AmericanPapist Comments
I hope I have a "good Catholic blog." You can be the judge.
Kacy, no reason to cull for visitors in the combox. Feel free to drop me a line instead. Thanks!
I had a look at Ecclesia Domestica. Cool idea, but I don't know if I have ever met a Catholic family for whom such a project would be realistic - you know, those of us who muddle through every day, trying to raise large families in old houses that need repairs that we can't even afford - so I can't really see this starting a trend. I really don't think the problem is that people lack the desire for a home which is a Domestic Church - I think that most of us just lack the financial means to make such a project feasible. Another problem is that it is not always possible to stay where you want to stay - so the possibility of resale of the home becomes an issue. It has happened to us and many of our friends. Everybody in the world (except Catholic couples raising large families) seems to want neutral carpet....
Marie:
I totally understand where you are coming from, and God bless you and your family. A couple things:
a) I think people are going to naturally overestimate the cost of this project. I don't want to downplay the fact that not every Catholic family could do this, but at the same time, I think when people see "architect" and "custom home" they automatically see $$$. It's really not generically true, especially if your priorities are on the home design, and not "luxuries" and "luxurious materials" which most of suburbia seems to care about and use as status symbols. I'm thinking granite countertops, pools, home theaters, etc. Totally not interested in any of that, and I don't think the Lord wants us to use our money that way either. So if you're not interested in any of those things, it's quite amazing what you can do on a reasonable budget. Good design does not have to equal high cost (any architect will tell you that - just look at the architecture competitions that have sprung up to design affordable homes for Katrina survivors, some of the designs are amazing for extremely low cost).
b) Even the land part of it does not have to be a constraint. If a family plans on being in their home for a while, how about putting in a "family altar" in a corner of the home, which can be used for prayer and teaching about the liturgy? Or stations of the cross in a hallway, or outside on a landscaped pathway. There's lots of stuff one can do without building a home from scratch. These things are easy to remove as well if the house has to be sold.
Thanks for your comment!
One error in my previous comment... "our" money isn't our money, it's the Lord's, and that's another thing we are extremely cognizant of in this project.
I'm considering converting from Presbyterianism , and am puzzled by this notion of a home church - it sounds almost Protestant. My Baptist ("ordained") grandfather held church in his basement with his wife and one friend faithfully (and exclusively) in attendance for years. Christianity, as I understand it, is a communal faith - shouldn't the buttress be the Church/Parish, and not the home? Is our strength from a "chapel" or from the gathered faithful devoted to prayer? I don't mean to sound too critical - I really admire Brendan's aim - I just think the exclusivity (from community) may be a hiding of gifts.
Thos:
You're misinterpreting the purpose of the chapel in the home. The purpose of the chapel is for family prayer time, which every family should be doing, and private prayer. The chapel doesn't replace a parish in any way. It only enhances familial activities that we already do (i.e. Sunday rosary, daily prayer time after supper, I have my own prayer time every morning, etc.). It also will be a place for sacred art, education in the faith (we are homeschoolers), etc.
Brendan, I think I understand better now, thanks. I didn't mean to misinterpret... Your idea does sound nice. Is there a consecrated alter there, or just a front table on which you place statues, icons, scripture?
Thos:
No, I knew you weren't intentionally misinterpreting at all. And you are right on the latter in regard to the altar. It would have icons, or a crucifix. However, my brother is studying for the priesthood (or rather discerning the priesthood) in seminary right now, and should he be ordained one fine day, it's likely that he would say mass in the chapel on occasion. In that case the altar would be used in the holy sacrifice of the mass. But this isn't anything out of the ordinary for a priest, who from time to time may say mass in a place outside of the parish (for instance, at a conference or the like, mass may be said in an unusual space, like a gym or conference center, or on a retreat mass may be said in a chapel that is normally not used for mass). So mass could be said there on occasion. But that would definitely not be the norm of our use of the chapel. One dream of mine is to be able to have my brother over, if and when he is a priest, to have a family holy hour of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in the chapel.
By the way, I pray the Lord blesses you with peace and joy as you turn closer to the Church. Trust in the Lord and He will delight in giving you the desires of your heart (Ps 37:4).
In Christ,
Brendan
Brendan, Thank you for explaining (and for your prayers!). Your chapel is still cultural foreign to me, but I'm taking the idea in (let it soak for a while). God bless.
I may have missed it, but I didn't see your e-mail.
A cool new blog is Swingin' Rosaries
http://boondock-saints.blogspot.com
Kat,
I've updated my blog so you can see my e-mail address, but I'm not sure if you were writing to me (so I'm embarrassed to be this presumptuous!).
Way at the bottom, view my updated profile.
AHH.... there it is.
Brendan--
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought lay people had to get permission from the bishop to reserve the sacrament at home, chapel or no chapel. I'm not sure, therefore, that your plans for Adoration at home will work. Also, can Masses be said in the home without the permission of the bishop? I've never heard of such a thing happening.
Kate:
For a more in-depth answer, check out the combox on the post regarding Liturgical East on our blog. There was a similar question there. However, I'll try to be brief and answer your question here too:
First, reservation of the Blessed Sacrament and adoration are two independent things. The former refers to reserving the Blessed Sacrament in a tabernacle in a chapel, and you are right, one would have to get the permission of the local bishop to do that (and we don't want to do that for a whole lot of reasons); the latter, adoration, can simply be done after mass (benediction), or with a consecrated host that a priest brings with him as he would do when bringing the Eucharist to the sick in a hospital (we're speaking of course of an hour of adoration or the like, not perpetual adoration). I have been on retreats where this has been done by a priest quite frequently. I would need to have a monstrance, however, for this to happen, and those are expensive. Lastly, masses can be said all sorts of places, and they frequently occur outside of a parish (as I mentioned in my reply to Thos above). Masses are said in prayer chapels on retreats, masses are said in gyms at conferences, they are said outdoors on occasion, so one does not need the permission for a mass to be celebrated at a private chapel. One would need the permission of the bishop, however, for mass to be said there on a regular basis, exclusively for the inhabitants of the home, as a way of regularly fulfilling their Sunday obligation. A bishop would only give permission for a such an instance for a religious community, and we wouldn't want to do that anyway.
So I guess this has been longer than I thought, but the short answer is yes adoration could be done in our chapel (my seminarian brother confirms this), and yes you would have to get the permission of the bishop to reserve the Blessed Sacrament in a tabernacle (which we don't want to do), and no you would not need the permission of the bishop to celebrate mass in the chapel provided it is an extraordinary circumstance and not meant to replace a parish.
I would need to have a monstrance, however, for this to happen, and those are expensive.
Actually, this isn't necessarily true. Adoration (and Benediction) can be done with a ciborium. I've been to several Opus Dei days of recollection where exactly this was done. Granted, one couldn't see the Sacred Host during Adoration, but you know He's there!
they do make simple "chapel" monstrances that are smaller for a couple hundred (rather then several thousand) dollars.
Check Autom
Thanks for the tips! That's the kind of info I need.
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