Chalking the Door
Practice
Mark your calendar. Epiphany is January 6, 2024. 12 days after Christmas.
Find some chalk. Thick sidewalk chalk is a good option.
Gather everyone. Gather your whole household. Invite a friend or neighbor if you live alone.
Say a simple prayer. Consider using the prayer for your home in this issue.
Write the inscription. Use the chalk and take turns to write the numbers and letters on or above the door.
Add the 4 crosses. Recite the blessing together as you mark the crosses in between the numbers and letters, “May Christ bless our home throughout this year.”
Chalking the Door is an ancient practice to mark our homes as places of sacred hospitality. It is a tangible way of asking God’s blessing on those who enter the home throughout the coming year.
Chalking the Door is a practice in the season of Epiphany that began near the end of the Middle Ages. Priests would visit the members of their congregation after the Feast of the Epiphany, commemorating the visit of the Magi. They would bless their homes and mark them with chalk near the front door.
A common way of Chalking the Door is to write the symbols along the doorframe: the first two digits of the year + C+ M + B + the last two digits of the year. This year the inscription is: 20+ C + M + B + 24. The letters traditionally refer to the legendary names of the three Magi: Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. Another tradition refers to it as the abbreviation of the Latin phrase, Christus Mansionem Benedicat, which means “May Christ bless this house.”
Chalk is ordinary material of the earth. This practice takes common elements and makes them holy. Chalk does not make a permanent mark. It fades with time, but each time we enter our home and see the inscription, we are reminded of our desire for our homes to be places of hospitality, welcome, and peace.
