Deacon David returned to school as our Chaplain today to lead our start-of-term Collective Worship in Church. We learnt that we are still in the Christmas season, the meaning of the word ‘Epiphany’ (Revelation, Manifestation) in which the Church celebrates the visit of the Wise Men to the infant Jesus and we also found out about Epiphany Chalk Blessings on people’s homes.
This is what the Chalk blessing looks like:
20 + C + M + B + 23
This is what it means:
The ’20’ at the start and the ’23’ at the end are for the year.
The C, M & B have two different meanings:
The letters can refer to the names of the wise men that visited Jesus with their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh – the names are reputedly Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar.
Alternatively, the letters C, M & B refer to the first letters of the Latin phrase ‘Christus Mansionem Benedicat‘ which translates as ‘May Christ bless this House‘.
Deacon David had some frankincense to show us (and after adding it the thurible) he blessed chalk with a special prayer after which he sprinkled the chalk with Holy Water and then censed it with the special incense.
After assembly had finished, Deacon David used the blessed chalk to write the blessing above the main entrance doors to the school and offered the following prayer when he did it:
Lord God of heaven and earth, you revealed your only-begotten Son to every nation by the guidance of a star. Bless this school and all who work and learn here. Fill us with the light of Christ, that our concern for others may reflect your love. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.