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Once again, from the Catholic Encyclopedia:

Blessing:
“Since, then, blessings, in the sense in which they are being considered, are entirely of ecclesiastical institution, the Church has the power to determine who shall have the right and duty to confer them. “

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02599b.htm

Following the link, I see that there are many senses of "blessing":

In its widest acceptation this word has a variety of meanings in the sacred writings:

It has taken in a sense that is synonymous with praise; thus the Psalmist, "I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall be always in my mouth" (Ps. xxxiii, 1).
It is used to express a wish or desire that all good fortune, especially of a spiritual or supernatural kind, may go with the person or thing, as when David says: "Blessed art thou, and it shall be well with thee" (Ps. cxxvii, 2).
It signifies the sanctification or dedication of a, person or thing to some sacred purpose; "Christ took bread and blessed, and broke" (Matthew 26:26).
Finally it is employed to designate a gift so Naaman addresses Eliseus: "I beseech thee therefore take a blessing of thy servant" (2 Kings 6:15).

With these various significations it is not the present purpose to deal. Coming, then, to its strictly liturgical and restricted sense, blessing may be described as a rite, consisting of a ceremony and prayers performed in the name and with the authority of the Church by a duly qualified minister, by which persons or things are sanctified as dedicated to Divine service, or by which certain marks of Divine favour are invoked upon them...

So it seems that one may not know from a non-technical account, just what kind of blessing was invoked or intended.

I bless people fairly promiscuously. I admit that. I am grateful for blessings, too: if they were rightly intended, they will do me good; if they were sarcastic or heretical or in some other way defective, they will do me no harm.