The Community for Catholic Moms

Family Altars in the home

Hello!

I was wondering how many of you might have family altars in your home, and where you have them, and do you have pictures to share? I was thinking of doing one in our home, maybe in a corner, so we could all have a prayerful place to go to?

What is appropriate for an altar on one's home?

Thanks!!!

Tags: altar, family

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Permalink Reply by Patricia on August 4, 2009 at 1:09pm

What a beautiful image! We have a small family altar (shelf attached to the wall) below 2 large paintings of the Sacred Heart of Jesus & Immaculate Heart of Mary. In front of them hangs a votive candle holder from the ceiling. On the altar are small statues, icons, candles, an incensor, holy water, blessed oil & a Crucifix. Above the Sacred & Immaculate Heart frames are blessed palms & pussy willows from Palm Sunday (called "Flowery Sunday" in the Christian East).

On an eastward facing wall (there is rich symbolism in Church altars facing east), we have our family icon wall which has an icon of each family member's Patron Saint (the names we were given in Baptism). In the middle is a large icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Above them all is an icon of Christ Pantocrator. In this area is a small table with shelves & baskets where we keep our Bibles, prayer books, etc. We also have a statue of the Christ Child, it is the kind you would place with your Nativity (our 14-month old loves to carry it around & kiss it!).

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Permalink Reply by Diana H. on August 4, 2009 at 4:14pm

I'm getting such good ideas from this thread.
Patricia, my little one likes to get the baby Jesus also-- last Christmas, he kept asking to take Jesus to Wal-Mart. LOL!

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Permalink Reply by Deborah Garcia on August 8, 2009 at 7:59pm

How Beautiful...Where did you get the Rosary hooks?
This is ours, and we change it with the season.

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Permalink Reply by Pat Gohn on August 4, 2009 at 11:44am

Have you seen this thread on this subject? http://www.connect.faithandfamilylive.com/forum/topics/home-altar?g...

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Permalink Reply by ViolinMama on August 8, 2009 at 12:08am

THank you!!!!

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Permalink Reply by Marie V. on August 4, 2009 at 8:09pm

Our fireplace it the main focal point for devotional prayer in our home. We have small holy reminders all over the house though. (There is an framed picture of Our Lord carrying the cross and a bust of Our Lady in the hallway that I find myself stopping to pray in front of often.) Every night, after daddy read a bedtime story, we all turn toward the fireplace altar and say our night prayers.

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Permalink Reply by Joseph on August 8, 2009 at 11:44am

I think the chasuble is a great addition. Do you change the color along with the liturgical season?

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Permalink Reply by Marie V. on August 9, 2009 at 7:53pm

Yes - I got the idea from other Catholic mom bloggers. (I love that so many creative women blog!) My oldest boy especially enjoys our little wooden 'father'. We check the calender everyday to see if we need to change his chasuble. It is an easy way to include the liturgical colors without a lot of fuss.

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Permalink Reply by ViolinMama on August 8, 2009 at 12:08am

WOW!! This is AWESOME!!!! Thank you all so much!!! I'm getting such good ideas!! I was thinking of putting ours in our room, my husband and I need a focus too. We end up in our room for everything, even folding laundry!

God Bless!

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Permalink Reply by Nicole Stallworth on August 8, 2009 at 12:24pm

Kelly, that is beautiful. I'm inspired.

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Permalink Reply by Erika Drain on August 8, 2009 at 10:34pm

I love it! Thank you for posting this, Violin Mama, you beat me to it. The Lord was stirring this in my heart/soul all last week. I even asked my DH what he thought would be the ideal place as we have a kneeler under a picture of Mary but also have a Crucifix and some pictures of Mary and relics of Saints on our Mantle. We've decided to combine the two locations, although they currently aren't away from each other but by two or three steps. I love the idea of changing the mantle to go with the Liturgical season, this goes with my Religion lesson plans...so thanks for those who posted it. :) What a lovely place to learn from one another this is! What a blessing! :) GBY, Erika