It was the Epiphany of the Lord and we Sisters planned to bless our convent home. It is part of our Catholic church history to bless your house on Epiphany. Take chalk and mark the lintel (top cross bar) of your front door +20+C+M+B+15+ saying:
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- The three Wise Men, (C) Casper, (M) Melchior, (B) and Balthasar followed the star of God’s Son who became human
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- (20) two thousand and (15) fifteen years ago.
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- ++May Christ bless our home++ and remain with us throughout the new year.
God is love and those who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. Christ, God-With-Us, is present in the love and care we show to each other in our ordinary daily lives together. May all who come to our home this year rejoice to find Christ living among us; and may we seek and serve, in everyone we meet, that same Jesus who is your Living Word, now and forever. Amen. C M B above the door, also stands for Christus Mansionem Benedicat, Latin for “May Christ Bless this House.”
Following the blessing of our home we had planned a 4:00pm holy hour.
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- All was peaceful and calm…
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- It is good to be here Lord.
Fifteen minutes into the holy hour as we all sat quietly all of the lights went out…as did the heat!
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- It takes no lights to praise the Lord!
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- What a perfect time to just BE.
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- Darkness begins to settle in as does a chill as evening falls. Electricity controls much of our lives!
It was soon discovered that the problem with the electricity wasn’t just ours, for this we were glad. “Misery loves company!” But this also means it could take awhile for the electricity to return. Yet we are so blessed to live here this evening and not up North where it would be 30-40 degrees colder.
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- As we prayed evening prayer Psalm 112 read; “He is a light in the darkness…”. Well maybe a flash light would help!
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- “A light has shone through the darkness …”