For those unfamiliar with the idea, you mark the threshold to your home with numbers representing the year in question and the letters CMB, which are the initials of the names which legend has given to the Magi who visited Jesus: Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar; but also the initials of the Latin phrase: Christus Mansionem Benedicat.
In both 2022 and 2023, Epiphany arrived at a point when I had relatively recently moved into a new home. The tradition of blessing the space, felt particularly pertinent in a particular way. A gesture of dedicating the space I was going to make my own, to being a space in which I, and others might feel blessed and beloved of God.
This year the context is a little bit different. I have been here for a year, have made this space feel like a home and already made many happy memories with many different people. For myself, and I hope for others, it has already been a place of blessing. There was, this time a looking back in thanksgiving as well as looking ahead in hope. And there was a heartfelt prayer that this space might continue to be a blessing for myself and for all who cross its threshold.
There are all sorts of versions of the prayers and blessings that can be used but the common thread which runs through many of them is about Christ being present in the offering of welcome and hospitality. The blessing is not of the bricks and mortar as such, but of the spaces within. The spaces where encounter is possible, where memories are made, where safety is found, where refreshment is offered, where tears and laughter are accepted, where love is shared.
I feel incredibly privileged to have a safe and comfortable home where I am very happy. I feel that comes with a level of responsibility to make good use of it. Rededicating it, as the new year begins, to being a place of refuge and welcome, of peace and of joy, for myself and for others, feels like no bad thing.
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