In a corner of our basement, tucked behind the furnace, sits a big, cozy leather chair. It is my favorite piece of furniture in the house, my place of refuge from the chaos and noise, it is the place in the house that I can stop, quiet myself, and listen to the Lord easily. The kids know where it is (it’s adjacent to their classroom space) and what it is.
About 6 months ago, G asked if she could have her own prayer space, which was a request easy to say yes too. We set aside a corner of our dining room, next to a window, and went about making it cozy.
It has a low table for an altar (technically it’s a bench/desk/table piece of children’s furniture of an unknown make, but wonderful versatile). A small area rug defines it. We were gifted a small children’s recliner thanks to our local Buy Nothing Group (if you haven’t heard of Buy Nothing Groups, you need to look them up and find yours) with a fantastic giraffe pillow made by Mark’s grandmother (Charlotte’s namesake). Gianna picked out the icon herself- I was scrolling through a catalog of religious items that a women on Facebook was selling with her, looking for a crucifix for our house, and she stopped me at it, said how beautiful it was, and asked if someday she could have one like it. Melt my heart child. Turns out, it is a replica of the icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help in Rome, and ours has been touched to the original. A perfect icon for our G if ever there was one.
Also located in the prayer corner is a small basket of religious picture books, a felt Bible with its pieces, and their collection of small crosses and holy cards. Give made a giant sunflower to decorate the corner, and wove a little altar “cloth” out of paper. Sometimes when she picks flowers she chooses to place her vase there.
The kids re-set their altar almost daily, rearranging the cards, choosing new images to display depending on their mood. Sometimes I sit with them and we chat as they make their choices, sometimes they do it on their own. It’s become a great chance to talk to them about different saints and what it means to have a “patron saint” of a particular situation. It’s an opportunity to get physically and spiritually down at their level and interact with them on subjects of faith.
Gianna particularly loves this corner of the house, and retreats to it regularly. She struggles with hyperactivity and impulse control, so it’s a perfect place for her to take a breath and calm her body and mind. It’s a positive place for her to regain control of herself, and she enjoys being there. During quiet time (she’s grown out of naps), she sits there and listens to an audiobook while flipping through the books or holy cards. She feels peaceful, quiet, and at home, exactly the feelings I want her to associate with prayer and the Church. I think that especially for Gianna, the fact that she chose the items and arranged them in the place, allowed it to become hers in a way that it wouldn’t have if I had created the space and presented it to her for her use, which is also what we want long-term for our children’s faith, for them to claim it as their own.