Blessing of Oils

In this time of pandemic and isolation when we are unable to gather around the Lord’s Table and share in the Eucharist, these rites have been designed to help us mark the key moments of the Paschal Triduum (the Three Days of Christian Passover). Each of the service forms below, then, is fashioned to correspond with the final liturgy of Lent (The Blessing of the Oils) and the primary liturgies of the Paschal Triduum. They are crafted to be simple to use and yet significant enough to mark these days.

Archbishop Anne Germond and Dean Jim McShane invite you to join us this Holy Week and Easter as we broadcast ‘live’ from St. Luke’s Cathedral on Holy Thursday 9 April 2020 at 12 noon: Blessing of Oils.  The link takes you to a form you can use if you watch and pray with the broadcast from the Cathedral, which launches at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday 9 April 2020. The broadcasts will be available on our Diocesan channel on YouTube (type Algoma Diocese in the search bar) and on our Facebook page (type The Diocese of Algoma: Shaped by a Living Hope in the search bar).

“Send your Holy Spirit on this oil, that those who in faith and repentance receive this holy unction may be made whole and that those who are sealed with this chrism may share in the royal priesthood of Jesus Christ.”

The Blessing of Oils is the traditional service during which a bishop presides over the consecration of the oils of Sacred Chrism and Anointing of the Sick.  These oils are first used during the Triduum, when those being baptized are anointed with the scented Chrism.  This service developed historically in large part because the bishop could no longer be present at the rites of Christian Initiation everywhere these would be celebrated, particularly during the Easter Vigil.  It was a way ‘he’ (at the time) could remain involved.  Normally the oils are consecrated in the context of the Eucharist.  This modified rite will ensure we have access to fresh oils when we can once again gather together.

Blessing of Oils (2020)