The Catholic Home

Our Sunday Visitor hates me. They must. Why else would they ask me to write a 3,000 word story about what, from a design standpoint, a Catholic home should look like. (My devil may care answer? A Catholic home should be: 1) well-maintained; 2) personal; 3) full of sacramentals; 4) full of beauty; and 5) not full of clutter.) “What’s so bad about that?” some of you are wondering. To you, I say: You do not know the Internet very well. A childless, single woman having the nerve to say that—all things being equal—maintaining your house is an act of good stewardship, is a hanging offense in some quarters of the Web. Likewise, before someone suggests that I should have taken the easy way out and just told people to hang more crucifixes, let me suggest that you try filling up 3,000 words with advice about displaying sacramentals. It’s harder than it sounds!

Trust me, nobody wishes I had a house full of children more than I do. Alas, I am still living in the Great Not Yet. The upside of that, however, is that while I’m here, I actually have time to think deeply about how the material aspects of our homes can reflect the spiritual truths of our faith. I also have the energy to observe the homes of my friends who are full up with children and see how they do things…for good and for ill. So, given that, how could I say “no” when someone wanted me to write about that thinking and those observations? Especially when you consider that mortgages don’t pay themselves. Regardless, I apparently have a death wish, as I not only agreed to write the story for OSV, but also have decided to spend the next several weeks going over my five points more in depth, trying to give some practical examples (and lots of pictures) of how I do this in my home.

As I go, I would love for you to weigh in below and tell me how you do things in your domestic church, too. Just no death threats please. Until tomorrow…