Why a Home Altar?
God’s people are a praying people! Jesus invites us to pray and even gives us the Father’s name to call upon as our Father. So as Christians, we gladly come before the Triune God with our petitions, thanksgiving, and intercessions. The primary place where God gathers his people to worship and pray is the Divine Service, but the liturgical life of the church doesn’t end at 11am on Sunday morning with cookies and coffee! Christians continue walking in the liturgical life of the Church through her private prayers in the “domestic church,” that is, the home. To read more about the history of the secondary prayer offices and how you might use them in your private prayers, we direct you to our post about the daily office. However, in this post we explore the idea of the home altar as the place where the liturgical life of the church extends into daily prayers of the home. We’ll discuss why Christians establish home altars and what you might find at on a Lutheran altar.
Sacred Space
Chiefly, the home altar is the space set apart for prayer and catechesis. God established the father and mother as the first bishops of the home. It is their responsibility to direct and oversee the daily spiritual life of the family. Therefore, it can be useful for the ones who are in charge of the home to have a home altar as a space consecrated to the Lord for prayer and catechesis.
To be sure, prayer and catechesis are not only bound to a space of the home altar. Prayer that happens around the dining table, upon waking, before bed, and “on the way” are all wonderful and commanded by God! But the home altar serves the purpose of having a dedicated space to perform these acts of worship. Just as a family has a dining table for meals, a kitchen for cooking, and bedrooms for resting, the family altar provides a separate and sacred space to escape from the other duties of home life to focus specifically on prayer. And it is a welcome solace from the demands of home and work life when you can slow down, fix your eyes upon sacred things, and hear God’s Word.
A Nudge to Pray
The home altar serves a visual reminder to pray. The ideal location for the home altar is in the midst of the home where you will see it regularly yet it isn’t an obstruction to the flow of the home. Historically, many have opted to fix the home altar on an east-facing wall for the same reasons that churches are built with the altar toward the east: we expect Christ’s coming to be from the east, so we pray in that direction in anticipation of his return. If there isn’t an east wall space that fits the bill, then no sweat. Place it on a wall that works and where it can be seen, everyone can fit around it, and it fits with the flow of the home.
In other words, an altar tucked away in a room rarely visited won’t nudge you to pray and even creates a barrier to family prayer when you must escape to a remote part of the house you aren’t already in the habit of visiting. For this reason, we have always had our home altar in the main living room, but a reading room, dining room, or parlor are also good options.
Rehearsal of the Cruciform Life
The home altar invites Christians to daily rehearse a posture of worship and self-denial. Prayer involves more than just the mind. Prayer also demands a bodily, physical posture. As Lutherans we know this well from Luther’s exhortation to make the sign of the cross in remembrance of our baptism. Crossing oneself is a way of praying with our hands. The home altar invites all to pray more fully with minds and bodies than if prayer only ever happens at the dining room table.
Again, the family table is a wonderful place for prayer, but we miss out on something if we only ever pray sitting down. This is where the home altar, too, is a reflection and extension of the Church’s life in the Divine Service. In any given church service we might sit, stand, kneel, involve the hands and arms, and sometimes even mimic the pastor’s prostrations. The home altar provides the space to rehearse the same kind of participation and prayer ritual in the home. Standing is appropriate at some moments, but sitting may also be needed for a longer reading or if a sermon is read. For example, kneeling is appropriate during prayers and more frequently during penitential seasons such as Advent, Lent, and Rogation days. Likewise, more standing is appropriate during seasons such as Easter where we live in Christ’s triumph by abstaining from kneeling in recognition of the joyous victory! These are just a couple of considerations to think about concerning posture, both in mind, soul, and body. A home altar allows for all of it (if you leave enough room for kneeling and have a chair or two handy when needed.)
Setting up the Home Altar
So what are some of the practical considerations when setting up your home altar? We’ve touched on a handful of them before, and even have a home altar checklist to provide some ideas. We already mentioned how the altar itself might face the east and how you should allow some room for movement around the altar for different postures. However, there are many other things to think about when considering how to set up a home altar and what things you might adorn it with. While there is certainly no “right” or “wrong” for how to do this and there aren’t many resources to point you towards in terms of how Lutherans have thought about this before, here are a few thoughts.
Altar Base
Most basically, the home altar needs to have a piece of furniture or built-in feature of the home where people can gather. The altar base can range from a book case to cabinet or could even be an architectural feature in your house: a built-in or a cubby in the wall. Ideally, it would be about waist high or a little taller to accommodate prayer both when standing and kneeling. If possible, try to find an item that is sturdy, beautiful, and ties in nicely with the existing features of your home.
