M
midori
Guest
Yes.
Around here, the normal practice is to ask the priest to bless your home. You’ll schedule a time that impacts his schedule the least. For us, it was a weeknight, after he visited our parish to say Mass, and before he went back.
It’s also normal practice to offer them lunch or dinner after the house blessing. In our case, he had to get back to his town pretty promptly— he had time for the house blessing, but not for dinner.
He didn’t forget the dinner, though. He’d mention in passing, maybe once or twice a year, “You know, we really ought to put together a time to do dinner some evening, since we didn’t get to…” and I would say, “Oh, yes, let me know when you’re free…” and that would be the end of the conversation for the next six months. It took me about two years before it finally dawned on me he was serious about wanting to come over for dinner, instead of just making polite conversation.
He was from South Africa, and he missed lamb chops-- so I found some lovely lamb chops. I went to the Mexican meat market and asked for lamb chops. They sent me home with carne de cabra at first. I had to go back and insist that, while cabra is nice, and I’m just fine with cabra, I really wanted carne de cordero…
I was a million times more nervous and self-conscious about having him over for dinner than I was for asking him for the house blessing! But I channeled everything I had picked up from my grandmothers’ generation about constructing a more formal dinner, and it turned out very well, and he said, “Oh! I haven’t had a dinner like this in years! This used to be the way my mother would make dinner…”
Around here, the normal practice is to ask the priest to bless your home. You’ll schedule a time that impacts his schedule the least. For us, it was a weeknight, after he visited our parish to say Mass, and before he went back.
It’s also normal practice to offer them lunch or dinner after the house blessing. In our case, he had to get back to his town pretty promptly— he had time for the house blessing, but not for dinner.
He didn’t forget the dinner, though. He’d mention in passing, maybe once or twice a year, “You know, we really ought to put together a time to do dinner some evening, since we didn’t get to…” and I would say, “Oh, yes, let me know when you’re free…” and that would be the end of the conversation for the next six months. It took me about two years before it finally dawned on me he was serious about wanting to come over for dinner, instead of just making polite conversation.
He was from South Africa, and he missed lamb chops-- so I found some lovely lamb chops. I went to the Mexican meat market and asked for lamb chops. They sent me home with carne de cabra at first. I had to go back and insist that, while cabra is nice, and I’m just fine with cabra, I really wanted carne de cordero…
I was a million times more nervous and self-conscious about having him over for dinner than I was for asking him for the house blessing! But I channeled everything I had picked up from my grandmothers’ generation about constructing a more formal dinner, and it turned out very well, and he said, “Oh! I haven’t had a dinner like this in years! This used to be the way my mother would make dinner…”