Posted on 11/01/2011 8:40:02 AM PDT by Salvation
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A liturgical ceremony of thanksgiving by which mothers thank God for the blessing of motherhood. More appropriately the ritual is called "the blessing of a woman after childbirth," the mother incurred a legal defilement, as in ancient Judaism. The ceremony may begin at the door of a church, although it has become customary to perform the rite near the altar. Taking hold of the priest's stole, the mother is symbolically led into the church to express her gratitude. the prayer of the priest concludes with the petition that "she and her offspring may deserve to attain to the joys of eternal blessedness." In imitation of Mary at her Purification, the mother offers some gift to the church, according to her means.
Might help a lot for some women with severe post-partum depression.
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at what ceremony does the baby get to thank God he made it out of the womb alive?
Yes, I have although I am Anglican.
I find this whole process Barbaric, and not belonging in a civilised society it is in the least Archaic..
The Mother is considered to have been soiled by the birthing of a child and needs to be blessed to be brought back into the church.
My wife went thru this process after our first child.
Here a woman puts her life on the line to have a child and she is treated as a second class citizen by the church.
The carrying and Birth of a child is a miracle and the mother is a major hero is my eyes and I believe in the eyes of GOD.
The people who need a churching are the current priests who are living in sin.
I find this whole process Barbaric, and not belonging in a civilised society it is in the least Archaic..
The Mother is considered to have been soiled by the birthing of a child and needs to be blessed to be brought back into the church.
My wife went thru this process after our first child.
Here a woman puts her life on the line to have a child and she is treated as a second class citizen by the church.
The carrying and Birth of a child is a miracle and the mother is a major hero is my eyes and I believe in the eyes of GOD.
The people who need a churching are the current priests who are living in sin.
Our Latin American families commonly bring their new babies for a formal presentation and blessing of the baby and mother when the baby is about a month old. This is strictly a church event. However, when a child is three, Mexicans will hold a formal presentation, with the child all dressed up, and as large a celebration as possible. I assume this is based on the tradition of the presentation of the Virgin Mary in the temple as a child, although there are Scriptural models such as the presentation of the prophet Samuel to the service of God.
Never heard of this and I’m a cradle Catholic and mother of two cradle Catholics.
http://www.goarch.org/en/chapel/liturgical_texts/churching.asp
I just found out that there is something very holy about this — Think “The Presentation of the Baby Jesus in the Temple” — and that’s in the Bible and that’s in the Rosary too!
Another name for that observance is “The Purification of the Virgin Mary.” In fact, the Gospel passage begins, “And when the time came for their purification, according to the law of Moses ...”.
The mother was held to be ritually impure during the average period of post-partum blood flow, as any person with who bled was impure until the bleeding stopped, plus a “wait and see” period. In a low-technological society with no germ theory, there were some practical advantages in this for both the person experiencing bleeding and the rest of society. And, of course, there was a symbolic meaning to a loss of blood, as well, which the ritual purification (having no real health effect) recognized.
My mother told me of her beingchurched after each of her 8 deliveries — twins the first time. This would have been from around 1935 until around 1955, but I have not heard of churching in modern practice. Have you?
I never heard of this. Interesting.
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