God instructs Moses to tell Aaron and his sons how to bless the people of Israel as priests:
“The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace” (Numbers 6:24-26).
Nobody can give what they don’t possess. Therefore, we must first receive the blessing before we can pass it on (in reference to newsletter 34). That’s why we always pray with the patriarchs Jacob: “I will not let you go until you bless me” (Genesis 32:37). The main channels through which the divine stream of blessings flows to us are the New Testament sacrifice, the holy sacraments, the reading of the scriptures, and prayer.
God told Abraham, “You shall be a blessing” (Genesis 12:2). In the New Testament perspective, this means that every baptized person is told to radiate blessings through a Christ-centered life! The reality of the blessing is that we are called – through our union with Christ – to bring heavenly powers into earthly life. In this way, we will become a BLESSING to many.
In distress and need, we should bless our oppressors and enemies.
“But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you (…) (Matthew 5:44) see also “(…) bless those who curse you and pray for those who offend you! (Luke 6:28), see also “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse!” (Romans 12:14) – thus converting evil into good.
Blessing is an act of mercy towards one’s neighbor and through this act, our soul is filled with numerous graces:
“A blessing soul will be richly satisfied, and whoever gives others to drink will be refreshed himself” (Proverbs 11:25).