A Blessing for Our New Home Office

HabiJax staff, board members, and friends came together on Wednesday, September 6th for a blessing of our new Home Office, on the second floor of the Jessie Ball duPont Center. The Very Rev. Kate Moorehead Carroll, Dean of the Saint John’s Cathedral only blocks away in downtown Jacksonville, came to lead the time of prayer and blessing.

Dean Kate introduced many of those gathered to the ancient practice of Asperges, the symbolic cleansing of a building with holy water. This blessing become much more than a history lesson, and more than an act of one priest. Everyone was invited to participate, first by sharing their hopes and prayers for the place and the mission it will serve. Next, all were encouraged to take a leafy green branch (many taken from our Hubbard Street property of 25 years) and dip the branch the water, and then to sprinkle successive spaces with the water as Dean Kate led a prayer of blessing with input from HabiJax staff.

Photo Gallery – Home Office Blessing

The Saint John’s Cathedral, several lay leaders from the Cathedral, and the Cathedral Foundation were instrumental in the formation of HabiJax in 1988, coming alongside other faith leaders to act on the belief that everyone deserves a decent place to live. Now in our 35th year, we are blessed by our Cathedral friends yet again and so eager to be a blessing to our city from this new home.