The blessing of Ashes and Palms

I have received a question about what is involved in the blessing of ashes and palms.

The blessing of palms on Palm Sunday is new to the 1979 Book of Common Prayer; there was no equivalent form in previous American or English prayer books.

There were, however, unofficial and semi-official forms in use for much of the 20th century. Offices for Special Occasions (1916), the Book of Offices (1940), and Holy Week Offices (1958) all included forms for the blessing of palms. The first book was the work of two clergy and the last was issued by Massey Shepherd for the Associated Parishes (the liturgical renewal organization that lobbied for the 1979 prayer book). The Book of Offices was the equivalent of today's Book of Occasional Services, authorized by General Convention but not mandatory.

I do not have a copy of Offices for Special Occasions, but I do have the other two volumes. Neither of them includes a form for use on Ash Wednesday.

Episcopalians generally agree about the form of blessing people. The priest or bishop says, "May God Bless you."

The form for the blessing of objects is more complicated. Many would argue that objects are blessed only in a secondary sense--as objects put to use by people, who are the actual recipients of the blessing. Sometimes a linguistic distinction is made between blessing people and sanctifying object for use by people.

The form for palms that appears in Holy Week Offices was framed in this way: "O Lord, send thy blessing upon us who now make our prayer unto thee, and sanctify to our use these branches of palm; that we who bear them in thy name my ever hail him as our King." That is to say, people are to be blessed and objects are to be sanctified for the use by the people who are blessed.

The 1979 Book of Common Prayer form is not as clear as the form in Holy Week Offices, but it follows the same general contours: Let these branches be for us signs of his victory, and grant that we who bear them in his name may ever hail him as our King, and follow him in the way that leads to eternal life." This is a somewhat abbreviate form that leave the request for blessing and sanctification implied. A more complete would be: "bless us and sanctify these branches that they might be signs to us..."

The form for ashes on Ash Wednesday follows the same shortened form as that for the palms. A more complete form would be: "[Bless us and] Grant that these ashes may [be sanctified so as to ] be to us a sign of our mortality and penitence. "

Given the fact that palms are sanctified for use, it would seem logical to re-sanctify them if they changed in form (through burning) and were then put to another use on Ash Wednesday.

Bob