Home altars

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SacredHeartFan

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I am in the process of making myself a home alter. I was wondering if any other Roman Catholics had one and how they set theirs up. I know I made mine of many different household materials. I’m only in high school, so I can’t afford much!
 
I dont have an altar per say but a quiet and comforatable place with light for reading spiritual readings. You can use a pad or pillow for kneeling if you would like to kneel while you read and pray. A crucifix or pictures of our Lord and other images that draw you to thoughts of The Holy Trinity.

What have you done so far?
 
A picture of the Sacred Heart would suit you very well along with a crucifix. Maybe a nightlight or low light instead of a candle could be nice to set the mood.
 
well, like i said, i used mostley household materials. I turnd a shelf on it’s side and put a white pillowblanket over it. this has a crucifix on a stand and two white candles on each side. then under that, i have a stool with a blue towel on it. this has a statue of our lady of grace. then I printed a circular mosaic of St. Michael the Archangle and taped it to a plate which is on a gold stand. i just wondered if anyone esle did anything different. I hope to have a picture of it tommorow after mass.
 
It sounds like a very prayerful setting. The most important thing I have found in addition to what you have done is the quiet place part. This give you a good start to clearing your mind and being more ready for prayer.

I look forward to seeing the picture.
 
well the only thing not quiet about it is that my family room is right on the other side with the t.v. 😉
 
ok, new update! i just got a pic of John Paul II and a rose bowl to put holy water in.
 
WOW! The Lord is loving this.

It looks very prayerful, done with great respect and love.

I hope you grow closer to the Lord everyday as you take the time to get to know Him in prayer.🙂
 
This is awesome, SacredHeartFan! 🙂
I especially love that crucifix. It looks like the processional crucifix they use at mass. This will be a nice, quiet place where you can focus on prayer. I usually just sit on the floor or at my kitchen table, but I will sometimes light a candle when I pray.
 
Yes, we have a home altar – have had it for years. At advent we pull our usual items and put the creche there with a few assorted icons. At lent, I subsitute a black Madonna and other more somber sacred items. Each season, we wash the altar cloth and carefully and prayerfully wash or dust each statue.

Each morning we light a candle and say a prayer. We say our family rosary facing the altar. It is the heart-center, heart beat of our family.

My son likes to stand on a stool when we pray before the altar so he can see it better.

Don’t know much else to say – family/home altars are often (if not usually) women’s work, women’s heart-creations… you have to follow your own heart in creating one. Expect it to grow and expand over the years and over the prayers…

I find myself touching it as I pass - - we keep our altar in the living room in a nexus point of the house.

If someone gives us a picture of their newborn, or writes a note asking for prayers or sharing a blessing, we put it on the altar for a bit.

sojo
 
I would like to share a recurring dream I have had about a prayer room and an altar in my home. I dream of a house not unlike the house I grew up in, but a secret door behind a closet that leads to stairs going up to a upper room that is round in shape. It is at the top of the house, and it is about 10’ X 10’ with octagonal walls.

In this room, I have a kneeler with a small ornate hook for my rosary and a small bowl for holy water. Around the room are religious pictures of the BVM and Jesus and some saints. Also, there are the Stations of the Cross. At each corner, there are long, slender windows that allow the Sun and Moon in. It is only lit by beeswax candles.

There is also some sort of ornate incense burning brass bowl.

In my dream, I am filled with Divine excitement and childlike joy while I rediscover this room in my home. Every step of my journey to the room is like a step into Heaven. Once I discover the room, I immediately go back and find my wife (we are getting married in April) and children (although I don’t have them yet) and I take them there where we adore and pray to the Trinity and honor the BVM. We recite prayers that I can’t quite remember, but are nonetheless very beautiful.

I would like to build a home one day and (God willing), bring that dream into reality.

Thank you for bringing this up, since I have not had this dream in a looong time. It fills me with joy to recall it.

I can’t wait for all the beautiful things I can share with my wife and (God willing) children. Thank you again!
 
I have two small ones (soon to be three).

When I was in high school I used a small table, put a cloth over it, kept a picture of the Blessed Mother with the Crucifix on the wall. On the homemade altar I usually kept a candle lit constantly, along with a plant and/or flowers. Also my Bible, Rosary, and Holy Water. Statues of the Saints as I got them.
 
I am sorry to make this comment probably out of ignorance, but I think that it would address this concept of the home altar. The altar is a place where the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass should be celebrated. Are you planning to have a Mass celebrated on that altar?

If so then I would say that for a Traditionalist Catholic, the individual should look for a portable altar like the ones used in the past. A portable or home altar used to be the size of a tile with the relic of a saint embedded in it, and Rome would have an list of all the portable/home altars that have been distributed.
 
Home altars are very important, in my opinion. They don’t only provide a focusing point for prayer, they provide a strong reminder to pray.

My first home altar cost me little to nothing as well. I found an old TV stand (TV stands work really well. They’re just about the right height, have a wide flat area on top, and generally an area for storage below). covered with handkercheifs to match the liturgical season, two candlesticks to match the season, hung a crucufix on the wall behind it, and put the Holy Family from my nativity set on there all year 'round. Over time I started keeping blessed salt, Holy Water, my rosaries and medals, and Holy Cards on it as well. I put a stereo undeneath for Gregorian Chant.

