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My Home Altar – Why?  As a resident of California during the Coronavirus-19 Pandemic, my ability to attend Mass in person was removed on March 17, 2020.  The diocese I belong to has also suspended vigil and funeral services.  Graveside services may be allowed with no more than ten people present.  All weddings are to be postponed or if they can’t be postponed, they may be celebrated with no more than ten persons present.  Baptism and Confession can only be administered if the person receiving the sacrament is near death.

 “We don't appreciate what we have until it's gone. Freedom is like that. It's like air. When you have it, you don't notice it.”

Boris Yeltsin

 As I knelt in front of my makeshift home altar, a wave of emotion came over me.  I felt all of the faithful throughout the world, kneeling before their home altars and watching and celebrating mass through an Internet connection.  I imagined all of our prayers rising to heaven as the smoke of incense.  Prayers of longing and desolation crying out to our Lord.  My heart longed to be present in a church, receiving the Eucharist.  I realized I had fallen into the trap of not appreciating what I had.

  It has been twelve days since the decree banning public Masses.  Since that first day my family has gathered around our home altar every day.  I have experienced many moving and memorable moments with my family during this lockdown.  We have created a routine of morning Mass at 10am, the Angelus at noon, the Divine Mercy Chaplet at 3pm, and the Rosary at 7pm.  After mass I usually take the opportunity to sit outside and enjoy the quiet.  It is much quieter now.  Two days ago we were outside together and one of my children said she heard the sound of small chirps coming from the patio cover.  She got up on a ladder and found a small sparrow’s nest with two chicks in it.  We’ve enjoyed watching the mom fly back and forth taking care of the young.  Small miracles are all around us if we take the time to look and listen.  God speaks to us in the silence.  Whether it is during prayer or while enjoying His creation.

 “In the silence of the heart God speaks. If you face God in prayer and silence, God will speak to you. Then you will know that you are nothing. It is only when you realize your nothingness, your emptiness that God can fill you with Himself. Souls of prayer are souls of great silence.”

Mother Teresa

Today, while watching the Mass, I was struck with the thought of how our little makeshift altar was a gathering place for our family just as the church has been in the past.  It is where we now worship and grow closer in faith.  How many other families are gathering at their altars this very day and how the Holy Spirit must be moving throughout our world.  My friends have sent me photos of their altars and stated how they can feel the Holy Spirit moving in their family and throughout their community.  It has indeed brought my family closer to Jesus even in His physical absence.

How many other times in history have the faithful been denied the sacraments whether from plague, oppression or outright persecution.  Yet they continued in faith with their own makeshift altars. 

I have developed this site for all the faithful to share their home altars, experiences, and prayers with others.  To know that we are all gathered throughout the world in prayer as one body in faith.  To rediscover the faith together, pray for each other, encourage each other, experience the movement of the Holy Spirit among us, to gather others in prayer, and to let our priests know how much we miss them and love them.