A Place for the Lord
- Father Gary Zerr
- Jun 28
- 2 min read
Pastor's Column
Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul
June 29, 2025
If a non-Christian were to come into your house, would they see any differences from their own home? In other words, are there any exterior signs of faith present in your dwelling? Are there any holy images, or sacred pictures or icons of any kind? Every Catholic home should at least have a crucifix displayed somewhere where it can be seen!
One habit that I started long before becoming a priest has been to have a “home altar” or a “prayer” area of the house. It doesn’t have to be an entire room (although that is nice to have also)! Since my ordination, I have had a Blessed Sacrament chapel in the rectory, where I pray and prepare my sermons, but it has always been very comforting to have other articles of faith around the house as well.
My own favorite images are the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, but any religious image or icon that evokes the Spirit of the Lord will do. Sacred images serve to remind us of our journey and that someone loves us, much as we have family photos in various places. They are themselves both a reminder to pray and are themselves a kind of prayer, depending on how we view them.
Catholics are particularly noted for praying with our whole bodies. We do lots of sitting, standing, kneeling and other gestures at Mass, for example, and this can carry over very well into our private prayer as well. A great way to pray for someone in need, or a person we need to forgive, is to place their name or picture on the back of a Sacred Image of some kind, perhaps by the front door. Then, whenever we pass by that picture, we can touch it, and thus in a very significant way, pray for that person.
Other people like to have a corner of the house that is particularly reserved for prayer, where one might have a bible opened. Each day, we can highlight a different verse to carry us through the day and help us to remember the scriptures. Still others might take the top of a dresser or some other such flat space to place their prayer images and reminders of the love of God.
Another helpful idea is to have a spiritual reading book of some kind on a table. It will be a reminder to pick it up and read it, maybe even just for a few minutes! There are several good places around to pick up things like this, including Holy Family Supply in Salem and the Mount Angel Abbey bookstore. With resources like these around here, we should have no trouble having reminders of our faith visible in our homes.
Father Gary
An interesting case covering this topic occurred to my sister concerning our Peccia family cabin in Seaside Or. My sister ownes the house legally but rents it out except for the 2 weeks a year she visits from the east coast. The leasing agent mentioned that there was too much religious ‘stuff’ in the house that some renters objected to. I honestly could not remember what was there as I probably looked at it so many times I look right through it all. In this case I think a single modest crufix on the wall or other symbol of Christianity should be appropriate but certainly not a shrine as my mother would do. What are your thoughts.
Frank Peccia.