In our book, The Little Oratory: A Beginner's Guide to Praying in the Home, David Clayton, Deirdre, and I encourage you to make your own Little Oratory — your very own! You can read my posts about the chapters (a work in progress, going over them) here.
You can read all about something all day long, but when you see a picture, that's when you say, “Oh, I can do that!”
When The Little Oratory: A Beginner's Guide to Praying in the Home came out, many of you suggested that we have a dedicated place to post our own little oratories (prayer table, home altar, icon corner — even just a little spot that is no more than a crucifix and candle on in the center of the kitchen table) — so that we can see what others are doing and just in general get the idea through visuals.
I think this is the way to go — but of course, being me, it's taken a while to figure out exactly how to do it and get all the elements together.
We need a place to post pictures of what we've done. That way, we can encourage each other by visiting and leaving comments, and we will get ideas for what's possible. I for one hardly ever know what to do until I've seen a picture!
Even if you've already posted on {pretty, happy, funny, real} with your Little Oratory updates, we'd all love it if you'd do this link-up too, so that everything is in one place (I will try to help you).
This link-up will be permanent and stay open. The new ones will load on top, but the older ones will be there. If you've posted your oratory somewhere else (on Elizabeth Foss's blog, for instance), why, just re-post it here!
We can have discussions in the comments — it will be a sort of forum.
If you are linking to a picture that's hosted on Instagram or Flickr, don't worry about the button — but do use the hashtag #LittleOratory or #littleoratory so that people can connect.
Here are the buttons with their codes (they will also be on the sidebar). You can choose the one you would like to put on your post. It's live and will direct anyone who is interested back to the tab on the menu (coming soon!) — the page with the link-up. Thanks to Sophia Institute Press and the talented Carolyn McKinney for these beautiful buttons!
Kate says
I would be interested if you had any history on domestic prayer corners/spaces. Were they in every Catholic home at one time and then became “unfashionable”? Do you think its lack is influenced by a “bourgeois spirit” and the rise of women’s decorating magazines- you know, you’re not going to see any holy corners in BHG. If you’re decorating your home to keep up with the WASP neighbors or what you see on TV, little oratories are definitely not cool or in style. I’m really wondering when this divorce from Catholic tradition all happened. Was it when Catholics mainstreamed? I was really surprised that people hadn’t heard about this practice before. When I was growing up, we had a spot in our living room with holy images where we gathered to pray and we had “holy corners” scattered around the house. My dad even had one in his office. I didn’t visit many Catholic homes, so I don’t know if we were odd-balls or not. I do remember my Mexican aunt having a prayer corner, but not my anglo aunts. When I married it seemed like the most natural thing to set up a prayer place first thing in our new home. My sisters did the same in their newlywed homes.
Leila says
Kate, I don’t know. You have more experience than I! But I think that somewhere along the lines, people began to regard home as not particularly sacred, and not connected to Church.
And maybe things got dusty and un-cared-for, and in the attempt to throw out the bathwater, the baby got chucked.
Valerie says
This is so neat! We have a Sacred Heart painting above our mantel. Yesterday, I just added a statue of the Blessed Mother holding the infant Jesus that I had in my room. I was debating adding sconces on both sides of the Sacred Heart but now I am convinced it is the way to go. Also, since there is not enough room above the picture for a crucifix, I am thinking of a standing one below the picture. Thank you so much for this visual.
I am not on flickr or anything but might look into it to upload a picture of the ‘in progress’ oratory.
I grew up seeing oratories in my grand-parents’ bedroom as well as as my Mom’s. Later, monks at an Abbey my friends and I used to visit often recommended we do the same in our respective dorm rooms. So, before reading your book, I had a little oratory in our bedroom. The book has lead me to have a family oratory in the main room( I like to call it the ‘keeping room’) where we spend most of our family time together. It is wonderful how it is slowly but surely evolving into our own oratory. Thank you for the encouragement!
Leila says
Valerie, I’m sure people would love to see your photos!
Jeanne says
Leila, what do we do if we don’t have a website to upload our pictures to?
Leila says
Jeanne, you can upload your image to Flickr and link to that, or if you are on Instagram, you can post from that (see the little Instagram icon on the link form, on the bottom left).
Allison says
I was wondering if you might share the artist that did your Sacred Heart painting? I have only seen the *ahem* rather schmarmy ones, but your painting is beautiful.
Leila says
Allison, you can read about the image here:
http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2010/12/image-of-sacred-heart-of-jesus-promoted.html
It’s done by a mosaic studio based on a Spanish painting:
http://cathedralstl.org/parish/parish-history/sacred-heart-shrine/
Mine is a print done from a photograph. I like the print but am not sure about how it’s framed. Might have to revisit that.
Allison says
Wonderful! Thank you!
Amanda says
Lovely prayer spaces! I especially love the peaceful symmetry in the candles and such. And thank you so much for keeping a place for all of us to link up our little oratories…it is so inspiring to see what others have done.
I tried to put up the button link in my post but unfortunately it was not formatting correctly. I’m using blogger, not sure if that should make a difference? I copied it several times with both images to see if I could get it to work and all it would do is give me a blue hyperlinked E, lol! Anyone have ideas on how to fix that?
