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EPIPHANY HOUSE BLESSING from Catholic.com Forums
It is an Epiphany custom to write the traditional names of the Magi in chalk on the lintel over the front door.
Ask your priest to bless the chalk or you may bless it.
Blessing of Chalk
Let us pray.
O Lord God, bless this creature chalk to make it helpful to man.
Grant that we who use it with faith
and inscribe with it upon the entrance of our homes may enjoy physical health and spiritual protection.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
House Blessing
Lord God of Heaven and Earth,
who hast revealed Thine only-begotten Son to every nation by the guidance of a star:
Bless this house and all who inhabit it.
Fill them with the light of Christ,
that their love for others may truly reflect Thy love.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
With the chalk write the following on the lintel over the front door.
20+C+B+M+08
The inscription stands for the Magi – Caspar, Balthazar and Melchior.
The inscription also stands for Christus Mansionem Benedicat, which means "Christ, bless this home."
It remains above the doorway until Pentecost.
A similar custom comes from the Greek Orthodox Church when the light from the Pascal candle is 'caught' by the congregation who carry home their lighted candles and mark a cross on the lintels of their home. --
The idea is to set apart your home as a place of Christian hospitality to all those who shall visit your home in the coming New Year, just as the Wise Men came to the house of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. By such an action you are saying, "May those who visit our home, also find Christ here in our midst."
The concept of house blessings goes back to Christ Himself when He instructed His first ministers to say upon entering a home:
'Peace to this house.' If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. (Luke 10:5)
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