Building an altar

[Johann_du_Toit]

Our Archbishop has made an appeal to all parishioners in the Johannesburg Diocese to build an altar in their homes for devotion purposes and to increase their faith and spirituality.

Is there a specific form an altar must have? I assume it should include a crucifix and some candles, and possibly a portrait or statue of Our Lady, but is there anything else that is needed?

 

[GuyNextDoor]

Our Archbishop has made an appeal to all parishioners in the Johannesburg Diocese to build an altar in their homes for devotion purposes and to increase their faith and spirituality.

Is there a specific form an altar must have? I assume it should include a crucifix and some candles, and possibly a portrait or statue of Our Lady, but is there anything else that is needed?

There are many opinions on how to set up a home altar, so I do not think there’s any “must have” items. What I do know when I set up mine was to have a picture of Jesus and Mary on a photo frame hanging on the wall to remind myself of them when praying. I have yet to find a crucifix to put on the altar but I will.

The items people usually put on their altars are the crucifix, picture/statue of Our Lady, Holy Water, rosaries (if you like), blessed candles and the Bible. There’s no real hard and fast rule, at least not that I know of. Its not hard to fall into the superstition when setting one up, so you may need to be careful about that part.

You can also get a priest to bless your altar once you finish and have him advise you more.

 

[oldgraymare2]

Hi Johann,

There are some past threads here on the forum regarding home altars.

If you go to the forum’s search bar up at the top of your screen, and put “home altar” in the search bar, you can bring some of them up and then look them up if you want to do that.

You will see some lovely pictures of some fellow member’s home altars in some of the posts.