The Problems of "God Bless"

Recently I have been mulling over the Catholic/Christian tradition of signing off letters, birthday messages, phone conversations, emails, etc. with "God bless." It seems to me that while it's a good thing in itself, it's something that can lead to some problems.

The first, and least serious, of these problems is that it is yet another thing you have to say or write as you say goodbye, dragging out the process. There's "I miss you," "I love you," "Thanks!," "See you soon," and "God bless." What order do you put these in? Does each get a separate line? Which do you put as sentences in a concluding paragraph and which do you use as a sign-off? Maybe this one falls easily into the category of me over-thinking things, but this is how I see it: more words, more things to interpret, more possibility for confusion.

Another, more serious problem, is that it can easily turn into something about which you are scrupulous. I cannot tell you the number of times that I have written a letter, email, etc., left off the "God bless," and then gone back and added it because I felt like the person would judge me for not putting it there. Or worse, that God would judge me for not putting it there. I was afraid that the person would think I was losing my faith or was a "bad Catholic" for not putting that phrase there. Once it becomes this object of such worrying, I would argue that it has lost quite a bit of its value. It is supposed to be a gesture of goodwill, but it can become a way to give yourself Catholic-points. It became a measure of your "good Catholic-ness."

This leads into the final, and most serious problem: wherein "God bless" becomes an empty phrase. It's like saying "I love you"... if you use it all the time people start to think you don't really mean it. While some people may sincerely love everyone (like me... I really do love everybody), some people use it as a filler. Think about it: every time you write or say "God bless" are you using it as the convenient Christian sign-off or are you really intentionally wishing God's blessings upon them?

I am not writing this as a judgment on any of you who use "God bless" all the time. I have no doubt that some of you are sincere, intentional, and non-scrupulous about it. But just like all good things, it can be abused. And I, for one, need to be careful not to abuse it.