Okay, I don’t need an Oratory.
But I need one.
Nicely doneOrthodox Prayer Corner
My Oratory will not be so elaborate
My husband, who is a very fine woodworker when he has time to indulge the hobby, has already been assigned the task of building me a prie-Dieu. I’m not expecting it any time soon, but I know eventually he’ll make something beautiful.
In the meantime, I am re-doing an old escritoire; hopefully most of my icons will fit on the shelves, and the writing-desk part will be for a seasonal icon, candles…maybe a little incense. A little vase for a posy.
Yep. Gonna put an Oratory in my bedroom! Someday.
But I’m excited, all the same! A quiet place to pray, at a time when we all could really stand to be praying.
What would your oratory be like? Where?
Related:
Oblates, Tertiaries, Professed Laypeople
Wisdom from the Saints
That is wonderful for you. I would have a grotto with fresh flowers everyday. I traveled in rural Mexico last fall and I was very taken with the many little chapels and grottos by the roadside. I would have fresh flowers from God, they are one of his perfect creations and that is what we aspire to be, a perfect creation. And I would have an invitation for others to use it when I am not there.
In my last house I turned one of my walk in closets into one. The wrap around shelves were perfect for all of my catholic books and pictures. And yes, I still was able to hang clothes on the racks.
It turned out to be a very quiet peaceful place to pray; will do again in my next house.
I think what’s important is that one prays. I am a Martha myself, and I like praying while I do housework. Please yourself, but I like the biblical faithfulness of using a closet. Of course, if you use a closet you shouldn’t have lit candles, so that is a disadvantage.
More importantly, all the praying you’re doing might be bearing fruit, Oratory or not. Gallup, shocked, shocked to learn that more Americans now consider themselves pro-life than pro-choice. They say they have two polls proving it. Perhaps now that we have enough liberals in place to institute the One True Policy of Publicly Funded and Endorsed Abortion and Infanticide If I Forgot But Meant To Have An Abortion a la Obama/Illinois, and stuff like FOCA is prompting the average citizen has had to sit down and have a good think on this one.
I just wanted to pop over and leave you the good news. I can’t leave a link or this will never post, but the article can be found on Drudge. Somewhere, I hear NARAL teeth gnashing.
[My house is very small; closets tiny. If I made an oratory in a closet, I'd have to pile my clothes in the middle of the room. My bedroom is not huge, either come to think of it. Perhaps I'll just call it a "closet" that is big enough for a bed and an oratory!
-admin]
PS: MAYBE, maybe now that the Burning Bush is out of office he looks a little better.
Maybe JPII is hangin’ out in heaven touching a few minds with his truthful spirit. Haven’t you been writing that Christians are never so powerful as in defeat?
My oratory is the top of my dresser. I have an icon of Christ Pantocrator, a candle my rosary. That’s about all I have room for. I have a crucifix on the wall near by.
My dream home would have its own chapel.
Last May, my husband and I downsized from our ramshackle, construction site Tardis-like house where we raised our seven kids into a four-bedroom suburban home where we still had plenty of room to put adult kids and their families up for holidays and such.
I immediately started trying to turn one of the bedrooms into an oratory. I tried various configurations, had a poster for the Year of St. Paul beautifully (and expensively) framed and mounted, put down candles, icons, books, etc.
But it never felt comfortable.
Then a couple of months ago I discovered a sunroom in my house. It had disguised itself previously as a foyer, but I realized that it was the perfect size for a tiny sunroom, letting in plenty of light through beveled glass windows, bordered on one side by a glass door into the adjoining room.
I got a rocking chair, stocked a bookshelf with spiritual reading, and started moving my icons and such on to the wall.
Now I have a beautiful sunroom/oratory/screened porch where I spend almost more time than in any other room in the house.
This was a true answer to prayer. I love it and I thank God for showing it to me! I’d never had a foyer before — and, having one for almost a year, didn’t realize what an absolutely delightful small room for prayer, reading and meditation it would make.
I’m off to my oratory – writing about it makes me want to be there…
Rae
Golly! I have one and I didn’t even know there were any! All my prayer books and prayer projects have drifted into the same bookcase on one side of my bedroom, and since I indulged my desire for a San Damiano cross and Robert Lentz’ icon of the Mother of the Disappeared, they went over the bookcase, too. A single candle keeps me there as I tend to pace, and having a spatial anchor like this is helpful as with many pentecostal Protestants I tend to wander a bit. So I have an oratory? Cool!