Over at NLM there is a post providing photos from readers of their home altars or chapels. HERE
I warmly recommend that you consider establishing something in your dwelling.
The use of a cabinet is a great idea. For example, think about an “entertainment cabinet” that many people have, a large piece of furniture with doors that open to reveal a TV, etc. These days, larger and better screens are pretty economical. Big one’s won’t fit in these cabinets. Hence, maybe it could be repurposed. I have one (left by the previous resident) where I am now and it would be perfect with the rearranging of shelves. I wonder if these aren’t going out of style now that screens are getting huge. There might be some available used or on consignment, etc.
As it happens, I have a whole room dedicated as a chapel. However, the attractive, abandoned piece of furniture I have would work very well. There are even additional hinges in the frame behind the doors so that the doors could be opened all the way, flat against the sides of the cabinet, instead of sticking out. I suppose the insides of the doors could be decorated with sacred images. The drawers would easily hold Roman vestments, since they are plenty wide and deep. Right now, I am cutting and staining boards to add as shelves to make it into a china cabinet.
I suspect that, before things get better, they will get worse.
Home altar.
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As a university professor with an inconveniently large personal library, I dream that one day I will have room in my home for a study like St. John Henry Newman’s, which has been preserved unchanged at the Birmingham Oratory.
As you can see in the following linked photo, a small partition divides it into two parts. His select reference library and desk are on one side (his whole collection fills a much larger room elsewhere in the Oratory), and his private chapel is on the other: https://www.flickr.com/photos/catholicism/48143564827/in/photostream/
Once my kids eventually leave home, their bedrooms may get knocked together to accommodate my chapel-library!
Any chance of your returning to video? I miss your daily mass, poetry reading etc.
I’ve got a tiny apartment, but I managed to squeeze something of a tiny oratory into the dormer in my bedroom. The dormer is just wide enough for an old telephone table I’ve refinished/repurposed and a backless wooden stool (a little like the kind you might see in a monastery). The table is home to a statue of Our Lady, an image of the Sacred Heart, and a picture of St. Joseph. The shelf below holds my breviary, Bible, etc., and there’s a drawer for candles and such. The oratory so tiny that I have to move the stool if I want to kneel (and then I barely fit), and when I sit on the stool, my feet hit the table, but it works. Some day, when I can afford a bigger place, I would prefer to have a second bedroom and have a dedicated home chapel, but for now, this suffices.
We have been wondering about such things lately. (For example, our likeliest ‘priest hole’ looks very uncomfortable, and difficult to clean and get into shape to start with.) Would it be sensible to aspire to provide space for one of those splendid portable altars you have written about and shown in the past? Or would most priests travel with an antimesium? (Can lay folk own antimensia? And, if so, how best to keep them safe and clean?)
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In the video about the Rwandan martyrs (unofficially) Daphrose and Cyprien Rugumba, it shows the home chapel that they set up in their garage, from about 3 minutes in. (Well, at that point it wasn’t a garage anymore.)
They were leaders of an approved lay ministry, so they were allowed to have the Blessed Sacrament reserved in a tabernacle in their chapel. Because the chapel was in their home, they were able to spend periods of prayer there, including an overnight vigil on what turned out to be the eve of their martyrdom. Creepily, their murderers shot up the tabernacle and scattered all the consecrated Hosts on the ground before shooting the whole family in the garden. (One kid escaped by playing dead, and he testified to all that had happened.)
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I got a tall-boy made to suit (height etc) during the first Oz lockdown last year. 3 small draws at the top and 3 longer draws where store the brassware, linens and vestments etc.
Altar frontals cover the blandness of the tall-boy and it works a treat.
(What are the rules of laymen having altar stones?)
All up the whole project cost about $2k AUD (not all at once). Money well spent and has been used multiple times.
I was speaking with a mate in Sydney when I suggested he do the same. “Why? we’ll be able to go back to a normal church soon, won’t we?”
‘Define normal” was my response.
I got a tall-boy made to suit (height etc) during the first Oz lockdown last year. 3 small draws at the top and 3 longer draws where store the brassware, linens and vestments etc.
Altar frontals cover the blandness of the tall-boy and it works a treat.
(What are the rules of laymen having altar stones?)
All up the whole project cost about $2k AUD (not all at once). Money well spent and has been used multiple times.
I was speaking with a mate in Sydney when I suggested he do the same. “Why? we’ll be able to go back to a normal church soon, won’t we?”
‘Define normal” was my response.
My home office has turned into my study room during diaconate formation. I have my laptop set up on one side of the room with all the books I’ve accumulated for formation.
On the other side is my military “I love me” wall. I’m considering repurposing that side of the room for a private area for prayer including a kneeler, candles, and a proper crucifix. In a pinch it would work for a Mass for a travelling father since there is a built out portion that covers some of the basement wall. Perfect spot for a small altar of some kind.
Hopefully it will never have to be used but it is better to be overprepared than caught unawares and having to scramble. Prior preparation prevents poor performance. There’s more but decorum proceeds me.
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Home altars are always beautiful, even the very simple ones. They reflect love for God and probably whoever set it up can be said to really love God in a special way, more than most people. I saw an article some time ago that kind of mocked little altars made of basic materials, but that is just so wrong. The point was elegant materials would be fitting and that may be so but an earnest little space people create out of nothing to show their love for God, what could be better or more sincere. God appreciates the love behind the effort, not the elegance.
Fr. Z some time ago you told us the materials one would need to gather for a Holy Mass at home. Can you repeat that one?
Antique Victorian linen dressers frequently have a marble top. Would that work as an altar stone? Pushed up aganst a wall in say the parlor or other more formal room with a lamp or flower vase on it, it just looks like standard decor. There are several drawers for storing necessary items and as is sometimes found with furniture of the period (and prior) has features appropriate to crypto purposes.
A related article from NLM:
https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2021/09/in-uncertain-times-house-chapels.html?#.YVdrKmkpAW6
Kathleen10: These two should help:
https://wdtprs.com/2020/09/ask-father-when-the-shtf-what-should-we-have-to-help-underground-priests/
https://wdtprs.com/2021/01/ask-father-hosts-and-wine-for-when-we-have-to-shelter-an-underground-priest/
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