What's your "Prayer Closet" like?

[OraProNobis]

“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine inner chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to thy Father who is in secret…” Mathew 6:6 (ASV)

Do you have a speacial place at home to pray; a “prayer closet,” so to speak. If so, what’s it like?

I have a table on which I have a small statue of the Blessed Virgin with Child. Next to it is a picture of my mother. These items are flanked by two candles. On the wall just about the Madonna’s head is a crucifix, and above that is a photograph of Christ’s Holy Face from the Shroud of Turin.

I sit in my mother’s old rocking chair, facing the table, the lights are out, the candles are lit, and I rock and say the Rosary while looking at the Holy Face. Praying like this has become a daily ritual and I look forward to it each evening. I’ve come to look at it as sitting down with the Lord and his Mother to have a little chat.
Afterwards I’m so relaxed I’m able to go right to bed.

 

[Lance]

I don’t have anything special, I just say my prayers when I go to bed and maybe that is part of the problem I am having with my prayers. I like your idea of having a special place. I think I will create one of my own. Thanks for the idea.

 

[DaveBj]

When I’m home, I like to pray sitting up in bed, just before I turn the lights out.

I work as a security guard three nights a week, and there between inspection rounds I sit in the open doorway and enjoy the night air and the sounds of the insects and frogs (and the traffic passing by). There’s just enough time between inspection rounds for the Rosary and one of the litanies.

DaveBj

 

[dcmac]

DaveBj:

When I’m home, I like to pray sitting up in bed, just before I turn the lights out.

I work as a security guard three nights a week, and there between inspection rounds I sit in the open doorway and enjoy the night air and the sounds of the insects and frogs (and the traffic passing by). There’s just enough time between inspection rounds for the Rosary and one of the litanies.

DaveBj

What a great witness! You are preaching the Gospel in your actions and I commend you for it!

Your unworthy brother in Christ and by the Grace of God a future priest,
Donnchadh

 

[dcmac]

Some time ago I bought my parents home. I have a prayer room. It looks very much like a chapel. It is a place for prayer, meditation, and simply to relax in the surroundings of sacramentals (statues & icons) that remind me at every glance of God’s love.

The back yard (1/4 acre) as well as being a place for my nephews and nieces to play and the dogs to roam around, is a rosary garden, a Stations of the Cross garden and a meditation garden for quiet prayer.

Of course, above every door in the house is a crucifix.

Kind of neat that I have the house, but as I am going to be a priest, I have to sell it back to mom via my brother. At least mom will have the house back and with some nice religious upgrades…LOL

Your unworthy brother in Christ and by the Grace of God a future priest,
Donnchadh

 

[Sir_Knight]

The below is a combination of several common prayers which I have jumbled up together over the years to form my own personal prayer to God …

Blessed are You, Lord God of all creation. Through Your goodness, You blessed me with everything that I have and possess. I thank you for all of the gifts and blessings that You have bestowed upon me now and through out my entire life especially … I then proceed to list all of the things that I have been blessed with – eyes that can see, ears that can hear, two feet that can get me around, etc. … I offer up to You today through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, all of my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the mass throughout the world. In reparation for all of my sins, for the reunion of all Christians and in special intention of having Your heavenly assistance in every aspect of my life especially … I then proceed to ask for blessings for my family, help with any difficulties that we might be having at the moment, the wisdom to recognize sin and the strength to resist it, the grace of dying a happy death in friendship with God, etc. … Dear Lord, Dear God, I realize that I am indeed a sinner and I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee. I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishments, but most of all because I offend Thee, my God, You who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin. Please do not judge me by what I truly deserve but in Your mercy and love, please have pity on me and grant me pardon and piece. This day, please guide my thoughts, words & actions so that they will be pleasing in Your sight. Amen.

… It is then followed by an Our Father, Hail Mary & Glory Be.If time permits and the Spirit moves me, it may be followed by either a decade of the rosary or even the entire rosary.

 

[T.A.Stobie_SFO]

My mind is my “prayer closet” and I try to keep it focused on God.

I do have religious photos, statues, and icons in every room of my apartment as well to help remind me to focus on God at all times.

 

[Hesychios]

For the past year I have had an icon corner in my apartment.

I have just moved to a nicer place and I am going to refurbish a walk-in closet that has an east-west orientation as my prayer corner. The back of the closet is the east wall, which is traditionally the preferred location for an icon corner. I prefer that it be as simply appointed as possible, but I am saving for a Persion rug as a fitting floor covering to do my prostrations.

The room this space is attached to is merely the second bedroom, which I don’t need currently because I live alone. I am using that as a library/computer room type space.

Michael

 

[DaveBj]

dcmac:

What a great witness! You are preaching the Gospel in your actions and I commend you for it!

Not really; I am all alone. The cars passing on the road are too far away for the drivers to see what I am doing.

Your unworthy brother in Christ and by the Grace of God a future priest,
Donnchadh

My prayers are for you. When the time comes, be a good, true priest.

 

[Angelica]

My prayer spot would be on my bed and next to that I have a bed side table with a few candles, my bible, prayer cards, prayer book, CCC, rosary, crucifix, and a 4 inch high figure of OLG.
That whole table is my prayer closet :getholy:

 

[ATeNumquam]

Well, I have only a small town-house, 2 bedrooms, but I live alone (by choice), so I can pray wherever I like. I’m an evening pray-er. I particularly like the period from spring to autumn, during daylight saving, when I pray upstairs after dinner in my spare bedroom, which has a nice view of the barren hills on the south side of my city. The street is extremely quiet, so there is not much traffic to distract me, and as I pray (just sitting with God, so to speak, with my notebook of favourite scripture passages as “prayer triggers” if I need them), I can watch the changing light on these beautiful hills as the sun goes down.

In winter (now, in NZ) I sit downstairs on the sofa, and often my cat comes and curls up on my lap, but her steady purring is not much of a distraction - it’s rather a nice accompaniment to prayer!

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A Te numquam separari permittas - Never let me be separated from You

 

[DrCat]

Well, when it’s not raining, I like to pray in my back yard. Otherwise, I have a couple of small shrines in my house. One is in my bedroom, the other in the living room. They each have a replica of the Pieta, a Crucifix, a picture of Divine Mercy, and a candle. When it is raining, and depending on where the rest of my family is, I select one or the other of these places to pray my Rosary and my Chaplet of Divine Mercy. I have no real place for other prayers - wherever I am at the time.

Oh, but my morning prayers. . .There is only one place in my house that nobody (not my wife, not my granddaughters, and not my daughters) will interrupt me. That’s where I go to pray my morning offering.

John

 

[Galandriel]

I still live at home, and we have a small altar in the dining room. There is a HUGE picture of our Lady of Guadalupe, two crucifix’s, candles, a kneeler (yes, a kneeler) and a statue of St. Therese, Our Lady of Fatima, a medium picture of the Divine Mercy, and the baby Jesus, as well as a bible and about 15 rosaries. (We are a family of 8) My mom has already told me, when I get married, I need an altar at home. It’s cool, because it makes room for conversation from our non-Catholic family members (aunts and uncles), room for no cussing in a house with the Mother of God staring at you, and really helps as a visual in the morning and late at night for morning and evening prayers, either individually or praying as a family. It is something my parents taught me, and I hope to teach my family. Maybe it’s because I’m Hispanic, and it’s in my culture. Our whole house looks like the Catholic Shoppe. lol