Author Topic: God bless or God bless you? (Read 1446 times)

klasG4e · « **on:** June 10, 2016, 06:10:01 PM »

It seems like "God bless" has to a great extent come to replace "God bless you." I've always seemed to naturally stay with the latter, but have "slipped" on occasion, especially after hearing or reading (in emails, for example) so often the former.

Miseremini · « **Reply #1 on:** June 10, 2016, 09:34:02 PM »

After Vat II people (who I've had contact with) started dropping the you, almost as if they were embarassed. Prior to Vat Ii everyone, Catholic, protestant or atheist said God bless you or bless you if you sneezed

It seems like some people have just become lazy OR they don't know what they mean or they are embarassed.....God bless.....WHAT .. WHO?
Even the SSPX has picked up the shortened version, using it to sign off emails etc.

Personally I use the full God bless you.

God bless you all.

PG · « **Reply #2 on:** June 10, 2016, 10:08:23 PM »

I like "may God bless you", but "God bless you" will do as well. And, I don't like "God bless".

JezusDeKoning · « **Reply #3 on:** June 10, 2016, 10:48:45 PM »

I'm guilty of using both accidentally, but only in English. It doesn't work anywhere else. We can get away with leaving the pronoun out.

Cantarella · « **Reply #4 on:** June 10, 2016, 11:15:05 PM »

For some reason, I feel silly saying merely "God bless". (English is not my first language, so it does not really make any sense to say only "God bless"... not having a pronoun there... God bless who?). When addressing a person, I always say God bless YOU.

JezusDeKoning · « **Reply #5 on:** June 10, 2016, 11:37:48 PM »

Quote from: Cantarella

For some reason, I feel silly saying merely "God bless". (English is not my first language, so it does not really make any sense to say only "God bless"... not having a pronoun there... God bless who?). When addressing a person, I always say God bless YOU.

Was your first language a Romance language, i.e. Spanish or French? The same problem exists there. In Spanish, it's "Dios te bendiga" because "te" is the pronoun and is who God is blessing.

clare · « **Reply #6 on:** June 11, 2016, 04:26:08 AM »

Then we should stop saying Thank you. It's like telling someone to thank himself! As for Thanks... what does that mean??

songbird · « **Reply #7 on:** June 11, 2016, 04:52:57 PM »

Red Skelton would say "God Bless". My grand daughter from public pre-school says, "Bless You."( no God, sad)

Where did the idea come from? I read somewhere, that if someone sneezed, they were letting go of demons. Therefore, others near you would say, "God Bless You!"! I guess maybe it would be like thinking, "Thank God!" the demons are let go of.

clare · « **Reply #8 on:** June 12, 2016, 12:01:10 PM »

Quote from: songbird

Where did the idea come from? I read somewhere, that if someone sneezed, they were letting go of demons. Therefore, others near you would say, "God Bless You!"! I guess maybe it would be like thinking, "Thank God!" the demons are let go of.

I was reading yesterday that the custom of saying God bless you when someone sneezed was introduced by Pope Gregory I. Something to do with the plague.

Student of Qi · « **Reply #9 on:** June 14, 2016, 04:43:27 PM »

Quote from: clare

Then we should stop saying Thank you. It's like telling someone to thank himself! As for Thanks... what does that mean??

I think this is a good question! Thanks seems to be equivalent to the word grace or gratitude. Thanks is an abbreviated form of thank you, which is an abbreviation for the formal "I thank you". So, thanks falls under the classification of idiom, no? But, just as well, because it is an abbreviation of an abbreviation, we could say it is slang.

If one were to watch kung fu movies, one would not that the dubbing is often done formaly. While "Thanks" and "thank you" are heard sometimes, the formal speech uses "I thank you".

Please correct if wrong.

klasG4e · « **Reply #10 on:** June 18, 2016, 09:36:34 PM »

I posted this topic under General Discussion, but the moderator of the site tossed it down into Teen Catholic Hangout. Apparently, it was not felt to be worthy to be kept in the General Discussion category. Well, it's not my site so I guess there's not a whole lot I can do about it.

clare · « **Reply #11 on:** June 20, 2016, 01:49:55 AM »

Quote from: Student of Qi

Quote from: clare
Then we should stop saying Thank you. It's like telling someone to thank himself! As for Thanks... what does that mean??

I think this is a good question! Thanks seems to be equivalent to the word grace or gratitude. Thanks is an abbreviated form of thank you, which is an abbreviation for the formal "I thank you". So, thanks falls under the classification of idiom, no? But, just as well, because it is an abbreviation of an abbreviation, we could say it is slang.

As God bless you is abbreviated to God bless, and even sometimes to simply Bless! (As in "Aw! Bless!")