Home Altars in a time of Pandemic

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Emeraldlady

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My daughter has just showed me her home altar created for this time of pandemic. She is committed to watching Bishop Barrons live streamed Sunday Masses.

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The camphor chest is a century old. The crucifix belonged to her great grandparents. The front panel slides up to reveal a bottle of holy water and candles. The artwork is her own. She loves Joan of Arc and Padre Pio and the other is the Mary Mackillop Chapel at the city Cathedral. The rosary beads she got in Jerusalem last year and the candle she got in Assisi on a school trip 10 years ago.
 
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I’ve had a home oratory for 14 years. It’s where I pray the Liturgy of the Hours which is even more important these days to keep me liturgically connected to the church. Here it is:

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It is located in my study/cell. I also sleep there; we’re beyond the age of wanting my snoring, and her talking in her sleep, keeping us up at night. You could almost say I live like a Carthusian (even though I’m a Benedictine oblate) except for meals which we eat together.
 
Recently I have tried to create my very first one.

I just read that one could cover it in the liturgical colors of the period.

I have an old dark purple scarf, so I am trying to see if I can drape it some way over the altar.

Plus, how about those old palms from last year? they can be put somewhere near this altar.

Oh come let us worship Him!

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The tradition, I believe, is to burn the old palms on Mardi Gras and use the ashes for Ash Wednesday.

Since I don’t self-impose my own ashes I just burned mine though I was a few days late. Normally on Palm Sunday I take the new blessed palms I got at Mass and put them on the little shelf you see in the picture, behind the statue of the Virgin Mary.

I’m not to sure what I’ll do this year. I think I have some holy water somewhere. I’ll cut a cedar bough from my property and use that, and sprinkle holy water on it. One does what one can. In Benedictine monasteries there’s a tradition due to poverty to use a local substitute for palms as they don’t grow in many places. At our abbey, cedar branches used to be used until the community got too old to go cut their own. Now they just buy regular palms. So the use of cedar to “make due locally” when palms aren’t available doesn’t do injury to tradition.

Fortunately this year, Ash Wednesday was before the churches were closed, so we were lucky to be able to go to Mass that day.
 
I set mine up a few weeks ago. Last night I learned about veiling statues and holy images on Passion Sunday from Taylor Marshall’s recent video. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough sacrificial fabric to cover all of them but at least the Crucifix and statue of Christ are veiled.

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Wonderful pics of the home alters, its great to see everyone having a special place in there homes to glorify god.

During these difficult times we are all going through rest assured that god is with us.

Forever in Christ
 
@Torolf very nice material and veiling there. I have an old black scarf laying around, and your images are inspiring to me! Thanks so much for sharing these. Your altar area has some very nice items.
 
Wondering if it would help to wear a chapel veil at home as well?

I got one sitting there and I do miss wearing it

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@OraLabora Do you have a recommendation for listening to the divine office online? I have been using a podcast from time to time, but fell away.

I want to just not watch the news any more as its no longer helpful.

Is there a time for Divine Office around the same time as the evening news would be?

So far, I’ve only listened to it in the morning.

Your little area is precious. Thanks so much for sharing this.

@Emeraldlady

This is beautiful and inspiring! The images on the wall are very beautiful.

Thank you for a great thread idea!

I just happen to have some old images from when I was confirmed this past Easter Vigil.

They are in a drawer!! Ok, so its time, they come out and go where they belong, where they have always belonged!!
 
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mary15 said:
Wondering if it would help to wear a chapel veil at home as well?
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Yes it helps. I find that wearing it at home when praying as well helps me concentrate on talking with God and being in the unseen presence of Angels as well. Also getting dressed before praying in the morning.
Light candles and maybe incense and all that makes you miss the walls of the church less.
 
I’m wondering if altar is the right word. Altar implies a spot for a sacrifice, something that priests do for the celebration of the Eucharist or the Jews when sacrificing a lamb. Perhaps Prayer Corner would fit better.
 
po18guy said:
And this is precisely the good that God brings from the evil of the plague.
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I’ve been getting the feeling that this is not the Lent we thought we should have, and certainly not the Lent we planned for, but the Lent God knew we needed. At the very least, God allowed this and will work this for our good and His glory.
 
I have posted several times before on thus topic, and told myself I would resist thus time. Your instincts are correct. These are not altars, altars are for sacrifices. So they are found in Churches, nit homes if Catholics.
They also are not technically oratories or chapels, as the Church defines these in canon law. But I much prefer a term along those lines to altar. As calling it an altar betrays a certain misunderstanding of why we so name our altars in church.
 
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