Blessing their homes for the new year: MM + G + M + B + XVI.

by Joseph Saraceno

081111 11A Traditional Catholic Priest, Vested in Cope
After Blessing Chalk in Honor of the Magi on Epiphany
Inscribes the Lintel of the Church Door
With the Names of the Magi and the Year
MM + G + M + B + XVI
The Faithful Receive Pieces of This Blessed Chalk
To Inscribe Their Own Homes in Like Manner for the New Year
MM + G + M + B + XVI.

Dear TRADITIO Fathers:

How is the Holy Water that is exorcised on the Vigil of the Epiphany different from that exorcised for Holy Mass?

The TRADITIO Fathers Reply.

In the traditional Catholic Church (the rite has been essentially jettisoned by the Newchurch of the New Order), water may be blessed on the Vigil of the Epiphany, the Eleventh Day of Christmas, January 5. This custom is associated with the fact that already by the fourth century, an annual procession left Jerusalem for Bethlehem and returned the following morning of the Epiphany. St. John Chrysostom (ca. 349-407) in his Homilia in Baptisma Christianorum tells how the Christians used to take home the water specially blessed on that occasion.

The traditional Catholic ceremony of Blessing Holy Water on the Vigil of the Epiphany as detailed in the traditional Rituale Romanum is quite elaborate and beautiful. It begins with the chanting of the Litany of the Saints, followed by the chanting of Psalms 28 (Afferte Domino), 45 (Deus noster), and 146 (Laudate Dominum). After chanting the Oration of the Epiphany (Deus, qui hodierna die), the celebrant then chants the Exorcism against Satan and the Apostate Angels (Exorcizamus te). Then follows the Antiphon (Hodie caelesti sponso iuncta est Ecclesia) and the Canticle of Zacharias (Benedictus Dominus) or the Canticle of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Magnificat). The salt and water are then blessed as for the Asperges at Holy Mass. After the exorcisms, the rite concludes with the solemn chanting of the Church’s great hymn of adoration, the Te Deum, ascribed to St. Ambrose of Milan and St. Augustine of Hippo, and a final Oration (Deus cuius misericordiae non est numerus).

On Epiphany traditional Catholic Churches may also bless chalk (creta) in Honor of the Magi. The faithful receive pieces of this blessed chalk to inscribe in like manner their own homes with the names of the Magi and the year, by way of blessing their homes for the new year: MM + G + M + B + XVI.