Sharing Our Domestic Church Challenge

"The family is the domestic church ... the home is the church in minature." -Saint John Paul II

Dear OLS Parish Families,

This time of isolation can be used as an opportunity to deepen your faith life as a family. We invite you to share pictures of your domestic church, (or home church), with us here. Pictures may include family prayer or sharing meals together, devotionals, statuary, crosses, etc. Please include a short explanation with your picture and your family name, and we will publish it below this post with a caption. Email your entries to LChristie@olsbp.com. Please write in the Subject Line: "Domestic Church Pics." We are so excited to see/hear about your home church through your submissions! If you don’t have a prayer space in your home, it’s easy to create. This link shows you how.

Sincerely,
Loren Christie in the OLS Faith Formation Office

Exactly what kind of pictures/stories are we asking you to submit? Here's some background on the domestic church:

The  concept of the domestic church, or home church, is one of my favorite aspects of my faith. This is the idea that in regard to the Catholic family, the first "school of faith" is the home and the first catechists are the parents. This isn't formal faith instruction, but rather, it's teaching by living out the faith within the home. Family life is sacred and family activity is holy. Parents live out their faith journey in front of their children, and the efforts they make to nurture habits of piety are most deeply learned and modeled at home. The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains an explanation of the domestic church.

"The Home as the First Church (pages 1655-1657)
From the beginning, the Church was formed from believers "and their whole household." New believers wanted their family to be saved (Acts 18:8).
In our modern world (often hostile to religion), religious families are extremely important centers of living faith. They are "domestic churches" in which the parents are the first heralds of faith (Second Vatican Council). In the home, father, mother, and children exercise their baptismal priesthood in a privileged way. The home is the first school of the Christian life where all learn love, repeated forgiveness, and prayerful worship." - The Catechism of the Catholic Church Simplified on CatholiCity.com

Below are two videos explaining how the family is the primary school of faith for families.

There's a wonderful book that was recently published on the topic of the domestic church titled: Theology of the Home: Finding the Eternal in the Everyday, by Carrie Gress, Noelle Mering and Megan Schrieber. The theme of the book, which is a series of essays and beautiful images of the authors' domestic churches, is that "our homes can evangelize."

In the last two months we have experienced a phenomenon. Because of the cancellation of Masses, our home churches have become our primary places of worship. Many of us have brought Mass into our living rooms live streaming on television or other tech devices. Sunday dinners have included rosaries and reading of scripture. Perhaps this blog has provided an opportunity for you and your family to learn something about Catholicism from the comfort of your couch. All of these moments at home are sacred.

Is there a place in your home that you sometimes set up as a prayer spot? Personally, the dining room is probably the most important room in my house. It's where we gather for family meals and games. It's where everyone does their work during the day, (lately during quarantine). It's where we share meals with guests. Everyone has their designated seat. The dining room is also where we gather to pray. The mantle has become our prayer table; a statue of the holy family reminds us that we are a domestic church. Check out this link for more information about praying as a family at meals.

Sometimes we stream Mass or live Eucharistic Adoration in the dining room prayer spot from a phone.

Just as we have images in our home of our family members, Catholics sometimes display pictures of saints who we ask to intercede in prayer for us. We believe that the saints are in the presence of God in heaven. There are saints who have promised to spend their eternity praying for souls on earth, like one of my favorites: St. Theresa of Liseux. One cannot measure the importance of introducing the family to our allies in the faith: the saints. 

I've learned so much from the writings of St. Theresa of Liseux and her image has a place in our home.

Our parents and grandparents are the primary teachers of our faith, practicing their faith and evangelizing us through their daily lives. I remember my maternal grandmother modeling her close relationship with God.  I understood her faith solely from watching her routines. For example, every evening during the 5 o'clock news, she would stand in front of the fireplace mantle praying the rosary in Italian. She never asked me to pray a rosary with her, and I'd often give her privacy, (while hiding on the stairs). I could not understand Italian, but I did pick up on her familiar way of conversing in prayer. I could tell she was asking God to protect me, other family members and the world at large. This habit made a deep impression on me, and I attribute my own reliance on the Blessed Mother in my adulthood to this grandmother, as well as my paternal grandmother who gifted me rosary beads from a pilgrimage to Medjugorje when I was a teenager. We draw closer to Jesus through His Mother, Mary. 

Above: Materials for family prayer and a Divine Mercy Sunday 2015 flashback from my house. What devotionals do you have in your home? 

Making the Sign of the Cross and blessing ourselves with holy water is the first thing we do when entering church. It can be collected at church in bottles for home use. Holy water is a source of active grace, and a reminder to us of God's protection and love. Here's an article about it: "The Numerous Uses of Holy Water."

A holy water font near the front door. 

Sometimes our homes contain family Bibles that have been passed down. Reading scripture as a family and discussing it is an opportunity to understand how God speaks directly to us. 

People used to write family history in Bibles. The above Bible traveled with members of our family who immigrated from Ireland. Do you have a family Bible in your home?

An outdoor garden space can be a sanctuary for meditation and prayer. My garden is hands-down my favorite place in my home. I think of it as an outdoor chapel. Do you have a special outdoor place to pray at home? Share it with us!

The Blessed Mother in my garden.

St. Joseph holds baby Jesus in my garden.

OLS Domestic Churches Submissions- (Updated daily)

The Bartholdus prayer table is ready for Mr. and Mrs. Bartholdus to watch Mass on television.

Dawn Gentner said, “We watch mass on our TV and we listen to songs for worship in the house and vbs when in the truck.”

Elena Vacca said: “We pray at every meal and during the day.”

Bedside prayer area submitted by Dawn Gentner

 "I have always had a holy water font by my bedside and my kids would use it for bedtime prayer. My Nana passed away and left me her font from her bedside. So I decided to put it by my front door. We bless ourselves upon exiting and entering our home, especially on Sundays before Mass at home (on television)."- Dawn Gentner 

Prayerful encouragement to neighbors during the pandemic in the window of Catechist Dawn Gentner's home.

Let’s stay connected as a parish family. Keep sending your domestic church stories and pics to LChristie@olsbp.com.