Home altars

SacredHeartFan · #1 Feb 16, '08, 6:51 pm

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!

SacredHeartFan · #2 Feb 16, '08, 7:22 pm

oh, will someone please reply!

blossom02 · #3 Feb 16, '08, 7:29 pm

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?

blossom02 · #4 Feb 16, '08, 7:33 pm

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.

SacredHeartFan · #5 Feb 16, '08, 7:33 pm

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.

blossom02 · #6 Feb 16, '08, 7:36 pm

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.

SacredHeartFan · #7 Feb 16, '08, 7:38 pm

well the only thing not quiet about it is that my family room is right on the other side with the t.v.

SacredHeartFan · #8 Feb 16, '08, 8:25 pm

ok, new update! i just got a pic of John Paul II and a rose bowl to put holy water in.

SacredHeartFan · #9 Feb 17, '08, 5:31 pm

blossom02 · #10 Feb 17, '08, 5:38 pm

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.

ac claire · #11 Feb 17, '08, 6:54 pm

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.

sojo · #12 Feb 17, '08, 7:07 pm

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

jabelltulsa · #13 Feb 17, '08, 7:36 pm

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!

latinmasslover · #14 Feb 18, '08, 11:09 am

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.

Cristiano · #15 Feb 18, '08, 11:11 am

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.