Blight of Error

(photo credit) "Tip blight caused by Phomposis"

My husband and I recently completed a novena to St. Joseph. There is one line in this novena which made a particular impression on me as he read it each night:

"Save us from all blight of error"

Isn't this an apt term for what is going on so commonly today? I read the news and I think "Lord save us from this blight of error." I sometimes look in the faces of my patients, so much sadness, depression and anxiety and my soul will utter the word "blight" silently of course...

The definition of BLIGHT:

Blight\ (bl[imac]t), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Blighted; p. pr. & vb. n. Blighting.] [Perh. contr. from AS. bl[=i]cettan to glitter, fr. the same root as E. bleak. The meaning "to blight" comes in that case from to glitter, hence, to be white or pale, grow pale, make pale, bleach. Cf. Bleach, Bleak.]

1. To affect with blight; to blast; to prevent the growth and fertility of.
"[This vapor] blasts vegetables, blights corn and fruit, and is sometimes injurious even to man." --Woodward.
2. Hence: To destroy the happiness of; to ruin; to mar essentially; to frustrate; as, to blight one's prospects.
"Seared in heart and lone and blighted." --Byron.

ALSO:

Blight. verb; That which frustrates one's plans or withers one's hopes; that which impairs or destroys.
"A blight seemed to have fallen over our fortunes." --Disraeli.