It happens regularly when I visit a parish or school.  A person will come up clutching a rosary and ask me to bless that rosary.  Occasionally it might be a brand-new rosary – still in its packaged container.  Often, it’s an obviously well-worn rosary that has been around for quite some time.  I am always happy to accommodate the request by beckoning God’s blessing on the object, but importantly also on the one who uses it for the glory and honor of God. All blessings are actually acts of praise and thanksgiving to God for the many gifts that He provides – in these situations, the Marian article that is so quintessentially a Catholic object.

We Catholics bless lots of items and while we might think that such prayers are intended to sanctify something, every blessing prayer is itself an act of thanksgiving to God for an article, a person, or an event.  Our blessing prayers link us to our Jewish forbearers and the style of praying that they developed to thank God for His many gifts.   Priests are usually the conveyors of blessing prayers, although we are not the only ones who can beseech God in gratitude for His many gifts.  

Parents can and should bless their children – at bedtime or at other moments when it may be appropriate to assure little ones that they themselves are blessings for their parents – perhaps bedtime is particularly appropriate as these living blessings are preparing to pause their hectic activities.  

Blessings are our words of gratitude and thanksgiving. They can be formal and elegant or short and spontaneous.  However, these prayers always have a singular intent – they thank and praise God for His generous gifts. While we might consider those prayerful words as simply bestowing holiness on an object, at heart they are addressed in gratitude to the One from whom all blessings originate.

In addition to rosaries, I have been asked to bless cars, bearded dragon lizards, Harleys, and quite often babies within the womb waiting to be born. In each case, people want to thank God for the gifts that they have or hope to receive. Blessings are prayers of gratitude and none of us can ever be grateful enough for the many things that we receive from God’s bounty.

The popes from the recent past, at least those that I have personally known, frequently have given bishops packages of rosaries as gifts – pre-blessed, I hope – that they want us to share with our people.  It is their way of encouraging us to spread devotion to this classic Marian prayer.  But it is also a reminder for us to link our people with the kindness of the Holy Father. I can recall, with much delight, presenting rosaries that the pope had given me to people who were so thrilled to receive them.

There has been increased public attention recently on the place of the rosary in our prayer life – a very happy development, I might add. This prayer links us to a long line of believers who have found comfort and assurance in their devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and her intercessory petitions on behalf of her children with her Son. This is most likely the reason that the rosary remains such a popular prayer and devotion.

(Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the archbishop of Washington, writes his “What I Have Seen and Heard” column for the Catholic Standard and Spanish-language El Pregonero newspapers and websites of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.)