Getting ready for tomorrow’s blessing, this afternoon I removed the chalked inscription from my doorway.
On Epiphany I will use blessed chalk to mark the door once again after blessing The Cupboard Under The Stairs.
When the chalk is blessed on Epiphany, the priest says:
Bless, + O Lord God, this creature, chalk, and let it be a help to mankind. Grant that those who will use it with faith in your most holy name, and with it inscribe on the doors of their homes the names of your saints, Casper, Melchior, and Balthasar, may through their merits and intercession enjoy health in body and protection of soul; through Christ our Lord.
We don’t know from Scripture how many “wise men” came to find the Lord. Tradition has them at three and gives them their names. The C M B on doorways is thought either to be an invocation of their names or perhaps an abbreviation in Latin: 20 + C + M + B + 19 … Christus Benedicat Mansionem… May Christ bless this dwelling.
For the blessing of the dwelling itself, after some responses, the priest says:
Lord God almighty, bless + this home, and under its shelter let there be health, chastity, self-conquest, humility, goodness, mildness, obedience to your commandments, and thanksgiving to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. May your blessing remain always in this home and on those who live here; through Christ our Lord. All: Amen.
Lovely aspirations.
See if you can get the priest to come, in these days, to bless your home and to mark the doorway. It is one thing for you to mark the door and hope to fulfill what the blessing asks, and it is another for Father, alter Christus, to do it.
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We are getting ready now and have a fabulous dinner that goes with the festivities! Pretty sure it would meet Fr.Z’s approval. I serve 3 King steaks (literally three 3″ bone-in prime rib steaks, which are seared then roasted ) a alongside Balthazar beet salad and we finish with chocolate mousse topped with fresh whipped cream and Stelline d’Oro cookies ( star cookies with a gold saffron glaze). This will be the third year that we are blessed to have a priest mark our doors as we now have Traditional priests nearby. Think this is my family’s favorite meal of the year and a perfect way to continue to celebrate Christmas with the reverent awe of the Magi. Off to cut the star cookies now!
My place is getting Blessed this morning between Masses and our priest is staying for brunch.
Last year on the Sunday after Epiphany, the priest made an announcement after the EF Mass I was attending. The announcement was not in English, but I caught the word “kapur”. I should know that word I thought, but I’ve forgotten it. I quickly googled it: “chalk”. Of course! I went up with the others and was given a piece of blessed chalk, together with a leaflet of instructions on how to inscribe one’s doorway, together with some prayers to say.
At the EF this year my ears were waiting for the announcement of kapur, and, sure enough, once again we got our blessed chalk, and the prayers to say, and as an added bonus, some blessed salt, in large grains.
Meanwhile, back in my local NO parish, there are two priests for some 2000+ faithful, so I hesitate to contact the parish office to see if I can book one of them to inscribe our door. But maybe one day…
This, and similar posts, make me sad. During the eighteen years or so we have lived in our diocese, I have never heard of this and so many other of the rituals Fr. Z. writes about. In our church, there is never a Way of the Cross, etc. One can spend time visiting the web sites of every church in the diocese, but that’s hit-and-miss because these rituals are not always mentioned, and not every church puts its bulletins online. I have missed so many opportunities to gain indulgences because almost nothing besides Mass is ever done. No Te Deums are sung, no Novenas said, etc.