I just moved and decided to ‘upgrade’. I bought a new, larger TV stand, and now my cloths are seasonal colored with lace over the top (my sisters teased me unmercilessly about a guy buying lace, but hey, it’s on the Altars at Church and the hems of vestements) I have four candles instead of two, the two in the middle a little taller than the other. I purchased statues of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus, Mary as Our Lady of Graces, and St. Joseph and put them forefront. I also have a statue of St. Padre Pio that is much smaller than the others, and even smaller than that is a little pewter Holy Family that holds a 1 Decade rosary that my sister’s fiance got for me at Mission San Diego. I have a little wooden chest that holds my Blessed Salt, and the bottle of my Holy Water, my Family Bible and my book “Christian Prayer”, and the back has a row of Holy Cards. I recently ordered an incense burner, but if I might get a different one.

Some pictures:

bp1.blogger.com/_7XW8xDgwWmA/R7nXQAgiVHI/AAAAAAAAACU/IDDO1x-xOjo/s1600-h/Rawb%27s+Altar+001.JPG

bp3.blogger.com/_7XW8xDgwWmA/R7nYhggiVII/AAAAAAAAACc/n_I9S7QRYYQ/s1600-h/Rawb%27s+Altar+002.JPG

To the poster just before me, no, a Home Altar isn’t used to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, it’s used to foster a prayer life. A better term would be Home Shrine, but the phrase Home Altar is so ingrained into Catholic Culture that I doubt it’ll change now.

also, this page has some good information on Home Altars.

fisheaters.com/domesticchurch.html
 
I used to have a lovely little prayer corner in a previous home. It was a very small little night stand with a linen cloth on it, with some holy water, a crucifix, and a candle. I used to kneel there in the morning right before I left for work, and say my prayers.

My ex thought I was a loon. :rolleyes:

So I stopped, and took it all down. But my DH would never think me a loon for such a thing, and I’ve been thinking about putting another one together lately. I just need to find the right spot in our tiny little home…Hmmmm - maybe a nice Lenten project to consider… 😉

~Liza
 
Rawb said:
Home altars are very important, in my opinion. They don’t only provide a focusing point for prayer, they provide a strong reminder to pray.

My first home altar cost me little to nothing as well. I found an old TV stand (TV stands work really well. They’re just about the right height, have a wide flat area on top, and generally an area for storage below). covered with handkercheifs to match the liturgical season, two candlesticks to match the season, hung a crucufix on the wall behind it, and put the Holy Family from my nativity set on there all year 'round. Over time I started keeping blessed salt, Holy Water, my rosaries and medals, and Holy Cards on it as well. I put a stereo undeneath for Gregorian Chant.

I just moved and decided to ‘upgrade’. I bought a new, larger TV stand, and now my cloths are seasonal colored with lace over the top (my sisters teased me unmercilessly about a guy buying lace, but hey, it’s on the Altars at Church and the hems of vestements) I have four candles instead of two, the two in the middle a little taller than the other. I purchased statues of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus, Mary as Our Lady of Graces, and St. Joseph and put them forefront. I also have a statue of St. Padre Pio that is much smaller than the others, and even smaller than that is a little pewter Holy Family that holds a 1 Decade rosary that my sister’s fiance got for me at Mission San Diego. I have a little wooden chest that holds my Blessed Salt, and the bottle of my Holy Water, my Family Bible and my book “Christian Prayer”, and the back has a row of Holy Cards. I recently ordered an incense burner, but if I might get a different one.

Some pictures:

bp1.blogger.com/_7XW8xDgwWmA/R7nXQAgiVHI/AAAAAAAAACU/IDDO1x-xOjo/s1600-h/Rawb%27s+Altar+001.JPG

bp3.blogger.com/_7XW8xDgwWmA/R7nYhggiVII/AAAAAAAAACc/n_I9S7QRYYQ/s1600-h/Rawb%27s+Altar+002.JPG

To the poster just before me, no, a Home Altar isn’t used to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, it’s used to foster a prayer life. A better term would be Home Shrine, but the phrase Home Altar is so ingrained into Catholic Culture that I doubt it’ll change now.

also, this page has some good information on Home Altars.

fisheaters.com/domesticchurch.html
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Ohhhhhh! I love yours!!! It’s so beautiful! Mine is in my room, but I’m trying to convince my parents to make a family one. please give me some ideas to convince them!!!
 
SacredHeartFan said:
Ohhhhhh! I love yours!!! It’s so beautiful! Mine is in my room, but I’m trying to convince my parents to make a family one. please give me some ideas to convince them!!!
Click to expand...
Ask them if you can set something up - just as a trial with no guarantee that it will stay, only so they can see what you are suggesting and how it would work and look in the home. Tell them you will abide by their wishes if they decide they don’t want it, but that you would like for them to see what you are talking about first before they actually decide for sure that they do not want it.

Then - plan it all out before you put it together so when you do it, it is perfect. You can have a little unveiling event after dinner one night, and pray as a family using your new prayer space.

Hopefully they will be open to such an idea!

It never hurts to try - “you don’t ask, you don’t get” 😃

~Liza
 
:banghead: she :banghead: said :banghead: no :banghead: ! :banghead:

I wish she knew that it could strenghen our family but she won’t listen! oh well, at least I have mine and my sister wants me to make her one 😃 !
 
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