In one of our homes, we previously used a thrifted mission-style chest which provided storage for additional altar items (candles, incense, etc.) and tied in nicely with other traditional elements in the home. Now we currently use a secondhand curio cabinet that was kindly given to us. The character of the wood works in cohesion with our older home, and two glass doors open up the shelves that provide the perfect space for our Bible, prayer books, and extra hymnals. If you don’t already have a fitting piece of furniture to repurpose as your home altar, we have had good luck checking out a local thrift store or two to try to find something that will work for this purpose.
One optional element of the home altar worth considering is whether you have a cloth or parament of sorts to use to lay across its top. You could get fancy and have a seasonally-themed cloth for each liturgical season or use a simple white one year-round.
Crucifix & Liturgical Images
Now that the base of the altar is taken care of, we can turn to the center of the home altar space: the crucifix. As the focal point of the Christian’s life, it is fitting to have a crucifix in the center of the altar, either hung on a wall or perhaps standing on the altar surface. The style is up to you, but we offer some suggestions here (see “Liturgical Home Goods” > “The Home Altar”) to get your search started if you don’t already have one to rehome to this space.
Additionally you might choose to use other images to adorn your home altar and display around it or on top of it according to the season of the Church year that you’re in. We love keeping a copy of crucifixion and resurrection icons as part of the space year-round, but you could also choose to rotate through other icons or print outs of liturgical artwork that reflect the holy days of the Church’s calendar.
Bible and Devotional Books
At the heart of a home’s prayer and catechesis is Scripture and for this reason, you should always keep your Bible, prayer book, and catechism handy and near an altar space! This can look like the altar housing a version of your favorite Bible translation (we love NKJV or ESV), a book to guide your prayers (Treasury of Daily Prayer, Oremus, etc.), the small and large catechisms, hymnals, and anything else you use during prayers and catechesis.
Because so many different books can be pulled and referenced during family prayers, we have always placed a piece of furniture, such as a bookcase, nearby that can also hold at least a handful of resources and books you might use during prayer time. Another idea is to place a book stand to hold one book open on top of the altar. Whether this holds your copy of the Treasury of Daily Prayer or even your Bible, the book can remain open to the appropriate day’s passages and be easily manipulated during your recitations.
Candles
The flickering, living flame of altar candles can truly set this space apart as a special area in the home and turn the space “on” during prayers. The lighting of the candles marks the beginning of prayer rituals and reminds us of God’s presence with us. We love the look of placing two natural beeswax candles on either side of prayer books on the top of your altar, but again you could use an assortment of colored ones that reflect the season of the church year and/or a variety of candle holders that can display multiple candles at the same time such as wall sconces or candelabras. One thing that is sure about the use of candles is that kids of all ages love incorporating them into the prayer ritual.
Incense
An element that is certainly not necessary but lovely for the home altar is the use of incense. Incense cues our minds and bodies into prayer through the sense of smell and offers a visual of the reality that our prayers rise before the Lord as incense (Psalm 141).
If you don’t already have an incense supply in your home, you can purchase a ready-made incense kit or source your own censor (Etsy or Ebay can be good sources) in order to try out different incenses that appeal best to you. You can also find charcoal, which you will need, for a good price through websites like Ebay instead of paying full price for them through liturgically specific venues. Over time, you can curate your incense collection to coordinate with the liturgical calendar, but we encourage you to keep it simple, finding a scent that you enjoy and then practicing the habit of burning incense during prayers (just like with candles, kids love incense, too)!
Rug
The next item you might consider, but isn’t necessary, is a rug. Rugs define spaces and the altar rug is meant to do jus that. We have found a small rug (we have a 5’x7′ size) around the altar to be a helpful tool for kids to understand that the altar is a separate and special space from the rest of the house. The rug also defines the region in which they are allowed to move freely during prayer times; so long as they don’t step off the rug, they can move about quietly and reverently.
Prie-dieu
If you opt for a rug around the home altar, you will already have some cushion when it come to kneeling, but some might also choose to outfit their space with a prie-dieu. A prie-dieu is an individual (or double) kneeler fitted with an armrest and often provides a small shelf for books. If it fits in your space, you might consider one for your home altar!
References:
1. Walter Snyder, “The Why and How of Home Altars”, https://xrysostom.blogspot.com/2007/09/why-and-how-of-home-altars.html and Issues Etc. interview https://issuesetc.org/2010/02/17/3113/
2. http://christopherdhall.blogspot.com/2007/07/family-altar.html
