Yesterday evening, J. and I went to a vigil Mass and then enjoyed a special supper with Christmas-pudding-fried-in-butter and brandy cream...and some delicious damson liqueur (a Christmas gift)...and fudge (ditto)...
...and then at Mass today we had the Blessing of Chalk. Small sticks of chalk blessed in front of the Nativity scene set up in the chapel to one side of the chancel, and then distributed with small slips of paper with the prayer for the blessing of our homes.
Jamie and I first learned of this in Austria, and it is now catching on in Britain. As you say the prayer, you chalk up, over the front door, the initials of the three Wise Men and the date:
20 C + M + B 15
We have been doing it year on year, so all I needed to do this evening as I carried out a chair to the front step and climbed up, was to change the 4 to a 5, while saying the little prayer and making the Sign of the Cross, asking God to bless our home and us in the year ahead...
And this is the prayer:
God of heaven and earth, you revealed your only-begotten One to every nation by the guidance of a star. Bless this house and all who live here. Fill us with the light of Christ, that our concern for others may reflect your love. We ask this through Christ our Saviour. Amen.
Trawling the web, I found lots of good material on this house blessing tradition, and this site is particularly good...
1 comment:
My three wise men went through hyperspace as yesterday was declared their time of arrival from the bookshelf they had been inching along to the mantelpiece where baby Jesus lays.
That is an advantage to having Epiphany transferred to a preceding Sunday. It means the wise men, who are probably the best figures in the set, are in the display for longer. I'm very pleased with my crib, which I bought this year - it's the first I have ever bought, though we made a papier mache one with clothes peg figures as children.
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