Catholic House Blessing

We are very fortunate to have had our new home blessed by Rev Deacon Joseph Zhang last Easter Sunday. It was a very solemn and intimate family event as we did not invite anyone as advised by mother dear and seconded by the husband. 

Father Joseph is one of our favourite priest in our parish church. His homilies never fail to tug one's heart. He is also one of the humblest priest we've ever met. When he returned my call a week later after I called the church for house blessing schedule, he was very apologetic for forgetting to call me back as soon as he could. 

He said he could come and bless our house on the 13th of April but when I told him that the hubby is on a weeklong leave before joining a new project (which means he will be very busy again), he acceded to my request without a single hint of hesitation to have our house blessed before the hubby returns to work. 

Just like celebrating a mass, Father Joseph read a gospel and gave homily. He asked us to be kind to one another and be generous as Jesus enters our house.  Each of us participated by reading a passage especially written for blessing each room. The passages are found at a house blessing booklet from the church brought along by Father Joseph. Hubby read the passage written for blessing the living room. 

My mom read the passage written for blessing the kitchen. Before sprinkling the holy water, Father Joseph reminded us to be thankful not just for the food we eat but also for the one who cooks the food. A very good reminder as it is something that we often fail to do.

I read the passage written for blessing the parent's (master) room. Father Joseph reminded us of the importance of having a good husband-and-wife relationship and to be tolerant to each other's shortcomings.

K read the passage written for the children's room. Father Joseph talked about nurturing the children with God's love.

Please allow me to digress, if you have paid attention to baby G on all the photos, he was his usual self walking around and doing what he normally does. This room is his playroom cum daddy's office (the other side of the room was full of daddy's things). It is supposed to be a guest room.

Lastly, I requested Father Joseph to bless our mini-altar. He prayed to God to stay at the center of our home and our lives. 

When father was done sprinkling the holy water all over the house, he gathered all of us, prayed for us and  also blessed all the family members with holy water. Afterwhich, we took a family photo with him. He wanted baby G to sit on his lap which he did for a while but after baby G took the bottle of holy water from him, he transferred on my lap. Hehehe. 

Father took off his robe, cleaned the candle droplets on the floor (we all stopped him from doing so but he still did anyway, he even found his way to the dust bin) and joined us for simple lunch (he also refused to sit at the center and told us to treat him like ordinary person). We are so blessed to have such a humble priest blessing and visiting our house on Easter Sunday. 

May our house be always filled with lots of love, laughter and abundant blessings and may God be the center of everything. 

Final house blessing prayer: 

Bless this house as we come and go. 

Bless this house as our children grow.

Bless our loved ones when they gather in.

Bless this house with love and friends.

Thank you Dear God for once again realizing one of our family's biggest dreams. We humbly acknowledge that all these blessings come from you and we bring you back all the glory and praise.

Amen.

FYI:

In Christianity, house blessing is an ancient tradition that can be found in Protestantism, Orthodox Christianity and Roman Catholisism. They are usually performed by a parish priest who sprinkles holy water as he walks through every room of the house accompanied by the occupants of the house, whilst praying for the occupants. ~ Source