Family Altar

We have seen a bit of an evolution in the focal point of our Chapel, our family altar.  I would say we are 75% - 80% finished.  I still want to build a gradine, shelf, in the back 

In the beginning, when we started using this room as a chapel, we used the buffet and a fairly simple piece of gold fabric to cover the top.

This was the setup we had when we had friends pass through and we had Mass celebrated in our home.  Father used a Greek corporal, but I always figured we could do better than a buffet.

In late 2019 we acquired an old rectory altar.

Long story short, it came out of St. Beatrice in Southfield, MI.  It was used, in some fashion in the Church as a side altar, but Fr. John Gagala, May his memory be eternal, used it as his rectory altar in his retirement before moving back to Poland. St. Beatrice was merged with several other parishes and the church building became St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Church.  It is not a "proper altar" and has no relic, stone, or place for such.  We received it through a Deacon serving in Detroit.  He had brought it from Michigan for use by a group of friars but then it became orphaned.  The local Roman Catholic Diocese did not have a use for it... So we have given it a home.  Ok... I guess that was still a long story...

It had doors when we got it.

I removed the handles and the old feet so that I could raise the whole altar.

We raised the altar to be more in line with St. Charles Borromeo’s instructions on ecclesiastical design.  I painted the bottom with a tile design from Augustus Pugin.

We are still debating whether or not we will remove the doors altogether for the two days out of the year that it is completely exposed, or leave it the way it is.

Right around the beginning of Lent, we got an antependium from Altarations along with a mounting cover.

A friend of ours made us two altar linens one that is just the size of the top of the altar and has lace along the long edge, and the other goes all the way to the ground with lace along the edge.

The linen fabric and lace came from Communion Linens, and I can heartily recommend them.