Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament

From The Anglican Service Book of 1991

This brief service of adoration of our Lord’s presence in the Blessed Sacrament provides the faithful with an opportunity to worship Him as He extends His risen and glorified life in heaven to be present sacramentally with His people on earth. It had its origin in the heightened devotion of the faithful to the Presence of Christ in the Eucharistic Gifts and in the practice of concluding extraliturgical devotions by blessing the faithful with some sacred object connected with the devotion, such as a crucifix, a relic of a saint, or the Consecrated Bread of the Eucharist. Benediction may be given using a monstrance or a ciborium. Because the only divinely-ordained purpose of the Sacraments is “that we should duly use them,” Benediction cannot under any circumstances be considered a substitute for attendance at the Eucharist and the reception of the Holy Communion; it is, rather, a supplemental aid in our devotion to Jesus.

All kneeling, the blessed Sacrament in the Monstrance is exposed; then the following hymn is sung.

O Saving Victim opening wide
            The Gate of heaven to man below,
Our foes press on from every side,
            Thine aid supply, thy strength bestow.

All praise and thanks to thee ascend
            For evermore, blest One in Three;
O grant us life that shall not end,
            In our true native land with thee. Amen.

St. Thomas Aquinas

Here may follow this hymn or another devotion.

Therefore we, before Him bending,
            This great Sacrament revere;
Types and shadows have their ending,
            For the newer rite is here;
Faith, our outward sense befriending,
            Makes our inward vision clear.

Glory let us give and blessing
            To the Father and the Son,
Honor, thanks, and praise addressing,
            While eternal ages run;
Ever too His love confessing
            Who from Both with Both is One. Amen.

St. Thomas Aquinas

Priest Thou gavest them Bread from heaven. (Alleluia.)
People Containing in itself all sweetness. (Alleluia.)

Priest Let us pray: O God, who in this wonderful Sacrament hast left us a perpetual Memorial of Thy Passion: Grant us, we beseech thee, so to venerate the Sacred Mysteries of thy Body and Blood, that we may ever perceive within ourselves the fruit of thy redemption; who livest and reignest, world without end. Amen.

The Priest then goes to the altar and with the Monstrance makes the sign of the Cross over the people as the thurifer censes the Blessed Sacrament and the server rings the bell. The people may make the sign of the Cross and bow in fervent adoration, saying silently

Blessed, praised and adored be Jesus in the most Holy Sacrament.

The Monstrance is placed on the Altar and the Divine Praises are said by the Priest, the people repeating them after him, all kneeling. At the Celebrant’s discretion, additional Praises may be added.

Blessed be God.
Blessed be His Holy Name.
Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.
Blessed be the Name of Jesus.
Blessed be His Most Sacred Heart.
Blessed be Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Blessed be God the Holy Ghost, the Comforter.
Blessed be the Great Mother of God, Mary most Holy.
Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother.
Blessed be Saint Joseph, her most chaste spouse.
Blessed be God in His Angels and in His Saints.

The Blessed Sacrament is replaced in the Tabernacle, the People, stand, and Psalm 117, with this antiphon, is sung or said.

Antiphon: Let us forever adore the Most Holy Sacrament. (Alleluia.)

O praise the Lord, all ye nations; * praise him, all ye peoples.
For his merciful kindness is ever more and more toward us; *
and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever.
    Praise the Lord.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, *
    and to the Holy Ghost:
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, *
    world without end. Amen. (Repeat Antiphon).

Here a hymn may be sung.

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