Leila says
Sorry about the code — working on it! In the meantime, just link to the page’s URL in your post! Thank you!
Amanda says
Thanks for fixing it! I updated mine with the new button 🙂
Jeanne says
so I found a blog that I forgot about. But I wanted to share my little prayer space!!
We have had sacred spaces and art always around us, but by bringing it all together, helps us to focus better on our faith.
Josie says
We are moving so I won’t have pictures, but in our little corner before I had to make my home look like no one lives here, we had an outdoor bell (like a small sweet old farmy one that hangs from the side, does that make sense?, we hung it from the side of our fireplace mantle) and a candle holder that hung with chains from a ceiling hook, kinda like you see in church but home-y, it had just a tea light candle in it. I forget where I got it-maybe Yankee candle years ago? When I was good about getting the kids together to pray there (which I hate to admit has not been for a long time), they LOVED ringing the bell and that candle. I would tell them to ring it three times slowly or sometimes I would ring it and they would come b/c they knew what it meant, or at least of few of them would straggle in and then the others would notice and come. I was determined to keep it going because it was working so well, but I will pick it up again in whatever new home we land in! I wish I could post a picture, maybe I can dig up an old one I might have taken one. I would always try to sing prayers because the kids take to that so well.
Leila says
Josie, that sounds fantastic! Do see if you can find a picture. What memories!
Leila says
The codes are working! Turned out it was a WordPress-y glitch changing little thingies into other little thingies, rendering the code unworkable.
But now it’s fixed!
If you still have trouble, try putting the code into your “text” or “HTML” edit view on your post, THEN HIT SAVE DRAFT, then look at your post in the “visual” view.
Thanks for your patience!
Katy says
So excited, how shall I participate if I don’t do any blogging/photosharing other than on Facebook?
Leila says
Katy, I will think about it. Maybe people without blogs or instagram could send me their photos and every once in a while I could do a post sharing those contributions, and link that. Maybe you can start a blog just for this purpose? It’s really easy and free — try blogger.com…
We’ll brainstorm about it.
Valerie says
I was wondering if you had already a flickr page dedicated to it or were you suggesting that we open one each individually? If only one is opened maybe people could upload their own pictures on it or send them to you to be uploaded. You could then have a flickr button on your site to link to that page.
Ra says
I have a very …down to earth… question to ask. How do you deal with dust in your home? I see these lovely oratories that are dust-free, and I need advice on how to do that with my own little oratory.
My home seems to always be dusty, despite my best efforts to keep it otherwise. I’ve used a feather duster, Swiffer dusters, and cloths with or without Pledge-type spray. The dust returns with the same vigor regardless of the removal method. Within four or so days, there is dust thick enough to write your name in. It’s going to drive me mad! Do I need to resign myself to dusting EVERY thing I own three times a week? I haven’t encountered this level of dust in any of my previous homes.
I’m guessing the ventilation system has something to do with it; but, I rent an apartment so I’m unable to make substantial changes in that regard. I’ll be here for two more years, so I need to find a way to manage it in the meantime. Any suggestions/ideas/tips?
Thank you!
jenny says
Oh my goodness. I can’t say how glad I am to hear someone else say this! I, too, live in a rental–and this is by very, very far the dustiest place I’ve ever lived! I have to wipe under the end tables DAILY to get the ridiculous dustballs out from under there. DAILY! With five homeschooled kids, I just cannot DO twice-weekly deep-cleans. It’s absurd! The dust! I grew up in a house where it got dusty, sure, in the never-used front room where no one went for weeks on end. Every month or two, there would be a light coat of dust on the table. But here! There is heavy, abandoned-house-level dust EVERY DAY! And we live–and I mean LIVE–in this house! And we don’t live on a farm! We live in a city! On a non-busy street! In the humid Deep South! Where is it all coming from?!?
In other news, we have a statue of Our Lady of the Smile on a file-cabinet-type table (she is lovingly surrounded by write-in-able dust as we speak) near some bookshelves and a candle that we light as we gather there for night-time prayer. (We don’t light the candle for morning prayer or mid-day prayer.) We also have icons of each child’s name saint on the wall above their beds, as well as a few Theotokos ones in the living area and kitchen.
Leila says
Wow, ladies, I am feeling your pain on the dust issue. Maybe ask at the maintenance place?
Meanwhile, do your best and don’t worry. God knows about the reasons behind the dust 🙂 And do put a bit of lace under things — the dust will not show as easily!
Sue K says
I just “inherited” a second hand version of this screen and I keep thinking it could somehow be incorporated into the backdrop for my prayer table, currently in a corner on an antique sewing machine. It could turn into a pretty fantastic home version of an iconostasis but I prefer western art to eastern. It might work well to choose three pieces and fill the rest of the photo spots with some kind of appropriate scrapbook paper. Any other suggestions, anyone?
http://www.amazon.com/Memories-Photo-Frame-Room-Divider/dp/B005VAHIGS/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1402880024&sr=8-5&keywords=photo+screen+room+divider