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.