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Meredith
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| Posted: July 13 2006 at 10:29am | IP Logged
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Where is your family altar located, in the living room, dining room, school room, do you have more than one?? Also, what do you do when you have a toddler who just wants to pull EVERTHING  off of ANY flat surface???
We currently have ours on top of the mantle in the LR, but this is not where we usually sit and pray as the room is too small, so we are saying rosary and family prayers upstairs in our bonus room, which leads to a very "active" family prayer time  HELP??
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Meredith
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Dawnie
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| Posted: July 13 2006 at 10:56am | IP Logged
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Meredith wrote:
| Where is your family altar located, in the living room, dining room, school room, do you have more than one?? |
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Ours is in our living room. I also want to set one up in my older girls' room. They had one in our old house, we just haven't set it up here yet. 
Meredith wrote:
| Also, what do you do when you have a toddler who just wants to pull EVERTHING off of ANY flat surface??? |
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 I have the same problem!!! As my family is still young, I anticipate that it will be a problem for quite some time, too! Our altar in the living room is kind of minamalist. We have our family Bible on a nice Bible stand, two candles, some blessed palms, and some rosaries (the plastic kind). Above the altar hangs a picture of the Sacred Heart and two plaques. One says "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" and the other is the Serenity Prayer (God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference). I have statues on my dresser, which is out of reach of little hands right now. Our altar is just the top of a low bookshelf, and there are picture prayer books on the bookshelf that the kids can look at during prayer time. The candles are just inexpensive candles from Wal-Mart, so my heart won't be broken is they get smashed. The rosaries are pretty much indestructible. My toddler has never tried to get the Bible off the altar...I think it's a little too high up for her to reach. The palms end up on the floor a lot, but the children are learning that "holy things don't belong on the floor!" They're *starting* to pick the rosaries and palms up themselves if they see them on the floor.
Meredith wrote:
| We currently have ours on top of the mantle in the LR, but this is not where we usually sit and pray as the room is too small, so we are saying rosary and family prayers upstairs in our bonus room, which leads to a very "active" family prayer time |
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An active prayer time and littles seem to go together. We've experimented w/ different times of the day and different prayers and different things to look at to help the dc calm down and participate a little. But sometimes, they're just kind of wild! I still think it's good to pray in their presence, as we are setting an example and also offering prayers for them.
Looking forward to hearing what others have to say!
Dawn
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Christine
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| Posted: July 13 2006 at 11:01am | IP Logged
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Ours is in the living room. It currently has a green cloth on it, a bronze statue of Mary, two candles, an oyster shell (representing baptism), rosaries, and a rosary prayer booklet on it. It usually also has five small candles in red glass candle holders (one for each child to blow out at the end of our nightly prayers) and a bud vase with flowers. The candles have been removed as my toddler was constantly playing with them and removing the wicks and the vase has been removed because the flowers ended up strewn around our living room.
This is my long way of saying that if you put down a green cloth (or the color for the liturgical season) and can place something heavy on it, then the toddler usually focuses on the smaller items. Also I have noticed that now that there are fewer items, he doesn't seem as drawn to taking things from the prayer area and it is easier for him to listen when I tell him "no" or to put something back.
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Christine
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humanaevitae
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| Posted: July 15 2006 at 6:05pm | IP Logged
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We've ended up using a corner shelf for now. Our altar was continually being used as a stool, jumping platform, playing table,etc..
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aussieannie
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| Posted: July 15 2006 at 10:51pm | IP Logged
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Our big entertainment unit is our family altar - hope that does not seem too scandalous. I think I must be working on the Catholic principle of 'christianizing' pagan things! But because we do, we are very particular about what we watch, listen too etc, so you could say that there was a double bonus in that. We only have EWTN, we have disconnected normal TV access, and watch dvd's and videos as well (in the thread about movie language - this is where I said we would not tolerate basphemy etc in our living room (or anyway for that matter) because of the close proximity of the family altar.) Music-wise we listen to Gregorian Chant, classic music, classic station and other no-rock alternatives.
The good thing about it is that little children cannot climb up and touch it! Here is a picture of our family altar. That unit top comes up to the height of my armpit - and they cannot easily scale up the side. (I talk this way, as all of my children have been climbers)
The family altar is in the "heart of our home" which is the living room, where we school as well, our computer is also located in this room.
I have another little altar in our main bedroom, a little set of drawers (nappies and baby things are there) next to the cot in our bedroom. It has a large picture of "Mother of Perpetual Help" just above it and prayer cloths, candle holder, angel plaques are sitting on top of the drawers - I had the little Child Jesus statue sitting on it until recently and one day when Michael was having his sleep, I could hear his happy gurglings, I peeped in to see him standing on the altar with the Child Jesus in his hands - close call! (A real little acrobat, to climb from his cot and over to this altar!)I pulled the altar away a little bit and now keep less precious things on that altar and keep them on the main altar.
The children have a half circle altar attached to a wall in each room which they look after their statue/s,some have their baptismal cups on them too - a little vase of flowers.
For years we wanted a 'proper' family altar, and we always had it in a less prominent and 'temporary' spots. When we went to buy a 'sorting centre' for the lounge we thought it would double nicely for an altar - but when we saw the big entertainment unit, we knew that was it! (and we needed our unit replaced at that stage too.) The day we set the unit up, we had the TV and music theatre already in - I was playing a CD called "Medieval Babes" a collection of medieval music with a few religious songs as well. When I went to get Our Lady and set her on the pedestal on the altar, the CD must have just changed to the next song, and the moment she was placed, the unit broke into "Gaudete, Gaudete Christus Natus, Ex Maria Virgine Gaudete!" (Rejoice! Rejoice! Christ is born of the Virgin Mary; rejoice!) I will never forget that. So I think Our Blessed Mother was happy to find a secure, central and permenant home in our house at last!
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Meredith
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| Posted: July 16 2006 at 1:29pm | IP Logged
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Your family altar is beautiful, thanks so much for sharing it with us Anne!
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Meredith
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Dawnie
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| Posted: July 16 2006 at 5:46pm | IP Logged
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Anne,
Where did you get the framed pictures of the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts that are hanging behind your altar? They are so lovely!
Dawn
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aussieannie
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| Posted: July 16 2006 at 6:34pm | IP Logged
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Here they are close up for you to see, The Sacred Heart of Jesus and here is The Immaculate Heart of Mary.
You may not be able to read the verse well on the link, but you can on the original and the scanned copies - this is what they say:
Under the Sacred Heart:
The Heart that is never strange or cold,
The Love that is ever new and old.
Under the Immaculate Heart:
How tender thy love for the human race,
Thy motherly heart in the fullness of grace.
The framing was done by a close friend who runs a picture framing business - the frame is beautiful, it is covered in winding plant foliage with little animals amongst it - I had bartered with her with things she had wanted, to get these frames at cost price.
If you (or anyone else who may be interested) did really like the pictures (one or both) I am more than happy to email you these, for you to print up, if you have a good colour printer.
The Sacred Heart is a rendition of an ancient, unusual original that has an old miraculous story to go with it. I would be more than happy to see it in other homes around the world.
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Dawnie
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| Posted: July 16 2006 at 9:32pm | IP Logged
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Anne,
Oh, yes please email both pictures to me!
I think they would be really lovely either in our school room or above my little girls' altar (when I get it set up!). My email address is in my profile.
Thank you!!!!! 
Dawn
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4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: Home/Family Altars??
