Your home’s areas are yours, and they represent you. If religion is essential to you, those venues should reflect that. One should be proud of their home, no matter how small. Decorate your home to remind yourself of the vital place your faith deserves.
The Catholic Church permeates every part of life, which is an odd historical fact. There are secular and Catholic methods for doing everything. This is due to the Catholic Church’s extensive history, which dates back over 2,000 years. For many centuries, the Catholic Church was the world’s only source of law and structure.
It also allowed the culture for homemaking to take on a unique Catholic flavour, including cooking and decoration. Modern influences have diversified what constitutes a Catholic home over time, but this only means that you, as the decorator have more options.
There are no restrictions on how many great items a Catholic can have in their home. This is merely a list of a few items that Catholic households should attempt to keep on hand.
Items Every Catholic Should Have in Their Home
A Crucifix
Since the beginning of time, the Cross has been the symbol of the Christian faith. Jesus Christ’s Cross is the instrumental cause of our salvation. Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, offered His own Body and Blood as a ransom for many on the Cross. The early Way followers would trace the Cross across their entire bodies. We still perform this as part of the Sign of the Cross prayer, in which we invoke the Blessed Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
In our homes, the crucifix is a daily visible reminder of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the Holy Cross for our benefit. It is a Church sacrament that opens the eyes of our soul to the flow of God’s mercy through the eyes of our body. You can get a copy of a top-notch crucifix from the holyart website.
Sacred Craft
Sacred art is another excellent visual reminder of the Faith. Statues, paintings, and icons are much more than trinkets. The images of Jesus, Mary, the saints, or the angels are not given reverence due to God alone. Of course, we can only worship and adore the Father through the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Holyarts such as Images, paintings, monuments, and icons mediate the imaged person. If we have an icon of St. Peter, we acknowledge that this great saint is with God in Heaven. St. Peter is thus very much alive in Christ. By God’s awesome power, we, as the baptized, can speak to the saints. This is not “going around” God, for it is only through His mercy that two members of the Body of Christ may be so inextricably linked on either side of the curtain of death. The icon mediates the presence of the glorified saint in Heaven with Christ, allowing our bodily senses to drive our souls to worship and intercession.
While the Eastern Saints, particularly St. John of Damascus, did most theological homework on icons over a thousand years ago, the same ideas apply to sculptures, paintings, and other pictures. They bring spiritual realities symbolically depicted on wood, metal, plaster, or clay to our human senses.
The Wall Hooks
Every Catholic requires wall hangers or hooks in the primary living space, such as a living room or den. These have a highly practical function. You can hang stuff from the hooks on the wall. You can hang your family’s rosaries if you follow the Latin Rite (or whoever observes this devotion). You can hang your prayer ropes if you follow the Byzantine practice. This provides the practical aim of prompting you or your family to pray together.
Fonts of Holy Water
Holy water is a potent Church sacramental that evokes the Sacrament of Baptism. We are cleansed of the stain of sin, united into the Mystical Body of Christ, marked for Christ, and receive sanctifying grace into our soul, which is the very life of Almighty God, through the waters of Baptism.
When we make the Sign of the Cross with holy water as we enter or exit a house (or a room), we are enabling the sacramental to prepare us for God’s actual gift at the moment, but it is also a renewal of our baptismal promises. Through Baptism, we have already received the life of God. By the power and grace of God, holy water revitalizes an already-existing connection.
Mary Garden and a Statue of Mary.
If possible, placing a statue of Our Lady in your yard and even planting a garden around it is a lovely act to perform in the family home. The statue in the front yard, visible from the street, might potentially have a broader evangelical purpose.
We can never love the Blessed Virgin Mary more than her Most Holy Son, Jesus Christ. Honouring her brings honour and credit to Him. She directs our attention to Him. She keeps an eye on us and shields us with her motherly glance and hand. She is the Mystical Body of Christ’s neck and the channel through which all graces pour from Heaven to every one of us on Earth by the Holy Spirit.
From the moment she said “yes” to God until now, she has been on a holy mission to bring her Son into the world. The activity that we associate with Christmas has never ended. Mary also directs our attention to her Son, bringing us to Him and Him to us. You can get a copy of a top-notch statue of Mary from the holyart website.
Calendar of Saints
Many parishes distribute calendars with the whole liturgical year of the Latin Rite’s Ordinary Form marked on each month. This calendar can be displayed in a prominent location in the home for all to see.
It is beneficial for us to be aware of what is going on in the Church calendar to keep the Faith close. If it’s the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, make a white cake with white icing to symbolize the Blessed Mother’s purity. There are numerous methods to integrate the liturgical calendar into the home and consecrate the home to the practice of the Faith.
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