The Christian home is the cradle of Christian life. This truth is often forgotten in our compartmentalized culture. Our work, we keep in one “box,” our hobbies in another, and our faith in a special box that we bring out only on Sundays.

This disintegration of human life was worsened by the COVID crisis and the spiritual famine caused by the closing of our churches. Though many found faith through live streaming Sunday Mass, many of those never returned to physical church attendance, preferring to continue to view from the isolation of the quasi-Gnostic vapors of the internet. While being fed by watching Mass online is better than nothing, it is far from the in-person experience of integrating oneself into a truly active and intentional parish.

What I would like to propose (as inspired by dear friends and my experience of the Christian East) is a means to bridge the gap between the parish and the family home. I would like to challenge those reading this to consider dedicating a part of your home this Lent and transforming it into a sacred space. The hope here is to tear down the walls of compartmentalization by adorning of our most used environment with icons, incense, sacred texts and holy silence. If we acclimate our homes in a small way to the climate of our churches, the transition from weekday to Sunday will become less jarring and more spiritually transformative.

I know that many Catholic homes have some religious art displayed throughout. Crucifixes, icons and statues are common fixtures. These “holy reminders” as Mother Angelica called them, are a good start. But we can become so accustomed to our surroundings that meaningful objects can lose their meaning. We can become so used to seeing a single crucifix on the wall that we no longer think of Christ when we see it.

What helps human beings to overcome this is saturation. Our churches should be (but, I understand, they often are not) saturated with the divine. Stained glass, statues, icons, music, incense and vestments are given to us to immerse us in the divine. Saturated in such an environment, even in our distracted moments, we have a much easier time raising our minds and hearts to God.

If our churches are designed in such a way that they saturate us with the divine, then perhaps it is a good idea to mimic this in a dedicated space in our homes. The Christian East has a long tradition of the “icon corner,” a special place in a public room of the home adorned with icons and implements for prayer. An icon corner is a powerful evangelistic tool for friends and neighbors receiving hospitality in our homes and a concentrated reminder of the centrality of prayer in daily life.

Our icon corner at home began truly as a corner but now has migrated across most of our living room wall. Our dear friends, the Voboril family, have taken things a step further and dedicated an entire room of their home as a family chapel. What began simply in 2018 as a table adorned with a crucifix, statues and various religious pictures on the wall ...

… has continued to grow through the years and is a testament to the ever-growing family faith. Tomas and Hannah have been Catholic throughout their marriage, but since moving to Birmingham, they have been drawn more deeply to the Christian East. Their experience at St. George Melkite Catholic Church (where I’m honored to serve as a deacon) led them to make a canonical transfer of rites.

That faith journey is on full display in their home chapel. When you visit their home, you see many beautiful elements of the Catholic faith, East and West, in their chapel. They are a family truly heeding Pope St. John Paul II’s call for the Church to “breathe with both lungs.” Icons are prominently displayed on the four walls of their chapel. Our Lord, the Theotokos, the name saints of their seven children and a host of heavenly intercessors adorn their walls. The “family altar” stands center with the chalice and paten used at their nuptial Mass veiled on the altar.

Tomas recently painted the chapel and adorned the walls with beautiful stenciling. The chapel has been a labor of love and has brought many spiritual dividends to the Voboril family.

Another powerful witness to the sacred in the home is our local Fraternus chapter. For those who do not know about Fraternus, it is a group of young men and their dads who are dedicated to mutual support in the Christian life by building brotherhood and virtue.

Our local chapter here in Birmingham commissioned a beautiful high altar that could be transported and used for the Holy Mass. Due to its size, the altar was being held in a storage facility, however, this did not sit well with Terry Rumore. Terry is one of the leaders of our local chapter and the National Development Officer. Terry decided to give the altar a home in his home and has been gracious in letting any of his Fraternus brothers come over to pray at the altar.

To make room for the sacred, he had to displace and dismantle his man cave. The secular made way for the sacred and it’s been a blessing in his life and in the lives of his Fraternus brothers.

Environment is important. It can help us to thrive and grow or be stifled and deteriorate. We know our culture is toxic. Sadly, many of our churches have jettisoned beauty and let the toxicity of postmodernity into our sanctuaries.

What can we, as average Catholics do? About the only thing we can control is our own homes. Why not prepare for the season of Lent by coming up with a plan to bring the sacred more centrally into our domestic church?

One does not have to build a cathedral or lay out a huge expense. Start small. Rearrange some furniture, move some of your religious imagery around, get an area organized — and let that process itself be a prayer.

Then, once you’re satisfied, use the space. If you're single, use it to center yourself after a long day. If you’re a busy mom, let it be a brief respite in the middle of a hectic day. If you’re a dad coming home from work, gather your family there to say hello and reconnect before the Lord. The possibilities become endless when the environment is right.

Lent is a time for new beginnings. The Church exhorts us to prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Often, we fail in our Lenten promises precisely because our environment does not encourage us. In fact, it often fights against us. Hopefully, the examples above will encourage you to build your own sacred space in your home. Lent will be here before you know it. Let’s prepare the ground of our hearts and homes so that we can have a more fruitful Lenten season!

You can follow the Voboril family and their journey of faith, food and family at their blog Christ Is Among Us!