If you have any questions about Home is a Holy Place that you would like to see answered here, just let us know.

What is Home is a Holy Place all about?
How can we become more aware of God's abiding presence?
Isn’t family holiness an unrealistic aspiration?
What about those who experience terrible suffering at home?
What difference does it make if home is a holy place or not?
Why are we doing this?
So how do we get involved?
We are a Catholic parish but our priest knows nothing about the pack? How do we get one?

What is Home is a Holy Place all about?
Home is a Holy Place is about helping families to become more aware of how God is already present with them at home, in the ordinary events of daily life, in their deep joys and sorrows and in their relationships with one another, whether children, siblings, parents, spouses, friends or neighbours. Home is a Holy Place is also about supporting parishes to work with this understanding of family spirituality and to incorporate it into existing programmes of support and catechesis for family life.  

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How can we become more aware of God's abiding presence at home?
This kind of awareness is especially hard because family life is complicated, uneven and rarely perfect. It’s busy and messy and most of us are right in the middle of it 24/7. So, learning from what families have already told us during Listening 2004 and from subsequent reflection, we’ve identified three signposts that point to where God might most easily be found:

•  In the love we share together – bearing in mind that God is love

• In our family relationships – bearing in mind that God too lives a life of interpersonal communion, as Father, Son and Spirit

•  In everything we see around us - bearing in mind that both we and the world we live in are all created by God who remains always with us

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Isn’t family holiness an unrealistic aspiration?
It's true that as we have introduced the Home is a Holy Place Resource Pack we have realised that for many families their understanding of holiness is not something that they easily associate with their family life. For some the title is off putting. "I thought it would be far too much about the pious Catholic Family I was expected to belong to in the 1950’s and 60’s in a neat house, saying the Rosary together" is just one reported comment.  but for those who have been able to overcome this initial reluctance the vision of Home is a Holy Place and the material in the pack have been really helpful. Here are just a few of the responses we have had so far:  

"I really enjoyed the talk, it made me realise that God is with us in every moment of family life and that even in the smallest family moments, God is with us and his love is always around us. It will certainly make me look upon my family life very differently."

"A wonderful opportunity to bring hope to many families who perhaps do not consider their families to be a holy place. This is all the more valuable because it features real families with real life examples."

"The DVD made me realise the holiness within the family, something I hadn’t previously given any thought. It was reassuring to know how much love and holiness there is within the everyday life of each family."

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What about those who experience terrible suffering at home?
In saying home is a holy place we are not claiming that for a home to be holy all must be well. We know that there have always been homes which are far from being safe, caring places. But to imagine that that would somehow prevent God from being present within them would be to diminish the nature of God, especially a God whose own son suffered and died on the cross. Faith in God is often challenged by suffering but it’s often in and through our suffering that we come to a greater awareness of how close God really is to us. There’s a wonderful Leonard Cohen line that says :

Ring out the bells that still can ring,
Forget your perfect offering,
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.

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What difference does it make if home is a holy place or not?
One person told us that it enabled her to see that all the mundane everyday chores that she used to really hate were as much a part of her Christian life as saying her prayers, and that they had value for her spiritually, as well as for her family in terms of showing them the love of God through her. This kind of understanding really can encourage families, enabling them to feel that the seemingly insignificant stuff of everyday life has value and is valued by their faith community. Recall the gospel of St Matthew, chapter 25, when Jesus said, whatever you do to the least of these my family, you do to me. Knowing that home is a holy place can enable families to be more resilient during hard times.

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Why are we doing this?
We are doing this as a result of an earlier initiative, Listening 2004, which aimed to find out from families how best the church could support them in their lives. Families were looking for parishes that were more welcoming, friendly and family sensitive so home is a holy place is certainly a response to that need. But it’s also a response to our greater awareness that the church rarely talks about the spirituality of family life in spite of the importance attributed to it in the Second Vatican Council. When families did mention spirituality in the course of Listening 2004 it was usually in terms of prayer within the home. And while that is certainly important, there is a lot more that is holy that goes on at home that deserves to be recognised and celebrated.

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So how do we get involved?
The Resource Pack has been produced to encourage parishes to explore Home is a Holy Place. There is a free copy of this pack for every Catholic parish; otherwise you can download most of the material on this website.

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We are a Catholic parish but our priest knows nothing about the pack? How do we get one?
Every diocese has now received its quota and the individuals named here have taken responsibility for circulating the packs. Contact them to express your interest and to find out how they intend to make the Packs available locally.   

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