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Prayers

Prayer for a new home

The Orthodox prayer for a family’s new house. It asks Christ, Who came under the roof of Zacchaeus, to keep the home and all who live there from harm.

Picture: Johannes Vermeer, The Little Street, about 1658

The words of the prayer

Plain English

O God our Saviour,You were pleased to come under the roof of Zacchaeus,and You brought salvation to him and to all his house.Now, too, keep safe from every harmthose who have chosen to live here,and who bring You their prayers and pleasthrough us, unworthy as we are.Bless their home here,and keep their life safe from every snare.

For to You belong all glory, honour and worship,with Your Father, Who has no beginning,and Your most holy, good and life-giving Spirit,now and ever, and for ever and ever.Amen.

Traditional wording, 1894

O God our Saviour, Who was pleased to enter in under the roof of Zaccheus,and didst bring salvation unto him and unto all his house;do Thou Thyself now also preserve unhurt from every harmthem that have purposed to live here,and offer unto Thee prayers and supplications through us unworthy ones,blessing those whose dwelling-place is here,and preserving their life without snares.

For to Thee is due all glory, honour, and worship,with Thine unbeginning Father,and with Thy most holy, and good, and life-creating Spirit,now and ever, and to ages of ages. Amen.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Church Slavonic, with Shann’s 1894 translation beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: G. V. Shann, Book of Needs of the Holy Orthodox Church, 1894.

The Church Slavonic prayer book online ends at “Amen”. Shann also prints the closing praise, “For to Thee is due all glory”, which the priest says aloud.

When it is said

It comes from the Trebnik, the priest’s book of services for a family’s needs. There it is headed “When someone is about to enter a new house”. A priest says it when he blesses the house.

Its own words show that it is a priest’s prayer: the family’s prayers reach God “through us”, that is, through the priest.

Priests also bless homes after Theophany, the feast of Jesus’s baptism in January.

Where it comes from

No author known

From the priest’s book

The Trebnik holds the priest’s services for baptisms, weddings, the sick, funerals and blessings. G. V. Shann put it into English in 1894 as the Book of Needs, and there this prayer follows one for laying a house’s foundation. No author is named. A book of 1884 says a Russian building a house always asked the Church’s prayers and blessing.

Azbyka.ru, Prayer on entering a new house; G. V. Shann, Book of Needs (1894), chapter XXIX; Isabel F. Hapgood, Service Book (1906), introduction; Nicholas Bjerring, The Offices of the Oriental Church (1884)

Why Zacchaeus?

Zacchaeus was a rich chief tax collector in Jericho. He climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus pass. Jesus told him to come down: He must stay at his house that day. Zacchaeus gave half his goods to the poor and repaid fourfold anyone he had cheated. Jesus said: “Today salvation has come to this house.”

Luke 19:1-10

When the priest comes

A Greek Orthodox parish in Florida prints its house blessing, which follows Theophany. The family sets out a candle, an icon, holy water and the first names of all who live there. The priest prays to Christ, Who “did deign to enter under the roof-tree of Zacchaeus”. Then he blesses the whole house with holy water.

Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, Orlando, House Blessings

The Scripture in it

When Jesus came to that place, He looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, hurry down, for I must stay at your house today.” So Zacchaeus hurried down and welcomed Him joyfully. And all who saw this began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinful man!” But 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.” Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham.”

Luke 19:5-9 Echoed Jesus stays at the house of Zacchaeus: “Today salvation has come to this house.”

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

In Church Slavonic

Боже Спасителю наш, изволивый под сень Закхееву внити, и спасение тому, и всему дому того бывый:

Сам и ныне зде жити восхотевшыя, и нами недостойными мольбы Тебе и моления приносящыя, от всякаго вреда соблюди невредимы,

благословляя тех зде жилище, и ненаветен тех живот сохраняяй. Аминь.

From the prayer book on Azbyka.ru, a Russian Orthodox website, in Church Slavonic, taken from the Trebnik.

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Berean Standard Bible