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My husband and I spent so many hours I can’t even count scouring the Internet for the perfect thing to hang over this table in the front entryway of our home. One day, it suddenly hit me: a Sacrament wall! What better way to honor the most important events in our lives?! All we needed were some prints and matching frames.
The seven sacraments touch all the stages and all the important moments of Christian life: they give birth and increase, healing and mission to the Christian’s life of faith.
CCC 1210
The Sacrament of Matrimony
The foundation of our family – our marriage – now has the prominent place it deserves among our home decor. Not only does this serve as a daily reminder of our commitment to each other, but it allows us to display the beauty of the church where we were married. It was renovated shortly before our wedding, and it is striking.
That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body.
Genesis 2:24
The Sacrament of Baptism
Almost fifteen years later, we are now a family of four. The baptisms of our children are two of the most important events we’ve celebrated since our wedding.
Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit, and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. From the very day of Pentecost the Church has celebrated and administered holy Baptism.
CCC 1213 and 1226
Although celebrated by different priests, both children were baptized in the same church. This is also the same church where we were married. The unplanned symmetry is amazing – by hanging our older child’s baptism photo on the left, the two priests are on the outsides, perfectly framing the Sacramental display. The wall couldn’t have turned out any better if we’d planned it from the moment we took the photos.
Completing the Display
Most of the items on the table below the photos were there even before we decorated the wall. My favorite color is orange, so I use it anywhere I can. Imagine how thrilled I was to get married in a church with an orange wall behind the altar!
The first bible I ever bought for myself is displayed with a rosary from my grandmother as its bookmark. (It is sometimes open to the current Sunday’s Gospel reading, although we don’t always remember to change it.) The cake stand used to display the bible was a gift from my mom.
To the right are two more bibles. The one on the bottom is a family bible like this one, but it is an older version that was given to my grandparents as a Christmas gift in 1978. The smaller bible was given to my husband as a Confirmation gift. We don’t use any of these particular bibles on a regular basis, but we don’t want them to be hidden away unseen.
Finally, the choir of angels was originally purchased as Christmas decor, but we decided it could stay out year-round.
Future Sacraments
We will likely add more pictures to the wall as our children celebrate more of the Sacraments. Our son has already completed the remaining two Sacraments of Initiation (First Holy Communion and Confirmation), but we think it would be unbalanced without photos for our daughter. In two years, we plan to move their Baptism pictures up a bit to make room for Communion and Confirmation photos under them.
And who knows? Maybe in the very distant future, we’ll add pictures of their weddings too. (Or possibly a photo of Holy Orders, although our son assures us that he will not be becoming a priest because he “doesn’t want to live alone.” But you never know.) The wall of our entryway is definitely long enough to hold more photos.
More ideas for celebrating the Sacraments:
Hosting a First Holy Communion Party with a Cupcake Rosary
Hosting a Simple Confirmation Party
