About anything can be blessed.

[doggie]

Sometimes you just got to wonder.

[DGayle]

The people and methods of science (the science center and particle accelerator) make sense, but the other stuff is just nuts. A Bosch factory? REALLY???

[Marianne]

The people and methods of science (the science center and particle accelerator) make sense, but the other stuff is just nuts. A Bosch factory? REALLY???

Blessing the vineyard and other field is a veeeeeeeeery old tradition in France (and in other country of Europe, I guess ?). It's called "rogation."

[Phoenix]

It is also an age-old tradition to bless troops before they go into battle. Part and parcel of "God is on our side!" regardless of which side or what confilct is involved.

I noticed most of the clergy doing the blessings looked to be Greek or Russian Orthodox priests. They have some of the most colorful and elaborate vestments.

[SPHASH]

I live in an city where hunting is a passion and every fall a Methodist church in town has a "blessing of the hunters".

[Anny Nym]

Is there any particulr reason why most of the pictures show orthodox priests or is ist just coincidence, because it is supposed to be a picture series about things that get blessed? :)

Does it makes you wonder in a more cultural sense? (Which in turn makes me wonder if american reverends don´t bless soldiers too?)

Marianne already mentioned rogation, and we have the same tradition, also it is not uncommon to invite a (or the, if one live more rural) priest to the "Gleichnfeier"/ "topping-out ceremony" for blessing. Same goes for factories, public buildings - esp. schools/kindergardens, hospitals,...

Blessing soldiers or military is quite common too. Often as part of the "Feldmesse"/"field ceremony", a special ceremony for the military.

If you wait a little to the 26th October, the biggest field ceremony in Austria will take place, with a lot of equipment blessing and recruits blessing along the "Angelobungsfeier" / the swear-in of our boys for their upcoming year of mandatory military service :lol:

The whole roman-catholic church will be on their feet, and also priests of orthodox, evangelic, coptic,... and even one muslim Imam.

The 26th October is our National Celebration Day, it´s the day of the liberation of Austria through the Lower Austrian hero Leopold Figl in 1955. (60 years next year, can you believe it? And also 70 years end of war)

[Marianne]

Is there any particulr reason why most of the pictures show orthodox priests or is ist just coincidence, because it is supposed to be a picture series about things that get blessed? :)

Does it makes you wonder in a more cultural sense? (Which in turn makes me wonder if american reverends don´t bless soldiers too?)

Marianne already mentioned rogation, and we have the same tradition, also it is not uncommon to invite a (or the, if one live more rural) priest to the "Gleichnfeier"/ "topping-out ceremony" for blessing. Same goes for factories, public buildings - esp. schools/kindergardens, hospitals,...

Blessing soldiers or military is quite common too. Often as part of the "Feldmesse"/"field ceremony", a special ceremony for the military.

If you wait a little to the 26th October, the biggest field ceremony in Austria will take place, with a lot of equipment blessing and recruits blessing along the "Angelobungsfeier" / the swear-in of our boys for their upcoming year of mandatory military service :lol:

The whole roman-catholic church will be on their feet, and also priests of orthodox, evangelic, coptic,... and even one muslim Imam.

The 26th October is our National Celebration Day, it´s the day of the liberation of Austria through the Lower Austrian hero Leopold Figl in 1955. (60 years next year, can you believe it? And also 70 years end of war)[/quote]

And 100 years since the death of Franz Ferdinand von Österreich-Este (thank Wiki for the Germand name...), and the beginning of the war. Did Austria make something about it ?

[Anny Nym]

Franz Ferdinand was shot on 28. Juni 1914, the 28 Juni 2014 was luckily a Saturday so a couple of exhibitions take place indeed - alot of rememberence masses took place in the following sunday all over the whole country and also in countries of the former Habsburgerreich. I think Hungary did something special, I have to look that up although.

2014 was indeed a "Gedenkjahr"/"commemorative year" for all the victims of the first World War. Kameradschaftsbünde (a form of austrian veteran memorial clubs - is that the correct translation btw?) did the main part of it on memorial places for fallen soldier and civil victims.

[salex]

I"ve not gone to may churches that "blessed" things, though the old Methodist Book of Worship had the process for dedicating an organ for use in the church and prayers for "those leaving home" and for moving into a new house, etc... so same thing different name --though I never saw or heard of anyone dedicating their home like that.

However, people pray for Football teams (can anyone tell me, do they pray to win or to pay uninjured?) and for a variety of other things, just if they are baptist they don't have the cool vestments to wear.

[RosyDaisy]

They pray for a fair game and no injuries for both teams.

[salex]

They pray for a fair game and no injuries for both teams.

Good, thanks. Because I really was not sure.

[Arete]

A lot of Greeks make their living in merchant shipping, which was also a traditionally dangerous profession because of the possibility of sinking or fire. Greek crews traditionally will have either individual voyages blessed or get the whole ship blessed bow to stern once a year. You are praying for the safety of the ship and crew.

