SANCTIFICATION OF THE HOUSE

SANCTIFICATION OF THE HOUSE (Sfestania)

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What is the celebration and how do we prepare?

"Sfeştania" is the popular name for the service of the Little Holy Water or the Little Consecration of the Water. It is performed by the priest in churches or in the homes of believers on different occasions. The consecration service includes the consecration of water, the sprinkling of those present and all the rooms with holy water, as well as prayers for the protection and well-being of the house and for the physical and mental health of those who live in it.

Here is what is written in the priest's service book about the benefit of the consecration: "This holy water, which the Holy Spirit, through the prayers of the priests, sanctifies, has many kinds of works, as the litany of consecration itself and the prayer testify: by sprinkling it, the spirits the cunning ones from all over the place are banished; the little sins of all days are forgiven, i.e. devilish hallucinations and evil thoughts; the mind is cleansed of impure things and turns to prayer; diseases are banished and it gives mental and physical health. All those who receive it with faith receive holiness and blessing".

Whoever wants to call the priest to perform the ceremony in the house, must know how to prepare for it.

First, everyone in the house should go to confession, so that before they clean and sanctify the house, they clean and sanctify themselves from the sins and evils that affect the house in which they live. It is useful for those in the house to fast beforehand and avoid quarrels, enemies or other evils.

Secondly, the house where the ceremony is to be held must be cleaned as best as possible, from one end to the other and all the things in it. It is unimaginable to sprinkle with holy water and say prayers to cleanse the house of evil and the house to be dirty and uncared for. Then, any service performed by the priest is equivalent to bringing God into that house, and that's why we can't have an unkempt house.

For the consecration service, the believer must prepare a beautifully covered small table, facing the east, on which the following will be placed:

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- a wide mouthful of water;

- a bunch of basil;

- candlesticks with wax candles;

- a commemoration with those who live in the house and with those whom they wish to mention at prayer;

if it is the first time that a ceremony is held in the house, a small bowl with oil and a small stick with cotton wool are placed;

- an icon (if the table is not in front of the icon in the house);

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The priest will sit in front of the small table and the faithful will sit behind the priest, just as we sit in the church, all facing east. All the doors of the rooms will be wide open so that the priest can enter them to bless them and the saints.

                                                                                                                                                                                   Author: Ioan Florea

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Why is it good to celebrate at home?

Celebration is to the house what confession is to man. If through confession, through the confession of sins and the release of them by the priest, a person cleanses his soul, refreshes his grace received at baptism, in the same way by sprinkling with holy water and through the special prayers of the priest, the holy house is initially cleansed of all evil and all the bad work, due either to the sins of those who live in it, or to evil people, or to evil spirits. Through the periodic performance of the feast, the place, the house and all the things in it are sanctified after a time when our inevitable sins and deeds less they defiled the house. We must say something that we believe in and that we learn from the Holy Scriptures and that our Church has been teaching since the beginning. Namely, that man is in solidarity with everything that surrounds him, so that the consequences of his actions also fall on the environment or surrounding, on the house and the things in the house. Ugly things, man's sins and iniquities defile the space in which he commits or lives them, just as his good deeds, the purity of his life, also sanctifies his environment. In connection with this, a very true saying has been kept among the people and which, at least at the beginning, had the meaning of the above: "Man sanctifies the place". In truth, man sanctifies the place, but it is also man who defiles it, who makes it ugly or dirty through his ugliness and spiritual dirtiness. Let's remember that the sin of the progenitors Adam and Eve brought with it a disturbance of the entire creation: the earth, which until then bore only useful and beautiful things, began to bear "thorns and acorns" (Acts 3, 18). If sin or any other bad thing separates man from God and the benefits that come from him the closeness to God, the cleansing and sanctification of man and the environment that surrounds him brings man back close to God to enjoy His blessing and removes evil in whatever form it may be present.

In principle, the priest must and can celebrate the feast at the believer's house "whenever he asks for it". So whenever the believer feels the need to clean and sanctify the house, just as he feels the need to relieve and cleanse his sins through confession, he can call the priest to his home to give him a sacrament. In ancient times, but also today in some regions, it was customary to celebrate on the first day of every month. This, of course, is a good and desirable thing. In any case, every Christian should take care to celebrate at least once a year in the apartment.
                                                                                                                                                                           Author: Alexandru Grapa

About the sanctification of the house

On the Eve of the Baptism of the Lord there is a custom for the priest to go to his parish, to the parishioners' homes to sanctify the houses by sprinkling them with holy water. The use of water is not accidental. Water, as a fundamental element of creation, because it is used to wash and physically clean the human body or other material bodies, is also associated with the work of spiritual cleansing, washing the traces left by people's sins and transgressions. The water consecrated by the priest carries in it the cleansing and sanctifying power of divine grace. When he sanctifies the water, the priest prays for: "this water to be sanctified with the power, with the work and with the descent of the Holy Spirit, "so that the purifying work of the Trinity above nature descends on it", "so that to be healing for souls and bodies and expelling all hostile power" and so that by tasting and sprinkling with holy water, God sends us His blessing, which washes away the defilement of passions"

God does not need water or other material elements to send His blessing and holiness, but man needs it to receive God's work. Because he is body and soul, because he has a psychosomatic constitution as we say (psyche = soul, soma = body), man needs this twinning of the spirit with the material, he needs material signs that indicate the presence and work of divine grace .

That is why God ordained that man should partake of divine grace and power, of God Himself through some elements that are part of our material world. Thus, we partake of the Body and Blood of Christ through the Eucharistic bread and wine, receive the work of the grace of the Holy Spirit by tasting or sprinkling with holy water or holy oil, etc.

The Church established that the sanctification of the believers' houses should be done through two distinct service orders that do not exclude each other, but complement each other. The first order is the sprinkling of the houses with great abundance on the eve of the Epiphany. Equally important is the second order, namely the service of the consecration or small holy water that is performed when moving into a new house and then it is repeated every year or even more often when the work of evil is felt in any way in the house.

By sanctifying the house, we place the house under the protection of God. The unsanctified house, like the unbaptized man, are vulnerable to the work of evil, in the sanctified house they are protected against all evils, if they themselves do not bring evil into the house by committing it.

                                                                                                                                                                                    Author: Sergiu Covaci

                                                                                           

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