20 + C + M + B + 13 at HOLY SOULS HERMITAGE

the magi madonna child catacombs priscilla googled image

This is from the Catacombs of Priscilla: The three wise men and the Madonna and Christ Child.

I took out the Rituale Romanum on this Feast of the Epiphany from the book shelf in the little chapel of Holy Souls Hermitage and made use of the blessing which recalls Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar, both for the blessing of the clay (chalk) and then the house blessing, with exorcized water/salt.

epiphany blessing 2013

Oh, and, by the way: I’m sure that the wise men, who are accompanying us throughout 2013, would like us to mediate on two aspects of Christ’s ministry so that we are blessed for the whole year, those being the other aspects of Epiphany which the Church hold’s out to us: the Baptism of Christ (a ferocious mediation on that HERE) and the Wedding of Cana (a ferocious meditation on that HERE). You might want to read those over this week as the Christmas/Epiphany season continues.

5 Comments

Filed under Catholic

5 Responses to 20 + C + M + B + 13 at HOLY SOULS HERMITAGE

  1. Joisy Goil

    Your picture reminded me that when I was a litle my parents had our favorite priest bless our house with with chalk and salt and water. 20+C+M+B+13 ? The letters are for Caspar, Melchior and Balthazzar I guess and 20 and 13 is the year. but what is the significance?

  2. We’re asking these wise men, these saints, to come with us throughout 2013, or rather, that in this year, we might accompany them as they adore the Lord in heaven. Yikes! We can do that especially with adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus, Emmanuel, God-With-Us.

  3. Joisy Goil

    I like that.

  4. When I was married to a Bavarian, we would always visit his mother at this time of year. The Catholic boys would come in robes and write these numbers and letters above the doors. I was pleasantly surprised! I had never heard of such a beautiful and simple ritual to honor Christ. Good for you for making it happen at the Hermitage, Father!

  5. Rebecca

    This tradition is still very much alive in Austria (above every door in the village we stayed in) and I have also seen it in some parts of Germany.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s