Chapel at Home

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KnightIHSV

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I have a family property in a rural area. It has a main house and then has a set of disused stables. I would like to renovate the stables, turn them into a proper stand alone room, and, possibly, turn this room into a mini-chapel for my family. Is this possible? Have any of the CAF members created a Catholic “sacred space” in their home? If so, how did you go about it? Thank you to anyone who can assist me. God bless you all.
 
KnightIHSV said:
I have a family property in a rural area. It has a main house and then has a set of disused stables. I would like to renovate the stables, turn them into a proper stand alone room, and, possibly, turn this room into a mini-chapel for my family. Is this possible? Have any of the CAF members created a Catholic “sacred space” in their home? If so, how did you go about it? Thank you to anyone who can assist me. God bless you all.
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Try to get your hands on Poustinia: Encountering God in Silence, Solitude and Prayer (Madonna House Classics)

You can get in Amazon.com

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
KnightIHSV said:
I have a family property in a rural area. It has a main house and then has a set of disused stables. I would like to renovate the stables, turn them into a proper stand alone room, and, possibly, turn this room into a mini-chapel for my family. Is this possible? Have any of the CAF members created a Catholic “sacred space” in their home? If so, how did you go about it? Thank you to anyone who can assist me. God bless you all.
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Hi KnightIHSV,

You may want to look through some of the 39 pages (!) in this thread on home altars to see what other people are up to!
 
I built a small Altar for one of the rooms in my home. Its 24" deep by 80" wide by 38" tall.
I put a matched set of Candlesticks (6), Altar crucifix, Missal stand/missal, chalice and ciborium. I, also have a set of Sanctus bells, and a relic that I got some number of years ago. I put two prie deaux(kneelers) by the Altar. I have made several sets of altar frontals for the various seasons and have collected a complete set of vestments both Roman and Gothic. Just lacking a priest. 😃 Oh yes, and a set of altar cards.
 
Building a home chapel for a small family would be a cool project. 👍
 
I have a small oratory for the recitation of the Divine Office:





It’s located in my study.
 
This is very inspiring and much appreciated.

God bless you all!
 
Pretty neat! . . Is that book the Divine Office of the Hours? . .
 
Wesley7 said:
Pretty neat! . . Is that book the Divine Office of the Hours? . .
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Yes, it is “Les Heures Grégoriennes”, the current 4-week LOTH in Latin and French, and noted for Gregorian chant, although these days I’m back to my abbey’s monastic LOTH (1-week cycle with option to do it in 2 weeks).
 
JReducation said:
I like it. It’s very Carthusian. 👍

We’re not allowed to have them. 🤷

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
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Thanks. Very astute observation, even though I am a Benedictine oblate, I used pictures of Carthusian private oratories as my inspiration!

I have a sofa that can be converted into a bed in my study as well (we use it as a guest bedroom sometimes). I figured all I was missing was a trap door in the wall to pass my meals into me, to live like a Carthusian but my wife thought that was a bit over the top! :eek:
 
OraLabora said:
Thanks. Very astute observation, even though I am a Benedictine oblate, I used pictures of Carthusian private oratories as my inspiration!

I have a sofa that can be converted into a bed in my study as well (we use it as a guest bedroom sometimes). I figured all I was missing was a trap door in the wall to pass my meals into me, to live like a Carthusian but my wife thought that was a bit over the top! :eek:
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She may regret not having that door the next time she’s angry at you. 😉

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
KnightIHSV said:
I have a family property in a rural area. It has a main house and then has a set of disused stables. I would like to renovate the stables, turn them into a proper stand alone room, and, possibly, turn this room into a mini-chapel for my family. Is this possible? Have any of the CAF members created a Catholic “sacred space” in their home? If so, how did you go about it? Thank you to anyone who can assist me. God bless you all.
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I don’t know where you are located, but in the winter I would rather not have to trek over to where the chapel is located. Can you enclose a porch or something? I only have a little altar in my bedroom, but it sure is handy any time of day or night. 🙂
 
pollycarp said:
I don’t know where you are located, but in the winter I would rather not have to trek over to where the chapel is located. Can you enclose a porch or something? I only have a little altar in my bedroom, but it sure is handy any time of day or night. 🙂
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What a wonderful idea! If only I had a single room that I can turn into a prayer room or chapel…but alas I have a corner of my bedroom that I have set aside as a prayer shrine.

