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Okay, I was skimming my copy of "A Guide for the Domestic Church" and found a reference to the "Blessing of a Newborn." Is this a Melkite thing? I seem to recall the priest blessing my son in the hospital, but it doesn't seem that it was what they are refering to in this book.

What's the deal on the naming after 8 days thing? Is that a Melkite tradition and not Ruthenian, or am I just clueless? I expect it to be the latter.

Thanks

-c

Dear Cizinec,

Yes, the blessing and naming of a child 8 days after birth is a standard rite practiced throughout the Orthodox Church and is now increasing in popularity among the Byzantine Catholics.

It follows the Jewish tradition, I believe. And while the parents may choose whatever name for the newborn they wish, by tradition, it is the Saint who is commemorated on the 8th day after birth.

This is how I got my wonderful name too

What I've always found interesting is that the naming of a newly built Eastern Church follows the same principle.

By tradition, the Church is named for the feast or Saint on the day that it is consecrated.

By tradition as well, male children are baptized within 40 days of birth and female children within 80 days.

Alex

Thanks. For some reason I thought you were supposed to name the child for the day of baptism, which is what we did for my son Roman. Of course using the name of the saint for the day on which the child is named makes more sense (the name day). How the heck did I miss that?

We're getting a new priest here in Houston this week. Fr. Mihalco left for PA today. I wish we could have gotten to know him better. At any rate, I'm just trying to put my ducks in a row since my wife is due on October 22 and I don't know how "traditional" our new priest will be and how much I can rely on him to help me make sure I don't miss anything.

Thanks again.

-c

Most churches of the Byzantine tradition have the blessing of the child on the day of the birth, and on the eighth day the child is brought to the temple, named and consecrated to God. The number eight has eschatalogical connotations (Christ rose from the dead on the eighth day, etc.). I had these performed for both of my sons (9 and 12 now) by Ukrainian Catholic priests.

It's not just a Melkite thing, but there was a time when the first and eighth day blessings fell into disuse with the Ruthenians. The Ukrainians and Melkites seem generally to have preserved these blessings. Perhaps the "old country" village thing where people expected them to be performed. But now these are coming back into more general practice with Greek Catholics including the Ruthenians.

These blessings are all prior to the baptism which by tradition occurred 40 days after the birth.

There is also a reception and blessing of the mother in the temple after 40 days which is now appended to the baptism proper. Most Greek Catholic priests I think will do the first and eighth day blessings now if requested to do so. The texts for the first and eighth day services are available in most all newer Trebniks.

I've seen Orthodox priests put a firstborn male into the Holy of Holies and go around the Holy Table (Altar) three times before he sits the baby boy onto the Holy Table for a brief moment. That's similar to the Jewish tradition of letting a first born male touch the Holy Torah with his finger.

Interesting similarities, huh?

SPDundas
Deaf Byzantine

At a Greek mission near where i live, i saw a third day blessing, eighth day, and fortieth day blessing confered (at the same time since a Priest was not always available). That was something, since for the 40th day blessing, the Priest carried the little girl around the chapel and then around a tetrapod (one was set up for the Exultation of the Cross)

The third day blessing is not used frequently, even among Orthodox. There has been a revival of this in several Orthodox churches over the last 10-15 years. I have seen it with the Serbs and Greeks.

The text for the third day blessing is not present in the older 1977 Greek Euchologion edited by Father Vaporis in general use among the Greeks. Metropolitan Antony Bashir does not mention it in his "Studies in the Greek Church".

Dear Friends,

I've always found it fascinating that the Anointing of the Sick is done touching the same parts of the body as in Baptism - and, as our priest said, it is done in the shape of a three-bar Cross.

Our priests no longer discriminate on the basis of gender and take both boys and girls being baptised around the altar.

Alex

Very interesting!

I know we do this blessing in our church, using a Melkite book left by one of our visiting priests over the years.