"The greatest persecution of the Church does not come from external enemies, but is born of sin within the church"-Pope Benedict xvi

Thursday 6 January 2011

Epiphany celebrations.
















This is the first year we have done anything more than take down our Christmas decorations. This year we made an Epiphany cake, and hid 3 coins inside-one gold, one silver, and one bronze-trying to represent the 3 gifts rather than Olympic medals. We also did the house blessing-we got our chalk blessed by our parish priest.
The chalk inscription consists of the year-20 (11 at the end). M+C+B+ can either stand for Melchior,Caspar and Balthazar or Christus mansionem benedicat -May Christ bless this house.
The blessing that we used we got from the book-" Advent,Christmas and Epiphany in the domestic church", by Catherine and Peter Fournier.
"O Lord, grant that the names of Thy saints Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar may, through their merits and petitions, bless our home and bring physical health and spiritual protection for all who enter here.Amen"

3 comments:

Sarah Faith said...

i can't believe how on top of the liturgical year you guys always are. how do you do it? I'm sure you guys have busy lives too. What is your secret? How far in advance do you plan? how much and what kind of stuff do you keep on hand? Can you do a blog post on this?

Mummymayhem said...

I had planned to do this from last year, when I first heard of Blessed chalk. If it helps, I have done nothing for Advent or Christmas this year, as I have been too tired or sick.Many feast days etc, I let slide, as I can always do them another year. I work with what I have available (always have cake ingredients!)I might see an idea in a book, and say, "Well I don't have that stuff, but I do have this and that, and I can modify this". And having an Australian FB friend who is into the Liturgical year, and is 12 hours ahead of me, gives me some ideas, or even-"gosh is it St Whatzits feast day?,must look him up"

Jackie Parkes MJ said...

Great post..will link to your blog..