I can´t imagine how I would even begin to renovate stables in order to make them into a prayer space but perhaps these pictures on flickr of Christian prayer shrines will be an inspiration to you.

flickr.com/groups/homealtars/

The attachment is what my current prayer shrine looks like. 🙂

God bless
 
This is my prayer corner, just wish I had a larger crucifix.
I also change the table cloth with the colour of the day. Green, Gold, Red, Purple…
 
TradionalWay said:
This is my prayer corner, just wish I had a larger crucifix.
I also change the table cloth with the colour of the day. Green, Gold, Red, Purple…
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That’s very nice. It’s a small crucifix, but looks beautiful from what I can see. You could maybe put it on a little platform or something. 🙂
 
If I was to build a new home, I’d build it on monastic principles:

-There would be a part of the house off-limits to anyone but myself and my wife;
-There would be a small cloister garden;
-There would be a small detached chapel on the opposite side of the cloister garden, joined to the house by a breezeway made to look like a cloister walk;
-The chapel would face east;
-The decor of the house and chapel would be very modern but simple (like a new Trappist monastery in our area, or the church of the Benedictine monastery in our area);
-I wouldn’t mind freezing my butt off walking from house to chapel for my Offices… after all for thousands of years monks lived without heating.
-The house and chapel would have mostly natural lighting designed to capture the time of day and set the mood for the Divine Office.
 
OraLabora said:
If I was to build a new home, I’d build it on monastic principles:

-There would be a part of the house off-limits to anyone but myself and my wife;
-There would be a small cloister garden;
-There would be a small detached chapel on the opposite side of the cloister garden, joined to the house by a breezeway made to look like a cloister walk;
-The chapel would face east;
-The decor of the house and chapel would be very modern but simple (like a new Trappist monastery in our area, or the church of the Benedictine monastery in our area);
-I wouldn’t mind freezing my butt off walking from house to chapel for my Offices… after all for thousands of years monks lived without heating.
-The house and chapel would have mostly natural lighting designed to capture the time of day and set the mood for the Divine Office.
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The short and the long of it, you would build a Benedictine monastery. 😃

I guess you wouldn’t like a Franciscan chapel, huh? 😛

I’m just teasing. Our custom is very simple, because Francis wanted to get as far away from the monastic model as possible. Our chapels are usually very plain rooms, usually white, with very few pieces of furniture. Or course our houses are very simple. We have no cloister. Although, in our very large houses, usually the houses of formation and the mother houses where the sick live, do have a dormatory area that is off limits to visitors. This is practical. If you have family and friends visiting one of the friars, you don’t want the guests disturbing the other friars who may be resting, studying or just want to be alone. Smaller houses don’t have enclosures. I live in a townhouse. There is no cloister, just two bedrooms and a third that serves as the chapel. What we do have, which is very much a part of Franciscan tradition, are hermitages. These are small one room buildings, about 12 x 12. The friar lives and prays there. He joins the community for mass and LOTH. You have a cot, table, crucifix and a hook for clothing. That’s it. We don’t use kneelers. We kneel on the floor.

The Italian and German friars built convents, which people mistakenly call monasteries. They are not canonical monasteries. They are large houses. The reason was that the friars were not scattered over the four corners of the country. They went out to do their work and returned to the convent for prayers and community life. They were not built like the Trappist houses are built. The Trappist houses follow the Benedictine abbey, because Trappists follow the Rule of St. Benedict.

Fraternally,

Br.JR, OSF 🙂
 
OraLabora said:
If I was to build a new home, I’d build it on monastic principles:

-There would be a part of the house off-limits to anyone but myself and my wife;
Reminds me of my grandparents “parlor” which was off limits. Small, it had their best furniture and a beautiful statue of the Infant of Prague.
-There would be a small cloister garden;
-There would be a small detached chapel on the opposite side of the cloister garden, joined to the house by a breezeway made to look like a cloister walk;
-The chapel would face east;
-The decor of the house and chapel would be very modern but simple (like a new Trappist monastery in our area, or the church of the Benedictine monastery in our area);
-I wouldn’t mind freezing my butt off walking from house to chapel for my Offices… after all for thousands of years monks lived without heating.
-The house and chapel would have mostly natural lighting designed to capture the time of day and set the mood for the Divine Office.
Click to expand...
Sounds wonderful.
 
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