Several years ago we wrote about house blessings. If you missed that post, check it out here: https://orthodoxchristianparenting.wordpress.com/2016/01/13/time-for-house-blessings/. The post encourages us to prepare our hearts and our home for our house blessing. Included are links to articles explaining the importance of having our home blessed, the actual house blessing service, the troparion (so we can practice singing it as a family before our house blessing), and a printable page that can help our family to prepare for our house blessing.
After checking out that piece and all that it has to offer, take a look at what we are sharing here. We have done a little more research, and have found several additional resources. We think that you may find them helpful, so we are sharing them here as an “extension” of sorts to our original post.
May the Lord bless us all and our families, as we prepare our hearts and our home for our house blessing!
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“Since our homes cannot be brought to the Church, the Church – through the priest and cantor – go to the homes. There, the service of blessing, which began in the church, is finished with the sprinkling of water in the home… By sanctifying our living quarters, our private place, we extend the grace of God to our individual dwellings.” Read more about house blessings in this article: https://blog.obitel-minsk.com/2017/06/why-do-orthodox-christians-have-their.html
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Families with young children may find this information and lesson about Holy Theophany (which talks a bit about house blessings) helpful to use to teach the children about this wonderful event. https://orthodoxpebbles.com/new-testament/holy-theophany/
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Draw Near Designs offered a simple guide to prepare for your house blessing, complete with a “map” of where on your prayer table to place each item needed for the blessing. They have also included ways to incorporate children in the preparation for the blessing, for example: “Have your kids pretend to be the priest and walk around the house blessing or censing it. Have them remove any toys that are in their way and in turn would be in the priest’s way as he walks though the house.” Check out their post here: https://www.drawneardesigns.com/blog/2019/1/23/house-blessings?
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Author Jane G. Meyer wrote a beautiful, child-centered piece about house blessings, and shared it on the Orthodox Christian Network. “There may be a few rituals in the Orthodox Church that we struggle to explain to a young child, but the house blessing is not one of them. Many of the elements that accompany this tradition are appealing to a little one. Here are a few things we’ve discovered over the years that make this tradition especially meaningful…” You can read the ways that she incorporates children into the house blessing in her article, found here: http://myocn.net/for-the-child-the-house-blessing/
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Fr. Hector Firoglanis of Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Lancaster, PA, writes about holy water and how having our house blessed with it is important, in this article: http://www.annunciationorthodox.org/publications/annunciator/18-news/spiritual-messages/173-how-holy-water-helps-us. Among other things, he writes, “Holy Water (as is the case with all the sacraments of the Church) is not magic. It is a visible means (in this case, water) through which God transmits to us His invisible Grace. God does not enter our lives in order to make our lives easier; rather, He makes Himself available to give us the strength and Grace to overcome the hardships and challenges of life. There is nothing more important than to teach a young person that God is with us no matter what — during the good times and the bad, during the victories and the losses, in life and in death.” Having our house blessed with Holy Water is one way to help teach our children that God is with us no matter what.
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You may wish to print this prayer from the early church, and allow your child(ren) to decorate it as you talk about your upcoming house blessing. Talk together about all of the things we are asking God to do when we pray this prayer and when we have our house blessed. Perhaps your family will find it helpful to incorporate this prayer for the blessing of your house into your prayers more regularly than once a year!
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Zaccheus welcomed Christ into his home with generosity. “Do they (your children) see you welcoming Christ into your home by giving what you can to those who need it?… Is it clear to everyone who lives there and visits there that your house is a house of prayer?” Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick challenges his listeners to welcome Christ as Zaccheus did, not just for the house blessing, but all year around. https://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/emmaus/are_we_ready_for_jesus_to_visit_sermon_jan._22_2017
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Orthodox Christian Parenting 