Orthodox prayers for a new home

A priest can come to bless a new house. These are prayers a family can say there themselves, most of them from the Church’s blessings of a house.

Picture: Johannes Vermeer, The Little Street, about 1658

3 prayers

For everyone who lives there

Prayer for a home

Plain English only: no traditional English wording is given for this prayer

Lord God, Master Almighty,bless this home, we pray You,and all Your servants who live in it,so that, kept by You,they may live in peace, love and harmony.

Bless them,so that, doing Your holy will,they may live here into old ageand see their children’s children.

Bless them with joy, gladness and plenty,so that they may comfort those in need.

Bless them with long life,so that, pleasing You, the Master, Maker and Saviour,those who live in this homemay by Your mercy also enter Your heavenly Kingdom,prepared for all who keep Your commandments.

Hear us, All-merciful One,and bless this home and those who live in it,so that they may always praise You, our God,Father, Son and Holy Spirit,now and always, and for ever and ever.Amen.

This prayer comes from the Russian Orthodox service for blessing a new home, but a family can pray every word of it themselves. It asks God to keep them in peace, love and harmony until they see their children’s children.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Church Slavonic. How the wording is made.

Where it comes from, and the Church Slavonic

For an angel to keep the house

Prayer for an angel to guard the home

Hear us, holy Lord, almighty Father, eternal God,and be pleased to send Your holy angel from heavento guard, cherish, protect, visit and defendall who live in this home of Your servant (name).

And grant, we pray, that our coming inmay make this house holy.

May the joy of Your generous giftsbe given to everyone who lives in it:to the heads of the house and all the household,a guiding hand, so that they stay obedient and live without blame;to the little ones, the grace of a good nature;to those growing up, a youth without stain;to the old, holy years of earnest living;and to all, a long and contented old age.

And so, with the saints pleading for this house,may it be given lasting happiness,so that the angel’s protecting watchstays over it without ceasing.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ.Amen.

Traditional wording, 1864

Hear us, holy Lord, Father Almighty, everlasting God,and be pleased to send Thy holy angel from heaven,to guard, cherish, protect, visit, and defendall who dwell in this habitation;through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Priests in the West prayed it by about AD 750 as they blessed water to sprinkle through a house. It asks God to send His angel to guard the home, then asks a gift for each age in it, from the little ones to the old.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Latin of the Gelasian Sacramentary, with William Bright’s 1864 English of its first sentence beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: William Bright, Ancient Collects and Other Prayers, 1864.

Bright translated only the first sentence, without the householder’s name, and the closing line. The plain wording alone gives the rest, from “And grant” to the blessings for each age in the house.

Where it comes from, and the Latin

A psalm for moving in

Psalm 30

I will exalt You, LORD,for You lifted me upand did not let my enemies gloat over me.LORD my God, I cried to You for help,and You healed me.LORD, You brought my soul up from the grave;You kept me alive and did not let me go down into the pit.

Sing praise to the LORD, you His faithful people,and give thanks to His holy name.For His anger lasts only a moment,but His favour lasts a lifetime.Weeping may stay for the night,but joy comes in the morning.

When all was well with me, I said,“I will never be shaken.”LORD, by Your favourYou made my mountain stand strong;You hid Your face, and I was terrified.

To You, LORD, I called;to the Lord I pleaded for mercy:“What gain is there in my bloodif I go down to the pit?Will the dust praise You?Will it tell of Your faithfulness?Hear, LORD, and have mercy on me;LORD, be my helper.”

You turned my mourning into dancing;You took off my sackclothand wrapped me in gladness,so that my soul may sing Your praise and not be silent.LORD my God, I will give thanks to You for ever.

Traditional wording, 1611

I will extol Thee, O LORD; for Thou hast lifted me up,and hast not made my foes to rejoice over me.O LORD my God, I cried unto Thee, and Thou hast healed me.O LORD, Thou hast brought up my soul from the grave:Thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of His,and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.For His anger endureth but a moment; in His favour is life:weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.LORD, by Thy favour Thou hast made my mountain to stand strong:Thou didst hide Thy face, and I was troubled.

I cried to Thee, O LORD; and unto the LORD I made supplication.What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit?Shall the dust praise Thee? shall it declare Thy truth?Hear, O LORD, and have mercy upon me: LORD, be Thou my helper.

Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing:Thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness;To the end that my glory may sing praise to Thee, and not be silent.O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto Thee for ever.

The psalm is headed “a song at the dedication of the house”. St Athanasius of Alexandria advised it for the day you dedicate your home, and your soul with it.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Hebrew, with the King James Version beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: The King James translators, The King James Version, 1611.

Where the King James Version has “my glory” in the last verse, the plain wording follows its own margin, which reads it as “my tongue, or, my soul”.

Where it comes from, and the original

Scripture for this

⁵When Jesus came to that place, He looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, hurry down, for I must stay at your house today.” ⁶So Zacchaeus hurried down and welcomed Him joyfully. ⁷And all who saw this began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinful man!” ⁸But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, half of my possessions I give to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone, I will repay it fourfold.” ⁹Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham.”

Luke 19:5-9 Jesus invites Himself to the home of Zacchaeus the tax collector, and that day salvation comes to his house.

⁵Whatever house you enter, begin by saying, ‘Peace to this house.’ ⁶If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you.

Luke 10:5-6 Jesus sends His disciples out to greet every house they enter with peace, a fitting first word in a new home.

²⁴Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because its foundation was on the rock.

Matthew 7:24-25 Whoever hears Jesus’s words and does them is like a wise man whose house on the rock stood through rain, floods and wind.

“But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve the LORD, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!”

Joshua 24:15 Joshua asks all Israel to choose whom they will serve. He and his household will serve the Lord.

Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.

Deuteronomy 6:9 God’s people are to write His commands on the doorposts of their houses and on their gates.

³By wisdom a house is built and by understanding it is established; ⁴through knowledge its rooms are filled with every precious and beautiful treasure.

Proverbs 24:3-4 Wisdom builds a house and understanding makes it stand, while knowledge fills its rooms with precious things.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

A psalm for this

Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain; unless the LORD protects the city, its watchmen stand guard in vain.
Psalm 127:1

St Athanasius gave this psalm alongside Psalm 30 to anyone dedicating a new home.

Psalm 127 Read the whole psalm, with St Athanasius’s advice on when to pray it.

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