Each year after the Feast of Epiphany the Church makes offers to come and bless your home and or business. This is simply one more way that the Church offers you connection to the actions of the Holy Spirit.

As in Baptism where we are washed clean of all of our sins, we ask the Priest to come and “Baptize” our home or business… so why do we do this?

Today, especially in this country, our lives are fairly separated from our Church Community and this is a great sadness for all of us. We ought to be Christ centered in all aspects of our lives, but the reality is that we are not. Almost everything comes before the Church, relegating our Church Family to far less importance than it ought have. By inviting the Priest into our house and joining in the Service of Blessing we re-connect ourselves to the Church Family.

Throughout the year our homes are filled with the flotsam of anger, arguments and other pettiness. The “aura” of these events infect the space in which we spend a considerable portion of our lives. In blessing the space with the anointing of the doors against the entrance of evil and the sprinkling of Holy Water, we cleanse the space of the remnants of those things that destroy the Peace that our homes ought represent.

The blessing of homes is an important event in the life of every Orthodox Christian. More of us should make use of this Gift that the Church offers us.

I know that these “blessing” are often simply thought of as having a price, in that there is some unspoken expectation of payment to the Priest. This is not and cannot be the case. Blessings, as with all Divine Services are offered free and without cost, because the Church cannot be bought or sold. There is no expectation on the part of any of our clergy, that they will receive remuneration for offering a blessing.

House blessings are regularly scheduled from Theophany to the Sunday of Forgiveness.

+Elias
Bishop of San Francisco

[Editor's note: To Request a House Blessing via the site, go to the Albuquerque or San Francisco contact pages.]