Chapel in a home?

[CatholicOf94]

I was wondering, Is it okay to have your own chapel in your house, or somewhere around your backyard? With a tabernacle and everything?

 

[MarkThompson]

I was wondering, Is it okay to have your own chapel in your house, or somewhere around your backyard? With a tabernacle and everything?

Under Canons 1226 and 1228, establishing a private chapel for divine worship requires the permission of the local ordinary, and once established further permission is required to conduct “Mass or other sacred celebrations” there. Similarly, according to Canon 934 § 1.2, the Most Holy Eucharist can only be reserved in a chapel with the permission of the local ordinary. -]I think that permission is only very rarely granted for true private chapels./-] Edited to rephrase: I don’t know how often permission is granted to set up private chapels and have Mass there, but my understanding is that permission to keep a tabernacle in a private chapel is very very rarely granted.

 

[FrDavid96]

I was wondering, Is it okay to have your own chapel in your house, or somewhere around your backyard? With a tabernacle and everything?

No. As Mark just quoted from canon law, only a bishop can establish a chapel, and no one (not even a priest) can have a tabernacle at home without the bishop’s permission. Even the parish rectory can’t have a chapel with a tabernacle w/o permission.

The word “chapel” can have 2 definitions. On the one hand, we use the word in our everyday vocabulary to refer to any place/room used for prayer. This is fine. Having such a room is perfectly fine and even commendable. On the other hand, the word “chapel” also has its own definition in canon law. Suffice to say that a chapel is a “church-like-building” that is not an actual parish church. But for something to be a chapel (as canon law defines the word) it has to be established by the bishop.

 

[OraLabora]

I don’t know how often permission is granted to set up private chapels and have Mass there, but my understanding is that permission to keep a tabernacle in a private chapel is very very rarely granted.

I know of only one instance. It is a Bed & Breakfast about half a mile away from a Benedictine monastery. It is run by a fellow Benedictine oblate and his wife (also an oblate). It’s clientele consists virtually entirely of people who are visiting the monastery when the guest houses of the monastery are full, as well as some charitable accommodations for people in difficulty and getting spiritual direction from the monastery. The keep the Blessed Sacrament with permission from the local ordinary and on occasion a monk-priest from the monastery celebrates mass there.

It is really a form of helping out the monastery which can never fully accommodate the demand for overnight guests.

 

[EasterJoy]

I know of only one instance. It is a Bed & Breakfast about half a mile away from a Benedictine monastery. It is run by a fellow Benedictine oblate and his wife (also an oblate). It’s clientele consists virtually entirely of people who are visiting the monastery when the guest houses of the monastery are full, as well as some charitable accommodations for people in difficulty and getting spiritual direction from the monastery. The keep the Blessed Sacrament with permission from the local ordinary and on occasion a monk-priest from the monastery celebrates mass there.

It is really a form of helping out the monastery which can never fully accommodate the demand for overnight guests.

This is kind of a defacto guest house of the monastery, then, but it is too far from the main monastery for guests to visit the Blessed Sacrament at will; i.e., they can’t just stroll over to the main chapel of the monastery, as a guest on the actual monastery grounds might be able to do?

 

[OraLabora]

This is kind of a defacto guest house of the monastery, then, but it is too far from the main monastery for guests to visit the Blessed Sacrament at will; i.e., they can’t just stroll over to the main chapel of the monastery, as a guest on the actual monastery grounds might be able to do?

It depends on your level of fitness. The distance is 1.25 miles on a rural road. You can always drive I suppose.

Knowing this monastery (they still use Gregorian chant for their offices and for the Mass, and they still do benediction of the Blessed Sacrament the first Friday of the month as well as having Eucharistic adoration after Sunday Vespers), they would not have taken the decision lightly.

The main guest house also has a small chapel with the reserved Sacrament in addition to the main adoration chapel in the abbey church.

 

[EasterJoy]

The main guest house also has a small chapel with the reserved Sacrament in addition to the main adoration chapel in the abbey church.

When one is on retreat, it can be very edifying to be able to make a visit to the Blessed Sacrament at an odd hour, without venturing out into the night alone. I agree that making that available to retreatants is fittingly seen as an exceptional circumstance.

 

[OraLabora]

When one is on retreat, it can be very edifying to be able to make a visit to the Blessed Sacrament at an odd hour, without venturing out into the night alone. I agree that making that available to retreatants is fittingly seen as an exceptional circumstance.

Agree completely. I’ve never stayed at that “overflow” guest house but I have stayed numerous times at the main abbey guest house. I usually like to spend some time after Compline in adoration in the main adoration chapel and occasionally in the retreatants’ chapel. My favorite retreat is the one I do the first weekend in Lent. If I had to stay at the other guest house, I would be facing a 1.25 mile walk back to the guest house in the dark and the winter cold on an unlit country road.

 

[corsair]

I think what you may be thinking about is a home “shrine” which many of have setup in our homes. Many are relatively simple and others are almost totally ready to celebrate a Mass on.

Mine resembles the latter with the exception of a Tabernacle and an Altar stone with relics.

I say my morning and evening prayers in front of it. And it helps me focus on my Rosaries.