It might be awkward to think about establishing a shrine in your home. Over the centuries since the foundation of Sacramental Christianity we have moved away from the home as the centre of our life of faith toward the church building where the focus of our rituals, feasts, functions and features now rests.
This shift, it seems, has had a negative effect on our perception of how we live within our faith. We have, sometimes unconsciously, come to seek the sacred “out there” “elsewhere” anywhere but right here in our home – among our friends and family, conducting the “mundane” rituals of life. We therefore, often view our daily routines as “profane” – any sense of their sacramentality has been diminished, largely because we no longer percieve the place where we are, now, as a sacred context. The church building has overshadowed the sacred character of our homes.
A home shrine is a feature of your home that you assemble, which has meaning for you and your family. You might go for the more “traditional” icon corner (perhaps with very un-traditional icons), you may choose a small table with a statue and a candle, perhaps a reading stand with a Gospel book, or festal icon, the possibilities are endless. Through a home shrine, your perception of where you meet God, and encounter the sacred is re-aligned. It is not “out there” but here, now.
2 Responses to “Sacred Space – Domestic Awkwardness”
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Exactly! I think it’s actually one of the charisms of OC/IC churches and communities–that because we don’t own buildings generally and do have house Masses, it prevents the restriction of one’s faith life to a particular building and places it out where one lives. I don’t think that it’s an accident that a large proportion of OC/IC folk have small private worship spaces in their home.
absolutely – what is interesting though is the fact that so many people who come into the community are, at first, put off by our assembling in members’ homes. I’ve also encountered people who are interested, but who simply don’t want to join in, BECAUSE (in London at least) we don’t have a church building (though my community in DC did).