Home altars

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I’m sorry, I didn’t know it’s a grave sacrilege to keep the host. I will take it to the nearest church as soon as possible. I apologize if any of you have found it offensive…I didn’t know. I took example from one of my friends who kept a communion host in a very special box, tucked away in a drawer. I will also inform him as soon as possible.

Thank you for informing me. Again, my deepest apologies.
 
It was done in ignorance. I can understand the feeling of wanting to be around Our Lord as often as possible. You’ve just went about it the wrong way.
 
It’s okay. You didn’t do it intentionally. I know the feeling of always wanting to be close to Our Lord, but the church wishes to do everything they can to keep Him as safe from harm as possible, and keeping Him in your home could result in further abuses, such as desecration.
If you want to spend more time with Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, and why wouldn’t you :D, then I suggest visiting your parish for Adoration, even if its “just” Adoration in front of the closed tabernacle.
 
A home altar is perfectly fine to have, but to have it available for the sacrifice of the mass the altar itself must be an actual altar. It cannot simply be a table of some sort. The home altar is where the family would gather for prayer. The focal point would be the Crucifix, you may add pictures and/or statues of saints, flowers, and votives or tapers that have been blessed.

I actually have an entire room set aside, my little prayer room. I made mine with instructions from the priest.

Hopefully the photos are accessible.

docs.google.com/open?id=0BwZVH45OTWhRMXNldmRxMmpRSXlqWGJrZV9NUGlJUQ

docs.google.com/open?id=0BwZVH45OTWhRRzlJZjlfS29TSUtRUUw5SE5BMnRVdw

docs.google.com/open?id=0BwZVH45OTWhRbFJSRmRCZk9RZ2VEWDdmZktBUW9QZw

docs.google.com/open?id=0BwZVH45OTWhRMlBFOXhoVEFTMy1sUHU4V0xIcGN2QQ
 
Zabdi_Premjit said:
I usually eat a piece of prosphora every day (Mon - Sat), then get more on Sun. Personally, I find that if I have any longer than this, they mold. I take this is a sign from God reminding me to go to Divine Liturgy! 😃

Some people also eat it all on Sunday. I haven’t personally heard of anyone keeping it for an extending time. Prosphora is meant to be consumed as a blessing. Keeping it permanently and not eating it seems to defeat the purpose of prosphora and deprive one of the privilege of that blessing. Just my opinion, which is hardly infallible. 😛

Each church should have some holy water stored. Water is blessed on Theophany (Epiphany), and then more is blessed throughout the year as need arises. I don’t know about sanitation in regards to holy water. It is holy, and a means of partaking of Grace, I think health is of secondary concern. If Easterners cared about health that much, we wouldn’t take communion from a spoon. I haven’t heard any complaints about sickness. If it works, why change it, I suppose. 👍
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Do you mean Antidoron?
 
minchul said:
I’m sorry, I didn’t know it’s a grave sacrilege to keep the host. I will take it to the nearest church as soon as possible. I apologize if any of you have found it offensive…I didn’t know. I took example from one of my friends who kept a communion host in a very special box, tucked away in a drawer. I will also inform him as soon as possible.

Thank you for informing me. Again, my deepest apologies.
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I can understand. My own Grandparents did something similar after hearing something from a very unreliable parishioner.
colyla said:
I believe he did indeed mean prosphora (as he stated) 😃
here is a link I found: orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/antidoron.aspx

I’m curious is there ‘orthodox’ catholic? Differenet topic I know 🙂 but I am always curious to learn!!
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Check out our very own “Eastern Catholicism” subforum. They are the Orthodox in communion with Rome!
 
Slightly off topic, but I’ve always been curious about those candles you can buy in the grocery store with saints on them. I saw a few in the photos posted. Are those already ready to be used or do they need to be blessed?
 
It’s against Canon Law to sell blessed objects… so no they are not blessed.

as far as how to use them:

-they are great for novenas
-if you have a special devotion to a particular saint or aspect of Christ or the Virgin
-or for rememberance and/or meditation during a special liturgical season (ex. the candle of Christ crucified is called the Just Judge candle and is perfect for Lent and leading up to Good Friday

They are extremely popular within certain ethnicities (ie. Mexican, Sicilian, Spanish, etc)
 
p.twimg.com/Ax3lXb7CQAA0fXj.jpg

This is an update of my ‘altar’, I prefer to call it a shrine ahah - The Shrine to Our Lady is it’s official title, hehe. So here we can see:

The little office of the BVM,
Two brass candlesticks from the Walsingham Shrine,
A statue of Our Lady of Lourdes,
Very pungent lavendar!
A holy water font of Our Lady
A 20 decade rosary,
An Eastern Rite thurible,
and finally a medal of St.Benedict

I don’t know what I think about this new arrangement - should anything be added or removed?

