How Do You Display Your Faith In Your Home?

design by meghan and jesse arlen | photo by marisa vitale | via apartment therapy

I don’t go to church and I wouldn’t describe myself as religious. The memories of my parents dragging me out of bed on Sunday morning still echo in my mind and so does the dread I felt having to sit on a pew for an hour listening to a sermon I didn’t understand. But now at 26 years old, something’s shifted. I’ve developed a surprising affinity towards Catholicism, specifically as it relates to my family history and culture. The traditions I used to roll my eyes at are suddenly endearing. The family heirlooms and my grandmother’s collection of rosaries are things I feel lucky to have. Seemingly out of nowhere, I’ve had the strangest desire to incorporate this part of my life into my home, akin to how my parents and grandparents have always done in theirs — albeit with fewer crucifixes (I am not there yet).

For me, being raised Catholic was a little like learning how to play an instrument that was missing strings. I got some of the routines down like going to Mass on Sundays, memorizing prayers, and attending funerals anytime a distant relative or family friend passed. But it never felt completely right so eventually, I stopped practicing altogether. In general, a lot of my experiences with Catholicism were rooted in morals, tradition, and family rather than strict biblical practices but as a kid, those things weren’t the most fun to care about. Then as I got older I questioned the bible and rebelled as teenagers do. As such, I wouldn’t say my relationship with religion is or ever has been easy and I consider myself lucky that my experience with the Catholic religion is not traumatic, especially since humans are fallible and can screw up even the things that are meant to be holy.

But as I said, I was lucky. My parents grew up Catholic and with the understanding that there are certain things you do in life not because you want to, but because it is the right thing to do. When it comes to family, no matter how distant or problematic they might be, you show up. Family parties were non-negotiable commitments and the same applies to funerals, baptisms, first communions, weddings etc, etc. It’s this emphasis on family and tradition that has me reminiscing about Catholicism and reevaluating what faith and religion mean to me. As is the case for most people, the older I get the more I understand the desire to believe in something. A higher power sounds extremely attractive when the world is on fire and I often wonder what it would feel like to have an unrelenting faith.

In fact, when I think of faith I think of my dad, whom I’ve asked dozens of times “Why Catholicism?” and his answer is always, simply, “It gives me peace.” Wanting to feel at peace is as universal as it gets on this earth so I get it. I get it even if I don’t understand it all and have trouble with some of the inconsistencies.

me and my buck teeth at my first holy communion