Bless your home

image_pdfimage_print

You can bless your home using one of the many blessings and prayers for homes and households contained in Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers, including “Prayer Before Moving From a Home,” “Blessing When Moving Into a New Home,” “Blessing of the Home and Household on the Epiphany” (corresponding to the visit of the Magi to the Holy Family) and “Blessing of Homes During Eastertime” (a traditional time for the blessing of homes).

Better yet, invite your parish priest over for dinner and ask him to bless your home at the same time.

 

Ideas for Blessing Your Home

Whether you bless your home yourself or invite your pastor to do so, here are a few ideas you might want to incorporate:

  • Bless each room. Walk through your home and think about what takes place in each space. How is what happens in each place connected to the work of the Church? How is it holy? Compose a simple, appropriate prayer for each place. Choose an appropriate Scripture passage to read for each place. For example, you might read the story in Genesis about Abraham’s hospitality to the three angels as part of your blessing of the dining room table.
  • Dedicate your home (and specific places in it) to a patron saint. Invoke the patronage of St. Zita in your kitchen; dedicate kids’ bedrooms to their patron saints, etc.
  • Get the kids involved. Let your kids compose prayers for your home blessings, read Scripture passages, or sprinkle holy water.

 

Talking Points: Why Bless Your Home?

Catholics bless their homes because God comes to meet them there. In its official blessings for homes, the Church recalls that Jesus spent much of his ministry sharing a meal with people in their homes: Zacchaeus the tax collector, Martha and Mary, and the disciples on the way to Emmaus, for example.

Christ continues to meet his people where they live; as a result, “every dwelling is a temple of holiness” (“Blessing of Homes During Eastertime,” Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers, p. 129). It makes sense, then, that Catholics have long blessed their homes and households, asking God to protect them and make them places of peace and holiness.

 

Learn more

Catechism #1669, #1671

Book of Blessings: Blessing of Homes During the Christmas and Easter Seasons