Prayer guides
How to Make a Simple Prayer Space at Home
Create a practical place for prayer with what you already have, even in a small or shared home. Start with a chair, a prayer guide, and room to pause.
You would like a place to pray, but the spare room is also an office, the kitchen table is rarely empty, and photographs of beautiful home chapels seem far removed from your home. Where should you begin?
Begin with a place you can actually use. A prayer space can be one end of a table, a chair beside a shelf, or a few things you put out and pack away. Its purpose is to make beginning prayer easier. You can try that before buying anything or rearranging a room.
Why set aside a place for prayer?
The Catechism recommends a place for personal prayer with Scripture and sacred images, and recognizes how a small prayer space can support prayer together in a family. It also identifies the church as the proper place for the parish’s liturgical prayer. A home arrangement supports your personal or household prayer within that wider life. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2691
The suggestions below are practical ways to begin, not requirements for arranging a Catholic home. Their value is whether they help you give prayer your attention in the circumstances you have.
Choose the place by trying it
Before choosing what to display, sit where you hope to pray. Can you read comfortably there? Is there somewhere to rest your book? Is this a place you can use at the time you have in mind?
A quiet bedroom may work well in the evening but be unavailable when someone is sleeping. A kitchen chair may be the most realistic choice after breakfast. Notice the ordinary use of the room rather than choosing only the most attractive corner.
Choose a position your body can comfortably sustain. You do not need to add physical strain to the task of learning a prayer. Leave enough space to move around the chair or table easily, especially when others share the room.
Try the location for one short prayer before deciding it is permanent. An awkward place is easier to change before you have spent a weekend decorating it.
Start with one prayer resource
Put one useful resource within reach: a Bible, a familiar prayer book, or a guide to the prayer you intend to say. If you already have a crucifix, sacred image, or rosary, you might keep it there too. You do not need to assemble a collection first.
Choose what helps you begin. If several books leave you wondering which to open, select a passage or prayer in advance and place a bookmark there. If small print makes reading difficult, use a resource you can read comfortably.
For example, you could keep a guide open to one decade of the Rosary, or choose a psalm using our guide to praying a psalm. The arrangement becomes useful when it answers a simple question: what will I pray when I sit down?
Make a portable version for a shared home
You may not have a surface you can reserve. Keep your prayer book and any other items you use in a small bag, box, or tray. Bring them to an available place, then put them away afterward. A temporary arrangement can still be familiar and easy to return to.
If you share a room, discuss a workable time rather than assuming others will know when you need quiet. You might say, “Could I use this chair for a few minutes after breakfast?” Leave room for their needs and for days when the plan changes.
For prayer together, make sure everyone can see or hear the guide. A place designed for one person may need a small adjustment when a child, housemate, or family member joins you.
Decide how your phone will fit
A phone can hold the prayer guide you need, and it can also draw your attention elsewhere. Decide its role before you begin.
If you are using it to follow a prayer, open that guide first and place the phone where you can read it without holding it awkwardly. If you are praying from a book, consider leaving the phone out of reach when your responsibilities allow. Keep necessary communication available when someone depends on you.
You can make a similar practical choice about timing. Our morning prayer routine guide can help you connect the place you have chosen with a recognizable moment in your day.
Use the space before improving it
Try this small first session:
- Set out the one resource you chose.
- Make the Sign of the Cross and pause.
- Pray your chosen prayer or read the short passage.
- Finish with a moment of thanks, then leave the space ready for next time.
After several uses, change whatever causes a real difficulty: better light, a clearer surface, or a different time. Add objects because they help you pray, not because the corner seems unfinished without them.
Pray even when the usual place is unavailable
Visitors, travel, work, and family needs will sometimes interrupt the arrangement. In his teaching on prayer in daily life, Pope Francis describes prayer continuing amid ordinary places and activities. A dedicated space can help, but your conversation with God can continue beyond it. General Audience, 10 February 2021
Choose another available place and begin simply. When you return home, return to the familiar chair or shelf without needing to make the setting perfect. The most useful prayer space is one you use.