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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: June 02 2014 at 8:05am | IP Logged
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I have been reading The Little Oratory by Leila Lawler, and I really like the idea, but I am struggling with the practical application of centralizing things.
My particular connundrum is that the most convenient place to set this up is our dining room, but the place we are most likely to pray a rosary or nighttime prayers as a family is our living room. I could set it up over our piano, but I admit I rearrange furniture often and have toyed with moving the piano.
Obviously, there are no rules, I mean, we don't even *have* to have a central place at all. But I think it is a good idea. I just get hung up on whether it should be in the dining room where there is an easy space for it and the babies are least likely to get away with destroying it or in the living room, which is most conducive to prayer. the dining room is also where I am more likely to execute seasonal activities around meals like lenten exercises or the jesse tree/advent calendar type stuff.
Are any of you in the process of exploring this idea? It did make me realize that in the very least, I needed to move our sacred heart statue from its corner of safety in our office and into the living space and stop procrastinating on choosing a spot for the little shelves for our Mary and St. Therese statues so they are more visible to us rather than floating safely above us on the top of the bookcase.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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JennGM
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| Posted: June 02 2014 at 9:12am | IP Logged
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We do not always pray near our prayer table, like you right now, we sometimes pray our rosary in another room.
I have only recently gotten our table set up....I found a wonderful coffee table at a barn sale last spring, but it needed some repair. My husband finally fixed it in the middle of Lent...right before Leila's book came out. So we are still working out the kinks, and I'm working in some of he suggestions. But I generally am drawn to the Catechesis approach, so that is my main guideline.
Our set up needs some pruning, and I am entertaining some corner shelves. I don't have a central location, but a room with the prayer table and then a shelf with some statues and icons. The latter looks messy. It would be better to have a shelf or drawers similar to what the CGS atrium has, so I have a place for the rotated items. Cloths, candles, prayer cards, statues, icons. I keep our store of vases in the dining room hutch, accessible for the children.
We will still keep some prayer activities to the dinner table, like Advent wreath.
The problem I see, if you follow the chapter on the Father leading the prayer, he has to be on board for any changes. How do you handle that?
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Family in Feast and Feria
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: June 02 2014 at 11:37am | IP Logged
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I asked dh. He is open to it. I mentioned, "Maybe we should move our Sacred Heart to the living spaces," and he joked, "What sacred heart?" So he's on board.
However, I mentioned moving a crucifix as per her recommendation that the crucifix be central, and he said no, that traditionally it goes over a door. I pointed out that it is traditional for the "little oratory" and he agreed to let me move it, but he was just humoring me, lol, so I hastily pointed out we could just move the image of the Pieta that is in the hallway there  I figure that if Christ's suffering is to be central, that is pretty close, and there is still a crucifix in the room (no matter which room I choose). So, I guess regarding changes I suggest and compromise, home decor and organization being more my realm.
I have a collection of gold framed Marian art in our foyer, up the stairs, and crucifixes over doorways, but other than that, things have been haphazard, just trying to squeeze in statues where they fit out of reach of the toddler.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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Christine
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| Posted: June 02 2014 at 3:24pm | IP Logged
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I haven't seen or read the book. However, growing up we prayed the rosary each night as a family in our living room. My parents used the raised fireplace hearth for candles with religious images on them (one for each of us) and religious pictures hung on the walls in various places throughout our house.
When I got married and we moved into our house, we didn't have a raised hearth, so I set up our prayer area on a cabinet that was in our living room. It consisted of a colored cloth that I changed, depending on the liturgical season, a statue of our Blessed Mother, little red votive candles, and a couple of bowls which held rosaries. We have since moved our old entertainment center into our living room and the cabinet is no longer there, but all of the other items are now in the big space of the old entertainment center. I like this set up better for our prayer area because it is in a corner of the room. A crucifix hangs above the mantle in our living room and small statues of the Sacred Heart, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, St. Anne and Mary, St. Patrick, and St. Nicholas grace our fireplace mantle. When we all kneel down at night to pray the rosary in the living room, our prayer corner, crucifix, etc. are all fully visible to us. My children have always enjoyed cutting flowers from our garden and placing them in front of the statue of Our Lady of Grace. Our pictures of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart hang above a small bookcase in our dining room.
