Get Ready For the Epiphany Blessing

Last year I was not familiar with this beautiful custom of blessing our homes until that day, so I wasn't ready for it. (I didn't have any chalk in the house)

This year, I am posting it early enough for you to get chalk if you don't have any in the house.

My post from last year can be found Epiphany Blessing

I'd also like to post the actual blessing here:

20 C + M + B 08
May Christ bless this House…
All who dwell and pray in it…
And All Whom they Welcome in His Name
....................

BLESSING OF A HOME AT EPIPHANY

Let us pray, In the name of + The Father, and The Son, and The Holy Spirit. Amen.

V. On entering the house, the Magi found the Child Jesus with Mary his mother.
R. They did Him homage and presented to Jesus symbolic gifts: gold to the great King, incense to the true God, and myrrh as a foreshadowing of his suffering and death.

Let us pray, God, our Father, by the guidance of a star, You revealed Your only Son as the Savior of all nations. Grant that we who already know You by faith, may be brought to the contemplation of Your glory in our heavenly home. We ask this through Christ your Son, Our Lord. Amen.

All may recite the Canticle of the Blessed Virgin Mary (The MAGNIFICAT) by which Mary praised God at the time of her Visitation to the house of Elizabeth found in St. Luke's Gospel Chapter 1, verses 46-55.

V. Be enlightened, O Jerusalem, and shine forth …for Your light has come!
R. And upon you is risen the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary.
V. All nations shall walk in Your light and kings in the splendor of Your birth.
R. And upon You is risen the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary.
Now, a Reading of the Gospel for the Solemnity of the Epiphany of Our Lord
from St. Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 2, verses 1 to 12.
V. Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, has appeared and been revealed to the nations.
R. The prophets foretold His coming, and the angels and shepherds adored Him.
V. The Magi rejoiced to find Him and they lay their treasures before Him.
R. All you nations and peoples, …come and adore Him!

All recite The OUR FATHER as all the rooms of the house are sprinkled with holy water …and also if possible with blessed salt.

Let us pray, Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation. Through Your goodness we have received all benefits. Come, visit and bless + this house so that it may be a shelter of health, chastity, self-conquest, humility, goodness, mildness, obedience to the Commandments, - and thanksgiving to God, + The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit.

May the love and blessings of God, + The Father, and The Son, and The Holy Spirit, descend upon this house, all those who reside within it, and upon all those whom they welcome in the Sacred Name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and may God's grace and peace remain with all of them forever. Amen.

NOTE: The initials of the names ascribed by tradition to the Magi (Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar), and the numerals of the current year are to be written with the blessed chalk above all the entry doors of the house in the following manner:
20 C + M + B 08

(Some interpret the letters to stand for Christus Mansioni Benedicat! May Christ bless this house! )

Mahalo to my friend Becca for sharing this with me last year.

Pope Benedict is considering bringing back the prayer to Saint Michael.

H/T to Ed of In God's Company

According to Father Amorth (the Vatican's chief exorcist), Pope Benedict is considering bringing back the prayer to St Michael: “I remember a meeting we exorcists had with the Holy Father last year, in which he implored us to follow our mission as exorcists,” the Telegraph quoted him as saying. Father Amorth has also revealed that the Pope is contemplating reinstating use of the prayer said to Saint Michael the Archangel, which was abolished in the 1960s, because it is believed to be the prime protector against evil."

Be sure to visit Ed's blog for the links to the accompanying articles.

Our Lady for Saturday

Feast Day of St. Thomas Becket

December 29 (politicians)

Gracious Father, Saint Thomas was famed for his opulence and his status as the most powerful man in England second to the king. Everything changed when he became a priest to be consecrated archbishop. He completely turned his life around and began to live piously. He was soon opposing the king to defend the Church's rights. I ask him to pray for the conversion of our politicians today. O Lord, give them motivation to turn away from the love of money and prestige and to begin serving Your kingdom more than their earthly domains. Forgive them their sins and lead them to heaven. Saint Thomas, pray for us. Amen.

