Blessing Your Home on Epiphany

We celebrate Epiphany, remembering the wise men visiting Jesus, this weekend.  A wonderful tradition to mark this day is to bless your home for the coming year.  I hand out a copy of the blessing and chalk at our Family Mass every year, and I've included it below for you!  You'll need a small piece of chalk.  We usually let each of our children mark the house, so we repeat the blessing three times at three different entrances to our home.

Marking the doorway.

PRAYER FOR A BLESSED HOME ON EPIPHANY

It is a tradition in Europe to bless the home on Epiphany.  You can use the prayer service below and a piece of chalk to ask God’s blessing on your home and family during the coming year.  The ‘C+M+B’ in the inscription stand for the names given to the Magi in Western tradition, and also for the Latin ‘Christus Mansionem Benedicat’ meaning ‘May Christ Bless this House.’  The ‘+’ are crosses.  The 20 and 15 represent the year.  You may make the inscription on the inside or outside of your home, above one or all doors leading into the home.  Traditionally, the Father makes the inscription and the Mother is the leader, but any family member could do it, or you could take turns. 

This is also a good chance to remind your children that although we talk of three wise men and give them names, we don’t actually know how many of them there were or their names.  We know they came from far off places to worship Jesus and that they gave him three gifts.  They remind us that Jesus came to be known by and save all of mankind, a wonderful fact we celebrate every Epiphany.  Have a blessed Epiphany and Merry Christmas!

Begin by the entryway to the house.  All make the sign of the cross.  The inscription should be made at the appropriate time (listed below) above the doorway in a horizontal line so that it looks like this:  20 C+M+B 15

Leader:  Peace be with this house and all who live here.

The three wise men,

Caspar,                                                    Write the ‘C’

Melchior, and                                           Write the ‘M’

Balthasar                                                  Write the ‘B’

Followed the star of God’s

 Son who became one like us

Two thousand                                         Write the ‘20’

And fifteen years ago.                             Write the ‘15’

May Christ bless our dwelling                 Write the first ‘+’

And remain with us throughout 

the New Year.                                       Write the second ‘+’

May all who come to our home this year rejoice to find Christ living among us; and may we seek and serve, in everyone we meet, that same Jesus who is your incarnate Word, now and forever. Amen.  All make the sign of the cross.

One of our inscriptions from last year.

Happy Epiphany!