Today, in honor of Saint Elia (Elijah), the Holy Prophet, Fr. Dennis blessed cars and the riding lawnmower. The blessing has become an annual event to honor the Holy Prophet.
Why do we bless cars and various modes of transportation? We bless modes of transportation for several reasons:
~to protect you and also to help others
~to remind ourselves that we are to be courteous drivers and giving into road aggression
~to not be reckless in driving, especially being distracted
~since the Middle Ages priests blessed horses, wagons, boats
with the rise of pilgrimage, the Church asked for divine protection upon for pilgrims to the Holy Land or to Canterbury, or to Santiago de Compostela due to the arduous adventure fighting disease and criminals.
So, prayer seeks a blessing, it expresses gratitude for the material gift of vehicles, and it asks for a defense against evil with the help of God. Our seeking divine protection over material things and actions, we express our dependence upon the Creator who gives and sustains us.
Greek Catholics, like we Melkites, invoke the intercession of Saint Elias and Saint Nicholas while the Latin Catholics invoke the intercession of Saint Frances of Rome, Saint Michael and Saint Christopher.
The prayer reads:
O Master, Lord our God, hearken unto the prayer which we now send up to You and bless these vehicles with your holy right hand + ; send down upon it they guardian Angel, that all who desire to journey therein may be safely preserved and shielded from every end; and as the Ethiopian, riding in the chariot and reading your holy prophecy, was granted faith and grace through your Apostle Philip.
So do you now manifest the path of salvation who shall travel in this conveyance, that with your helping grace they may be vouchsafed everlasting joy in your heavenly Kingdom. For yours is the might, and the Kingdom, and the power, and unto you do we send up glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
May Christ our true God, through the intercession of His all-pure Mother, through the protection of the bodily powers, of the holy, glorious and all praise-worthy Apostles, and Saint Nicholas, the Holy Prophet Elias and all the saints, have mercy on and save us, as He is good and loves mankind.
(Sprinkling each of the vehicles with holy water, says:)
The car is blessed in the name of the Father +, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.