From Daily Prayers With the Saints for the New Millennium by Terry Ann Modica

This would be a good time to read Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot and/or watch Becket with Richard Burton.

Feast of the Holy Innocents

It is impossible for Herod's henchmen to recognize with absolute certainty, among all the babies of Bethlehem and its vicinity, just which infant boy is Jesus Christ. Thus, seething with diabolical fury, Herod orders the massacre of all who resemble Jesus in gender and approximate age. This barbaric case of "mistaken identify" becomes the source of incomparable exaltation for the Holy Innocents. For there is no greater glory than for a person to be mistaken for Christ himself. Perhaps the Lord had this in mind later in life when he declares that only those who change and become like little children can enter the kingdom of God. In our childlikeness, we are most like Jesus Christ. The blood of the Son Jesus that cleanses us fro all sin beings to reach us and transforms us today in a powerful way through the blood of the martyred Holy Innocents.

From the Magnificat: Christmas Issue 07

On this feast day, let us remember the present day massacre of the holy innocents through the crime of abortion.

Prayer to End Abortion

Lord God, I thank you today for the gift of my life,
And for the lives of all my brothers and sisters.

I know there is nothing that destroys more life than abortion,
Yet I rejoice that you have conquered death
by the Resurrection of Your Son.

I am ready to do my part in ending abortion.
Today I commit myself
Never to be silent,
Never to be passive,
Never to be forgetful of the unborn.

I commit myself to be active in the pro-life movement,
And never to stop defending life
Until all my brothers and sisters are protected,
And our nation once again becomes
A nation with liberty and justice
Not just for some, but for all.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen!

From Priests for Life

Feast of St. Stephen

Dear St. Stephen

I have been honored to be born n your feast day and to bear a variation of your name-
a name made famous by your heroic virtues.
Help me never to do anything to besmirch it.
Obtain God's grace for me
that I may grow in faith, hope and love,
and all the virtues.
Grant that by imitating you
I may initiate your Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.
Watch over me along the way of the rest of my life
and bring me safe to my heavenly home at my death.

Amen.

From the New Saint Joseph's Peoples Prayer Book

Merry Christmas!

Christmas was the beginning of "one world". Like His heavenly Father, Jesus, would have a chosen race-all mankind in the Catholic Church. The Church, to all appearances a mere organization, is really an organism-The Mystical Body of Christ, a Body living and breathing the life of God by grace. The cells of this Body are men, and it is meant to grow to "The fullness of Christ." That is why Jesus, the Head of the Mystical Body, did not come to earth full grown out of the clouds, but was born a Child.

Purity of mind and body is a personal precept and a social virtue. But it is much more. It is a bulwark of the Kingdom of God on earth.

From Fr. Patrick Peyton's Rosary Prayer Book.

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Shared by Barb

A Special "Birthday Cake" For Jesus

Put in a cup of humility,
A cup of love goes in too.
Add a cup of caring and sharing,
I'm making it just for you.
You're my Savior and redeemer
So I'll add my heart as well,
For dying on that cross for me
And saving my soul from Hell.
I'll put in lots of forgiveness
For my fellow man,
For many here on Earth
Refuse God's perfect plan.
I'll add a cup of "glad" and "thankfuls"
Because God has for me,
A perfect place in His kingdom
To live for eternity.
I'll add my cup of cheer as well,
And a cup or two of faith,
That my friends and family near to me,
Will enter in that pearly gate.
I'll stir it all up in my soul,
And offer it to my King.
For myself is all I have to give,
I haven't any other thing.
I'll ice it all over with my prayers,
To be a lamp so bright,
So others may see in me
God's perfect wondrous light.
Happy Birthday Jesus!

~ Author Unknown ~

White Christmas

Dedicated to our military.

Merry Christmas!

Mele Kalikimaka