Setting Up a Home Altar: Cross, Image, Candles and Holy Water

A cross, a picture of Our Lady, two candles and a little holy water: a home altar needs no more than this to give a home its centre. Many Catholic families have cared for one over generations, on a chest of drawers, a wall shelf or a small table. This guide shows step by step how to set up a home altar, what the Church says about images, candles and holy water, and how prayer at the home altar leads you through the year.

What is a home altar?

A home altar is a fixed place of prayer in the home: a chest of drawers, a wall shelf or a small table with a cross, a picture or statue, candles and holy water. The family prays together at the home altar, and it reminds everyone in the house of God every day.

The home altar is related to the prayer corner (Herrgottswinkel), but it is not the same thing. The Herrgottswinkel is the corner of the room with the crucifix on the wall, as it belonged to the old farmhouse parlour in the Ammergau or in Vorarlberg. The home altar, by contrast, usually stands free against a wall and holds things that can be touched, rearranged and adapted to the liturgical year: a standing cross, a statue, candles, the rosary.

The word “altar” is used here in a figurative sense. What is meant is the place where a family brings its prayers, cares and thanksgivings before God. The Sacrifice of the Mass is not celebrated there.

Is a home altar a real altar?

A home altar is not an altar in the liturgical sense. It is not consecrated, and Holy Mass is not celebrated at it. The home altar is a place of private devotion, where the family prays and honours the holy images.

The 1917 Code of Canon Law does recognise the oratorium privatum seu domesticum, the domestic oratory (can. 1188 § 2, n. 3). There, however, Holy Mass may be said regularly only with an indult, that is, a special permission of the Apostolic See, and only after the Ordinary has inspected and approved the room (can. 1195 § 1); without an indult, the Ordinary may at most permit a single Mass in an extraordinary case (can. 1194). Such a domestic oratory must moreover be “reserved for divine worship alone and free from all domestic use” (can. 1196 § 2).

A home altar in the living room is something different and needs no permission. It is a place of devotion where the images of Christ, of Our Lady and of the saints are honoured. Canon law expressly calls it “good and useful” to invoke the saints and to venerate their images (can. 1276).

How do you set up a home altar?

You set up a home altar in six steps: choose a quiet place, put the cross in the centre, add a picture or statue of Our Lady, set up two candles, keep a vessel of holy water ready, and lay the rosary and prayer book within reach.

1. Choose the place. A chest of drawers, a shelf or a little table against a quiet wall, easy to see and out of the way of passers-by. The home altar should not become a place to drop post and keys.
2. The cross in the centre. A standing cross on the altar or a wall cross above it. The cross sets the direction in which you look when you pray.
3. Our Lady and the patron saints. A picture or statue of the Blessed Virgin, and, if you wish, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Holy Family or your patron saints.
4. Two candles. Ideally blessed at Candlemas. They burn during prayer and are put out afterwards.
5. Holy water. A small vessel with a lid, so that you can sign yourself with the cross before praying.
6. Rosary and prayer book. Whatever is needed for prayer lies ready at the home altar.

Here less is more. A home altar with a cross, a picture of Our Lady and two candles is more dignified than an overcrowded shelf. Our Catholic wall pictures can be hung on the wall in a frame of your own or stood on the home altar.

Which statue belongs on a home altar?

Above all, a picture or statue of Our Lady belongs on the home altar. Many families add the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Holy Family or their patron saint. A statue about 30 centimetres tall fits on any chest of drawers and any wall shelf.

The Sacred Heart has a special place at the home altar. In the encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor of 1928, Pope Pius XI writes that after St Margaret Mary Alacoque, first individuals and “then private families” consecrated themselves to the Sacred Heart (no. 4).

If the family prays the act of consecration O sacratissimum Cor Iesu on the day it first consecrates itself, “before an image of the Sacred Heart”, the Church grants an indulgence of seven years and a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions, that is, confession, Holy Communion, a visit to a church or public oratory and prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father. For the yearly renewal with the same prayer before the image there are three years and, likewise under the usual conditions, a plenary indulgence (Preces et pia opera, no. 705).