[Arete]

The Bosch Factory is most likely the blessing of a new building or business. In Orthodox societies, it is standard to have a new business blessed before it starts operating. You are giving thanks for jobs (which don't grow on trees in most Orthodox societies) and praying that the business is successful (so people have money to sustain themselves and their families).

Fire truck and police- Once again, in an Orthodox culture having a blessing for equipment and personnel that are in service to and aid a community is pretty standard.

Also, dangerous work, the blessing also asks for the protection of personnel.

Motor rally-That blessing is a prayer that no one gets hurt, it's not asking God to make you the winner.

[DGayle]

Good, thanks. Because I really was not sure.

I know some devoutly religious people who rejoiced when Bo Jackson was injured and claimed God answered their prayers about their teams winning and never having to play against Jackson again. So there are people who pray for wins at all costs. :evil:

I doubt everyone here is familiar with him. Bo Jackson was an athlete who played professional baseball as his main career. For something to do in his spare time, he played professional football. He was an all-star in both sports, the sort of athlete who would have gotten major attention in just one sport, but to have excelled to dramatically in both is unheard of to this day.

He was injured when he was running in a football game. A player lunged from behind for a tackle, and grabbed his leg. Usually this wouldn't result in major damaged. But Jackson ran so fast and with so much speed that his speed caused his hip to pop out of the socket in such a way that the blood flow as disrupted and his hip had to be replaced.. It ended his career in both sports after only 4 years. He tried to make a comeback, but it wasn't happening. He played a couple more seasons of baseball, but he was sub-average because his speed was gone. He couldn't play football again.

And there are people rejoicing because God answered their prayed for their team to win at all costs, even though the Bengals still lost the game.

How heartless can people be? Don't answer that.

[ViolaSebastian]

This was always my old (Episcopal) priest's point about how he feels he should be able to bless same sex unions:

"If I can bless a 16-year-old's car, a boa constrictor, or a house, I can surely bless two people in love."

[shedemei]

Maybe Seattle should have had our tunnel boring machine blessed.

[louisa05]

They pray for a fair game and no injuries for both teams.

The conference that the Catholic school I taught in was made up of all private religious schools (nondenominational Christian, Lutheran and Catholic). They had a "prayer before athletic contests" that all the schools used. It prayed for the athletes (all of them, not just the home team) to play their best, play fair, and respect each other and for no injuries.

The Catholic high school I graduated said the same sort of prayer but also included safe travels home for the visiting team and its fans.

[IronicallyMaeve]

Walmart. Don't forget Walmart.

[doggie]

Walmart. Don't forget Walmart.

can't pray for walmart it is of the devil.

[DGayle]

So a factory creates jobs, and firetrucks can be used to help the public. This doesn't explain guns that are obviously war guns, or a stock car.

[Marianne]

So a factory creates jobs, and firetrucks can be used to help the public. This doesn't explain guns that are obviously war guns, or a stock car.

http://www.orthocuban.com/2014/02/bless ... -orthodox/

When the Nazi army invaded Russia in June 1941, the whole nation – men and women, believers and non-believers, Christians and non-Christians, Russians and non-Russians, soldiers and civilians – stood in defence. More than twenty million people, mostly men, were lost during the war, and the demographic consequences of this loss are noticeable even today.

The Russian Orthodox Church by the beginning of the war had been devastated by the severest persecutions of the 1920s and 1930s, when ninety-five per cent of its clergy and monastics had been executed, imprisoned or exiled, all monasteries and theological schools closed, and thousands of churches blown up or transformed into secular buildings.

In spite of being almost completely annihilated, the Russian Orthodox Church – or rather what remained of it – from the very first day of the war joined the nation in its struggle for liberation. Indeed, priests blessed the troops and weapons before battles, gave absolution to the dying soldiers, and were involved – along with thousands of ordinary believers – in the patriotic activity in many other ways.

But can one responsibly claim that these actions were sinful? When a nation defends itself against foreign invasion, should the Church stay aside and let its children die without absolution? Or should the soldiers be deprived of the Church’s blessing before the battle? …

In examining the problem of war and peace, the Russian Orthodox Church states in its ‘Basic Social Concept’ that any war is a result of human sin. However, it makes an important distinction between defensive and aggressive war. The Church does not call its faithful to refuse military service and participation in a military action of defensive character. In other words, it does not proclaim pacifism as a fundamental principle:

While recognizing war as an evil, the Church does not forbid its members from participating in military action if they are aimed at defending one’s neighbors or restoring justice that has been violated. In such cases war, though undesirable, is considered a forced means of action.

[Arete]

:geek: R

So a factory creates jobs, and firetrucks can be used to help the public. This doesn't explain guns that are obviously war guns, or a stock car.

You are not blessing a stock car to make the metal sacred, you are asking a blessing for the safety of the driver in the stock car. Orthodox will usually have any new/newly purchased car blessed. You are asking for the protection of the drivers and passengers of the car, NOT that the car win a race or somehow become holy.

Marianne put up a good synopsis of the EO theological position on war. It isn't a pacifist church, so while in all cases war is sinful, in some it is recognized as the option left that will restore justice. In a perfect world you are blessing the weapon to ask God to make it an instrument of justice.