Q. 1. What is the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament?

A. 1. The Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament is a Catholic service. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "it is ordinarily an afternoon or evening devotion and consists in the singing of certain hymns, or litanies, or canticles, before the Blessed Sacrament, which is exposed upon the altar in a monstrance and is surrounded with lights. At the end, the priest, his shoulders enveloped in a humeral veil, takes the monstrance into his hands and with it makes the sign of the cross (hence the name Benediction) in silence over the kneeling congregation. Benediction is often employed as a conclusion to other services, e.g. Vespers, Compline, the Stations of the Cross, etc., but it is also still more generally treated as a rite complete in itself."

When the Benediction is given with the monstrance, the permission of the Bishop of the Diocese is necessary for this general or special service.