On the Feast of the Epiphany, the family gathers to ask God’s blessing on their home and on 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. “Chalking the door” is a way to celebrate and physically mark the occasion of the Epiphany of God’s blessing of our lives and home. With time, the chalk will fade. It is a reminder to let the meaning of the written symbols sink into the depths of our hearts and be manifest in our words and actions.

A traditional way of doing this is to use chalk to write above the outside of the home’s front entrance.
It can also be written somewhere inside the home next to an entrance.

+20  C  M  B  25+  The letters C, M, B have two meanings:
•    They are the initials of the traditional names of the three Magi: Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar.
•    They also abbreviate the Latin words Christus mansionem benedicat meaning, “May Christ bless this house”.

All make the Sign of the Cross.
Leader: “Peace be to this house and to all who dwell there, in the name of the Lord”.  ALL:   Thanks be to God.

Reader: When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,
“Where is the newborn King of the Jews? We saw His star at its rising, and have come to do him homage.”
After their audience with the King, they set out. And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising, preceded them, until it came and stopped
over the place where the child was.
They were overjoyed at seeing the star and on entering the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother.
They prostrated themselves and did him homage.
Then they opened their treasure and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their country by another way.
The word of the Lord.    ALL:   Thanks be to God.


All: Lord God of heaven and earth, you revealed your only begotten Son to every nation by the guidance of a star. Bless this house and all who live here and all who visit. May we be blessed with health, the kindness of heart, gentleness and the keeping of Your law. Fill us with the light of Christ, that our love for each other may go out to all. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.