As you all know, the time between the Feast of Theophany and the beginning of Great Lent is the time for house blessings. If you happen to look at our online church calendar, you will now see quite a lot of time-slots labelled “house blessing” – mostly on Friday evenings and Saturdays during the day. Fear not. Your priest is not that busy blessing houses! Rather, these are time-slots which I am making publicly available to help your disorganized priest organize a house-blessing at your house!
If you want to use the newfangled Google Calendar appointment slots that I’ve set up, just visit our brand-new self-serve-house-blessing-appointment page here. Or, if you prefer to arrange things the old-fashioned way, please feel free to e-mail me or contact me by phone or even just talk to me after any of the services, and we’ll set something up!
As you will doubtless recall, the house-blessing service is not terribly long or involved. It is a simple and meaningful way of dedicating our homes to God and of physically connecting them to the church through prayer, the presence of the priest, and the sprinkling of the water which God blessed by our prayers and by His presence at the Feast of Theophany. All you need for the service is a candle, some holy water (which I can bring if you don’t have any yet), and a reasonably clean home. It is always nice to have other family and friends present if we can arrange it, or even to arrange communal house blessings, if practical, but only your own presence (and mine!) is strictly necessary.
Visiting your homes to bless them with you is one of my favourite duties as a priest. I look forward to the privilege of being present in your homes to ask God’s blessing upon them at whatever time we manage to arrange – either in the time-slots now specified on the online church calendar or at any other time we can arrange that is mutually convenient and spiritually beneficial!
Love in Christ,
Fr. Justin.