Blessing (Roman Catholic Church)

Blessing in Roman Catholicism, in the narrow liturgical sense, is a rite consisting of a ceremony and prayers performed in the name and with the authority of the Church by a duly qualified minister by which persons or things are sanctified as dedicated to Divine service or by which certain marks of Divine favour are invoked upon them. In a wider sense blessing has a variety of meanings in the sacred writings:

The Old Testament

Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with more than 1.25 billion members worldwide. One of the oldest religious institutions in the world, it has played a prominent role in the history of Western civilisation.Headed by the Bishop of Rome, known as the Pope, its doctrines are summarised in the Nicene Creed. The Catholic Church is also notable within the Western Christian tradition for its celebration of the seven sacraments.

The Catholic Church teaches that it is the one true church founded by Jesus Christ, that its bishops are the successors of Christ's apostles, and that the Pope is the successor to Saint Peter. The Church maintains that the doctrine on faith and morals that it declares as definitive is infallible. The Latin Church, the autonomous Eastern Catholic Churches and religious institutes such as the Jesuits, mendicant orders and enclosed monastic orders, reflect a variety of theological emphases in the Church.

Roman Catholic Church (disambiguation)

The Roman Catholic Church, also known as the Catholic Church, is the church in communion with the Bishop of Rome (the Pope).

Roman Catholic Church may also refer to:

See also

Catholic Church (disambiguation)

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the church in communion with the Bishop of Rome (the Pope), the largest Christian church in the world.

Catholic Church, Catholic church, catholic Church and catholic church may also refer to:

Catholic (disambiguation)

Catholic and Catholicism refer to the beliefs and practices of various groups of Christians sharing beliefs such as continuity with early Christianity, practices including liturgical worship, and governance structures such as a hierarchy led by bishops. The terms are often associated with the Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, however several churches use these terms to describe their practices and beliefs.

Catholic may also refer to:

Religious bodies

The beliefs and practices of the:

Big East Conference

The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in all sports except football, which is not sponsored. The conference has been officially recognized as a Division I multi-sport conference, effective on August 1, 2013.

Its nucleus is composed of the "Catholic Seven" members of the Big East Conference (1979–2013): DePaul University, Georgetown University, Marquette University, Providence College, Seton Hall University, St. John's University, and Villanova University. In December 2012, these schools chose to split from the football playing schools in order to focus on basketball, and in March 2013 reached a settlement, whereby they retained the existing Big East Conference name, logos, and men's basketball tournament site. Butler University, Creighton University, and Xavier University also joined the conference on its July 1, 2013 launch date.

The football-playing members of the old Big East, along with several other schools, formed the American Athletic Conference, which retains the old Big East's charter and structure. However, both conferences claim 1979 as their founding date, and the same history up to 2013.

Universal Sufism

Universal Sufism is a universalist spiritual movement founded by Inayat Khan while traveling throughout the West between 1910 and 1926, based on unity of all people and religions and the presence of spiritual guidance in all people, places and things.

Orders and leadership

Inayat Khan died in 1927. Leadership of the Sufi Movement he had founded first passed to his brother, Shaikh-ul-Mashaikh Maheboob Khan; in 1948 to his cousin, Pir-o-Murshid Ali Khan; in 1956 to his youngest brother, Pir-o-Murshid Musharaff Khan; and in 1968 to his grandson, Pir-o-Murshid Fazal Inayat-Khan. In the 1980s Murshid Fazal proposed a bifurcation between Sufi Movement and the Sufi Way, which became a specific branch of Inayat Khan’s lineage founded by Murshid Fazal in 1985. For an in-depth description of this history written by Murshid Fazal – read “Western Sufism: The Sufi Movement, The Sufi Order International, and The Sufi Way”. In 1988 Fazal's father Hidayat Inayat Khan became Pir-o-Murshid of the International Sufi Movement. Following the death in 1990 of Murshid Fazal, he was succeeded by the first woman leader of the tariqah (path), Pirani Sitara Brutnell. She died in 2004, naming Pir Elias Amidon as her successor.