What Is The Epiphany House Blessing?
It’s a blessing for the home that is traditionally performed each year on the Solemnity of the Epiphany (also known as 3 Kings Day or Twelfth Night) and the weeks following that is done on the front door of the house and uses symbols drawn with blessed chalk.
Family and friends gather to ask God’s blessing on their homes and those who live in or visit the home. It is an invitation for Jesus to be a daily guest in our home, our comings and goings, our conversations, our work and play, our joys and sorrows.
Marking the doorway to one’s home is rooted in the Old Testament. Holy Scripture reminds us that God commanded his people to mark their doors. The Israelites marked their doors with the lamb’s blood on the night of the Passover (Exodus 12:7):
Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your might.
Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart …
and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
(Deuteronomy 6:4-6, 9)
Overview
This blessing, which is traditionally done on Epiphany or shortly after Epiphany, can be done at any time of the year to ask God’s blessing of protection over your home so that all who enter and depart this year may enjoy God’s blessing.
The inscription is made on the lintel above your front door which is the “threshold” of your home. It is recommended that it be done on the inside of your doorway to avoid it being washed or rubbed off from the outside. This inscription and the prayer that follow act as an invocation for the protection of God in His angels and in His saints. The letters have two meanings. They are the initials of the names of the three Magi: Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar. They also represent the first letters of the Latin blessing: “Christus Mansionem Benedicat” (“May Christ bless the house”). The crosses represent the protection of the Precious Blood of Christ, whom we invoke, and the holiness of the Magi who adored the infant Jesus.
The inscription and the prayer should be performed by the head of the household.
Holy Water is then sprinkled in every room of the house while praying the rosary. The inscription written with blessed chalk should not be removed until the next year when a new threshold blessing is performed. If your home has never been blessed by a priest, you may also want to consider having this done as well.
When complete, the inscription should resemble the picture below.
What is needed
- Chalk that has been blessed by a Catholic priest (if your doorway is white you may want to use colored chalk).
- Holy Water. Holy Water is available from the Holy Water container next to the Information desk in the gathering space (Narthex) in church.
- The Epiphany Threshold Blessing prayer – click here to download.
