The most important way to sanctify your home is to sanctify yourself! To live a holy life. But these Catholic customs can also help us to make our home or personal room a place of holiness and peace.

1. Have your home or room blessed

Ask your local priest to come and bless your home or room. He will be happy to do so. This blessing ‘consecrates’ your home so that it is a place dedicated to God; it drives away evil spirits.

2. Hang a crucifix on your wall

Of the many symbols of Christian faith, this is the most important one. By placing a crucifix on the wall it reminds us and other people of our Saviour’s love for us. And it reminds us to turn to him in prayer.

3. Keep some holy water

You can get some holy water from the church and keep it in a bottle or some kind of holder or holy water ‘stoop’. When you pray, bless yourself with this holy water by dipping your finger in it and making the sign of the cross. This is not a superstition, it is a ‘sacramental’: it allows God’s power to work in our lives, through the blessing that the priest has given to the water, and through our faith.

4. Keep a ‘sacred space’ in your room

This does not need to be a large space! It just means that we have a small area in our room, a focus, where we have (perhaps) some holy pictures, an open Bible, a candle, etc. This place can then be a focus for our prayer, and a reminder of what is important in our lives

5. Consecrate your home to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

There are special prayers you can make to consecrate your home to the Sacred Heart – look on the internet, or ask for information in a Catholic bookshop. The important thing is simply to dedicate your home to the Sacred Heart, and to hang an image of the Sacred Heart on your wall. You can get special images which have a prayer of consecration written on them.