>>103705685Saying "God bless you" when someone sneezes is a relict order of Pope Gregory I (590CE-604CE), who ordered unceasing prayer for divine intercession - contrary to the teachings of the Bible in which the Lord God makes it repeatedly clear that there will be no such thing (even going so far as to promise no further mass-scale interventions and, in Roman times, refusing to intercede on behalf of his own son). Moreover the phrase - specifically in reference to sneezing - occurs in the B?hatkath?, an epic poem of India which pre-dates Gregory's order by several centuries at least, and - given the long history of crossover between (especially Vedic) literature of the Indian sub-continent and the early Church - may well have been the genesis of the idea in Gregory's time.
So when you're asking for people to say "God bless you" what you're really saying is that we should all do something because the pope ordered it 1400 years ago based on something he read in a book from India, even though the modern Catholic Church and pope don't agree that it should be mandatory at all.
Among other things Gregory I was a big fan of Matthew 19:21, "go sell what thou hast and let's spend it on the poors". You sold everything you have and given alms to the poor today, OP?