As far as the Crucifix goes. Yes, crucifixes do hang over doors and beds; however, large crucifixes hang over fireplaces. St. Bernadette's parents had a crucifix above their fireplace. 
Is the oratory book worth purchasing and reading if you already pray regularly as a family and have prayer areas in your home?
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Christine
Mommy to 4 girls, 5 boys, & 2 in God's care
Memories of a Catholic Wife and Mother
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ekbell
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| Posted: June 02 2014 at 3:30pm | IP Logged
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Currently, I've ended up with two spaces.
A seasonal book display with my prayer books in the dining area which is currently the place we normally gather to pray. It also has candles and currently a dried flower arrangment.
And a more typical 'Family Altar' in the family room.
One note, I've found that it's a constant effort to keep the space in the family room free from 'stuff'. People tend to put remotes, books etc. down on the nearest clear space and too often it's the family altar.
The dining room space has been less of an effort.
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DominaCaeli
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| Posted: June 02 2014 at 11:12pm | IP Logged
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We have always had a main family altar in our living area. Right now, that's on the mantel in our living room, which is also the front room in the house, connected to the dining room, and where we always pray our daily rosary. There we have our large wall crucifix, seasonal images, candles, a holy water font, our rosaries, etc. But since we also have a mantel in our family room (off the kitchen), we have a religious image and candles there too. It's a much simpler space but still conducive to prayer. My girls have taken to praying there for some quiet when everyone is busy in the other room, so I'm glad we have the two spaces. And then we have a small altar upstairs for where we do our bedtime prayers. So we do have a central oratory, I suppose, but we also have some other smaller "oratories" that set us up for prayer elsewhere in the home.
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Celeste
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Mommy to six: three boys (8, 4, newborn) and four girls (7, 5, 2, and 1)
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JennGM
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| Posted: June 03 2014 at 9:16am | IP Logged
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I like having my little prayer corner in a quieter part of the house, too.
I think the book should only provide guidelines and suggestions. I keep to a general rule that there is a crucifix in every room of the house, so we have something to turn our eyes. In all the bedrooms I try to also have a Marian image.
I do like the idea of creating a small corner in each child's bedroom. I'm a little short on corner space, though, so I don't think it will work so great.
I think there is more of an Eastern influence that there has to be a central location and visual for most family prayers, whereas if I am trying to recollect my thoughts throughout the day, small visuals throughout the house help me turn my thoughts to God.
The Little Oratory is not just about setting up a prayer space. It is the foundation of the book--start here and build. I was glad to see there was less "how-to" and more aesthetic guidelines creating atmosphere, symmetry, beauty and then practicality (like using runners instead of draping cloths for young children in the house).
Setting up the space is only a small part of the book. And even though I have a space and general ideas, the book has much food for thought and application.
But I found more value in the emphasis on family life, family prayer and that the domestic church prayer being united with the liturgy. The chapter on the Liturgy of the Hours with very practical suggestions implementing in the home is really good. I also loved the chapter about who leads the prayer (the father of the family).
If I were to compare it to classic domestic church writers, it is closer to Therese Mueller (such as Our Children's Year of Grace) and Mary Perkins Ryan (Beginning at Home) and Maria von Trapp (Around the Year with the Trapp Family) and less of a how-to book of activities like Mary Reed Newland (The Year and Our Children). I reread Mueller and Ryan because there is much spiritual food for thought...and that is the attraction of the Little Oratory for me.
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Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to & ds1 '03 & ds2 '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: Your Little Oratory?