What do you all think?

Still cannot believe this thread is still going!
 
WOW! I started this thread YEARS ago and its such a blessing to see everything posted on here!!! Thank you all for your pictures.
I sadly, left the path of God for a while, and all that is left of my shrine is a very small statue of the Infant Jesus and a printed picture of Our Lady of Guadelupe. I guess it’s fitting because I am once again a child trying to find my way!
Keep up with the pictures!!! They are all so beautiful!!!
 
I referenced this thread when I was renovating my home altar last year. Glad to see it’s still going! Anyway, now that I have an account I can answer the call for pictures!

i1265.photobucket.com/albums/jj517/bonsecours16/2012-07-16172347-1.jpg
This one shows the full scope of the shrine area. I built it in a nook that’s built into the wall of my room.

i1265.photobucket.com/albums/jj517/bonsecours16/2012-07-16172406-1.jpg
Detail of the center. This is a shoe box with some cloth laid on it. Yellow is my favorite color and I happened to have a large yellow hankie, so I put that over the bottom cloth. This gets changed out for red during the Christmas season with some added greenery. The “window” and angel were Confirmation gifts and the Holy Family was a Christmas/birthday present from my parents to replace the old Wal-Mart Nativity piece I had before. The medal in the middle is from St. Martin’s Cathedral in France and has the original French prayer.

i1265.photobucket.com/albums/jj517/bonsecours16/2012-07-16172419.jpg
This is the Marian corner. It has a statue of Mary I bought at the shrine of Our Lady of Good Help on Saturday, a French prayer card showing the mysteries of the Rosary, an image of a window from Our Lady of the Mountains in Colorado, a rosary I received for my First Communion, and a candle that no longer gets lit now that it’s on the new shrine.

i1265.photobucket.com/albums/jj517/bonsecours16/2012-07-16172357.jpg
This corner holds some gifts from my First Communion. The prayer book is for children but I still like to use the guide to the Rosary because the pictures are extremely helpful in focusing on the meditations of the mysteries.

i1265.photobucket.com/albums/jj517/bonsecours16/2012-07-16172505.jpg
And this is my mirror, where I keep my Rosary that was blest by Pope John Paul II.

Hope you enjoy the pictures!
 
SacredHeartFan, I think we all struggle with our faith sometimes. I’m glad to see you’re finding your way back to where you want to be with God. Just keep praying and trusting in Him and He will lead you to where you need to be. God bless!
 
I also set this up in my livingroom today with the Holy Family I used to have up in my room. The rest of it was all stuff that was already there, I just took the potpuri (sp?) out of the vase and put it on the candle tray with the Holy Family. The St. Therese card was on a shelf and I moved it. Other than that it was more of a redecorating than creating a shrine, but at least it’s a little reminder of God’s presence in our home! My parents don’t really care about decorating and I’m the one who decorated most of the livingroom anyway, so I can get away with this even though I think my parents find my interest in thus kind of thing a little bizarre. 🙂 🤷

i1265.photobucket.com/albums/jj517/bonsecours16/2012-07-17144034.jpg
i1265.photobucket.com/albums/jj517/bonsecours16/2012-07-17144044.jpg
 
I just set up a very modest shrine in my bedroom recently. As soon as I’m able, I’ll post pics.
 
CatholicCajun said:
Ok. technically retarted here, once I take the pictures of my altar and get them developed (no digital for me yet!) how do I get the pictures onto this site:shrug:
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If this has been stated and I missed it please excuse me.
You can put a regular pic on here. Scan or have some one scan the pic for you. Save it in your computer and upload it here 🙂
Really love all the home alters BTW. I am thinking of putting one together if my Dh doesnt freak out about it.
 


My home altar has grown significantly during the past few months. The cards on the outer part are the Tridentine Mass cards with the prayers that the priest has on the altar. It was given to me by a Franciscan Friar when I was helping them clean their old stuff out. Since it was so old and special, he gave it to me. There is still one more card in my closet that’s too big. 😛

The thing on the left with a crown is a third class relic of St. Anthony, but I just added a little stand to it with some small decorations.
 
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