House Blessings and Community
Sometimes I feel like I'm the luckiest man in the world. I live in an affluent society which has a corrosive effect on "community", and yet I get to experience the warmth of community every day where I live. So much so, that I tend to take it for granted. But last night it was brought home to me when our Priest came over for the annual "blessing of our house." The blessing of houses is an Orthodox custom, which like most things Orthodox goes way back. Here's how it goes:
The Priest comes over with water that was blessed during the Theophany service a few weeks ago. . .and a big brush. . .something like an over-sized basting brush. He comes into your house and goes to your icon corner where a vigil light is lit. He then starts reading the ancient prayers of blessing, facing the icons. After finishing, he takes the big brush, dips it in the water, and while everyone present sings the troparion (Greek word for hymn) of Theophany (Baptism of Christ), the Priest sprinkles the four corners of each room of the house and everyone dwelling there. . .including any cats or dogs that may be wandering through at the moment. . .to their great surprise. The troparion of Theophany is sung since that is the spiritual "source" of the water and so in a mysterious way it is a literal baptism of your dwelling. It's meant to provide for spiritual renewal, assuming of course the prayers and sprinkling of holy water is accompanied by faith in those who live there. Here are the words to the troparion:
When Thou was baptized in the Jordon O Lord,
The worship of the Trinity was made manifest.
For the voice of the Father bore witness unto Thee,
Calling Thee His beloved Son.
And the Spirit, in the guise of a dove,
Confirmed the certainty of His words.
O Christ God Who has appeared and enlightened the world,
Glory be to Thee.
It may sound silly to some folks, but I can tell you it is quite meaningful and effective. . .much better than a vacuum cleaner and windex. . .although that kind of cleansing usually precedes the house blessing.
The reason I feel so lucky, is that I live in a hundred-year-old house in downtown Portland which has been divided into three apartments. Our Priest and his wife life downstairs, my wife Macrina and I live on the second floor, and three single women who are also members of our parish live above us on the 3rd floor. So when we do the house blessing, everyone in the house attends each other's blessings. That is, we start on the third floor and work our way down. My favorite part is I get to use the big brush and douse the Priest when we are doing the blessing of his house.
Afterwards, we all gathered in Fr. Nicholas' kitchen and his wife Barbara served us ice cream. The whole thing brought tears to my eyes because there was such a warmth and comfortable familiarity among us. As I've said before, the liturgical calendar of the Church is the means by which community gets built in the Orthodox Church. Yep, Macrina and I are the luckiest. . .no, that's a pagan expression. . .we are among the most blessed people on earth.
