A Home Altar

Once upon a time, many years ago, when Siobhan and Theresa were growing up in Ireland the creation of a May Altar was an annual event in many homes! Irish people had a particular devotion to Our Lady and May was the month of Mary. There was great excitement finding suitable materials to create these masterpieces. Mothers across the land lost their family heirloom tablecloths to these altars. Any bloom in the garden was unceremoniously chopped from the bush from which it sprung and arranged in the Waterford glass vase that Mammy received as a wedding present. Once the First Holy Communion rosary beads were added along with a candle it was ready to go.

Today, many, if not all of our children’s classrooms have a sacred space set aside with a little altar, particularly primary schools. It is a beautiful little space in every classroom and our children are encouraged to engage with it whether through prayer or quiet reflection. Teachers use them to help our children understand prayer and reflection and they are used, for instance during the season of Advent, when Advent candles are often added, to explain the different seasons of the Liturgical calendar.

In turbulent times such as those we are going through at present, rituals and traditions are paramount in helping us maintain some type of normality. Creating a small altar in your home may help your child make the connection between learning at home and learning at school. It creates something familiar that exists no matter where the learning is taking place.

Involve your child/children in the creation of the altar and give each one the responsibility of adding fresh flowers or foliage (or whatever you happen to have in the garden) regularly. If gardening is not your forte and your garden or terrace is bereft of anything suitable, your children could perhaps draw some pictures of flowers or make some with play dough. Similarly if you do not have a cross or rosary that you can use, get your children involved in making something. Your child’s teacher will be able to assist in recommending some appropriate websites for them to source ideas for their creations.

Once your altar is finished to everyone’s approval, make some time at the beginning of each day to gather round, light a candle and pray. You can use prayers we all know like The Lord’s Prayer, the Hail Mary or your child’s school prayer. It is also a lovely idea to let your child/ren make up their own prayer and occasionally to reflect silently if they are at an age where this would work. You could even download some hymns from YouTube and play them for a change. Try ‘How Great Thou Art’ sung by Carrie Underwood, you’ll be singing it for the rest of the day! (Don’t forget to extinguish the candle, especially if you have young children in the house)

We would love to share photo’s of your ‘home altars’ so that we can inspire others. We are starting with Siobhan's whose altar is ready to go. Once you have created yours, send a photo to Theresa at theresa@csp.wa.edu.au or Siobhan at siobhan@csp.wa.edu.au We look forward to seeing them.