Our Catholic statues are made of resin and painted by hand, with statues of Our Lady of Fatima, of Lourdes and of the Immaculate Conception, as well as the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Holy Family.

Which candles go on a home altar?

The best candles for a home altar are beeswax candles blessed in church on the feast of Candlemas on 2 February. The Candlemas candles are lit for common prayer and, by old custom, stand ready when a priest comes to the house to give the sacraments to someone who is sick.

In the blessing prayer of the 1962 Missal for the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary (2 February), the Church recalls that God brought the wax to the perfection of a candle “by the labour of bees”. She asks that the candles be blessed “for the use of men and for the health of bodies and souls” (no. 2095). Candles can also be blessed at other times; the Rituale Romanum contains a blessing of its own for this (Tit. VIII, cap. 3).

What the candle, cross and holy water in the house are for is shown by the Rituale Romanum in the rite of Extreme Unction. For the priest’s visit, a table covered with a white cloth should if possible stand ready beside the sick person, together with cotton wool, a little bread, water for washing the hands and a wax candle, lit to give the priest light (Tit. V, cap. 2, no. 1). The priest brings a cross and holy water with him; after the anointing he leaves both with the sick person “if he has no other”, so that he may often look at the cross and kiss it (no. 14). Whoever has a home altar, then, already has candle, cross and holy water when that hour comes.

“As these lights, kindled with visible fire, dispel the darkness of night, so may our hearts, enlightened by invisible fire, that is, by the splendour of the Holy Ghost, be free from all blindness of vice.”

Missale Romanum 1962, In Purificatione B. M. V., blessing of the candles, no. 2097; our translation from the Latin

Never leave burning candles unattended. Place them in stable candlesticks, at a distance from pictures, palm branches and curtains.

How do you pray at the home altar through the year?

At the home altar the family prays morning and evening prayers every day and, where possible, the Rosary. Through the year the home altar follows the months the Church has dedicated to a mystery or a saint: March to St Joseph, May to Our Lady, June to the Sacred Heart, October to the Rosary.

The numbers are taken from the Preces et pia opera (Vatican 1952).

For March, May and June the Church also grants a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions if the private devotion is kept daily for the whole month; where the devotion takes place publicly in church, it applies only to those lawfully prevented from taking part. Those who pray at least a third part of the Rosary together with others gain an indulgence of ten years once a day; if the family prays it daily for a month, the Church grants a plenary indulgence twice a month, with confession, Holy Communion and a visit to a church or public oratory (no. 395). Our Rosary prayer guide leads you through the prayer decade by decade.

Do the cross and statue on a home altar have to be blessed?

The cross and statue on a home altar need not be blessed, but having them blessed is a pious custom. Any priest may bless a cross or an image in the simple, non-solemn form without needing the permission of the Ordinary. Afterwards they are to be treated with reverence.

The Rituale Romanum contains blessings of its own for the cross (Tit. VIII, cap. 24) and for images and statues of Christ, Our Lady and the saints (cap. 25). The solemn blessing of crosses and images that are publicly venerated is reserved to the Ordinary; “privately, however”, both blessings may be given by “any priest without the permission of the Ordinary”. In the blessing prayer over an image the Church says what it is for: as often as we look upon the images with the eyes of the body, we are to contemplate with the eyes of memory their deeds and their holiness, in order to imitate them.

The veneration is never directed to the wood or the resin. According to canon law, images are owed a veneration that refers to the person depicted (can. 1255 § 2). Blessed objects are to be treated with reverence and not put to profane use (can. 1150).

Mentioned in this article Siena standing cross, 47 cm Carved from lime wood in Italy, painted in colour, with a stable base. To the standing cross Mentioned in this article Sacred Heart statue Resin, painted in colour by hand, 31 centimetres tall. To the statue

Frequently asked questions about the home altar