow older, prayers said for each child as the child pursues activities apart from other family members.

4. Include other persons of faith in your family routine of blessing your children, particularly for particular spiritual occasions or for special intentions such as during illness or entering a new school. Cooperate with clergy in your religious community such as priests, ministers, rabbis and religious education instructors. Occasions such as Baptisms, First Eucharist or Bar Mitzvahs incorporate a blessing prayer or ceremony conducted by the clergyperson.

5. Add your own parental blessing prayer at some time associated with formal religious ceremonies that include a clergyperson's blessing for your child, such as before or after the church event. Take advantage, also, of everyday occasions that clergypersons may offer blessings for the child, such as the practice in some Catholic parishes of priests blessing pre-First Communion age children who accompany their parents down the aisle during the Communion procession.

Tips & Warnings

• The more you practice the awareness of the presence of God in all your daily activities, the more easily you will find occasions to bless your children and to take advantage of such occasions by invoking a prayer of blessing over your children.

• Parents with more than one child can bless their children both individually and as a group, and will likely find ample occasions for blessing their children in each of these ways.

References

• Domestic-Church; So, what is a 'domestic Church'?