A Little Oratory

Usually, when I find a book I'd like to read, I put it on my list, eventually spend money I probably shouldn't downloading it to my Kindle, and then I get to it someday when I've distracted the kids effectively enough that I can hide behind closed doors for at least five minutes until they realize I'm reading and their radar turns on and they come find me.

But a few months ago I heard about a book called The Little Oratory: A Beginner's Guide to Praying in the Home, and it immediately became a game changer before I even started reading it.

Aside: I promise this isn't a review or plug because--confession time--I still haven't actually read the book. I more just kind of learned about it. *shameface.* But I will read it in full as soon as I find a new distraction tactic, cross my heart!

Anyway, an "oratory" (at least in reference to faith and prayer) is defined as a small chapel or place for private worship. The basic concept of this book that I have yet to read is that life is busy, and it's hard to fit prayer and spiritual practices into all the busyness. And it's even harder--especially when you have young children and competing schedules--to plan a time, let alone implement a time every day to focus on the stuff that feeds our soul. But just because it's hard doesn't make it less important, and there are small things that we can do to make it easier on ourselves, things that help integrate the spiritual stuff that keeps us grounded and makes our faith of a focal point--a focal point we both can see in front of us and foster internally.

I instantly fell in love with this idea of creating a specific space in the home where we could physically see elements of our faith and be inspired to practice it throughout the day.

We as a family have struggled in this department--yes, we do our best to make it to church regularly, and, yes we have a mealtime and bedtime prayer routine, but that's pretty much where it stops. And I personally have felt in the past year or so that there's so much more that we could be doing to give our kids a better foundation, especially since they're at the age where they are forming habits and routines. Very soon it will be much harder to introduce new practices and traditions. And as our kids grow and start facing all the tough stuff that life throws at us, I want to know that I've done enough (or at least more than I'm currently doing) to give them the option of a faith that they can lean on and confidence in a loving God who they can turn to.

All these things I'd been mulling over already, so when I heard about the book, things just clicked. Soon after, I started seeing posts and pictures from other online mom friends who'd been creating their own little oratories, and it lit a fire in me. I loved seeing their unique approaches for making a physical focal point for faith in their homes, combined with practices to make prayer and liturgical living a more central role in their daily lives.

So I started scheming and planning, adopting this idea here and that one there until I felt I had come up with a space and traditions that would suit my tastes and work for our family with three wee ones. And as of last night after a few months of brainwork, it's officially offical: our Little Oratory finally exists!

I'm probably wayyyyy more excited about it than I should be (I was actually jumping around and squealing once it was done), but whatever. I'm giving myself full permission to be stoked about it. So without further ado, here's the grand tour of our humble little oratory:

We've had an open space near our front door since we moved two years ago in that is perfect for an entryway table. I originally hung a mirror there, and have always planned on eventually adding a table or a bench, but once I was introduced to the oratory idea I knew I wanted to set it up there.

So I spent quite awhile searching all sorts of stores and antique shops (and adjusting based on my husband's input since he wanted something with storage) and finally found the perfect entry cabinet.

I saw the idea of changing out colored candles based on the liturgical seasons (green for ordinary time, purple for Advent and Lent, etc.) so I found some wall sconces for tapers which I mounted on either side of the mirror.

Sconces courtesy of a trip to Hobby Lobby...
It's a good thing I didn't walk out with the whole store!

I found a lovely statue of the Holy Family (also courtesy of Hobby Lobby) that fit perfectly with our theme of trying to grow in faith as a family, and I love the idea of a constant visible reminder of the best example of family that there is in all of history.

To the right of the statue, I placed some dried roses for Our Lady as my own personal reminder and example for motherhood, and a Sacred Heart candle that we can light along with the others during prayer time if we want. We also added some holy water that Erik got the other week at Sunday school that we can use during blessings.

To the left of the statue, there's an apothecary jar with some decorative fill (I might also change this out based on holidays or liturgical seasons), a small glass container for prayer beads and small spiritual items, and a few books.

The first book is Shorter Christian Prayer, which is an abbreviated version of the Divine Office that priests pray every day (it contains morning and night prayers along with scripture readings based on the church's different liturgical seasons). The second is a Magnficat, a monthly subscription which is similar to Shorter Christian Prayer but is printed to actually correspond to each specific calendar day throughout the year. It has morning and night prayer, the daily readings, and daily reflections on the readings. And lastly is a vintage French Missel from the 1940s that my husband got me as a gift when we were in college. It's absolutely beautiful.

I'll probably add or change out books with liturgical seasons as well since I have so [very, very] many that are good to read during different seasons, especially when it comes to Lent. (I have a bit of a book problem...).

In front of the statue is a book that my husband gets full credit for. He suggested that we add a book for payer intentions that we can write down at night or even invite any visitors to add to if they want.

There's also a small prayer card containing the kids' prayer of the month that they're learning at Sunday school--this month is the Glory Be.


I might eventually add a small table linen or short burlap runner to the top of the table that correspond with the liturgical seasons as well, but for now I love it as is.

Of course, as I mentioned already, it's not just there to look pretty and walk past, but should be a functional focus that inspires spiritual action. Last night was our first trial run for implementing some actual prayers and practices as a family; before bedtime stories and prayers, we gathered round the oratory and talked about what it was for, helped them each light a candle, and prayed a few prayers that they're learning (including the Glory Be). We also allowed them to each pick someone to pray for as they lit their candle--another great idea I stole!--and add any prayer requests they wanted to the book. (At which time my daughter wrote the names of all her friends and the dog and her daddy).

The kids were wiggly and didn't have a super long attention span as you might expect, but they loved getting to light and blow out candles and it was really sweet to hear them wanting to pray for their friends. Overall I think it was a great start to our family goal. The fact that it only took 5 minutes out of our day to be a little more centered and spend some intentional time together was pretty encouraging and something I think we can realistically maintain.

And I'm excited that it may help us get a good routine going by the time we break out the Advent wreath next week, since I wanted to try and light it every night (or at least every Sunday) last year but failed miserably. Fingers crossed!

So that's it: our simple Little Oratory. I'm grateful for the inspiration I received from so many of you friends, and I'm looking forward to seeing where it all takes us.  Now just to stop slacking and go read the book properly...

How about you? Do you have a space set aside in your home or special traditions to help you and your family stay centered? I'd love to hear about it (and maybe steal more of your ideas)!