Spiritual Protection for the Catholic Home

If you have turned on a TV, listened to the radio, or checked into social media lately, you know there is a lot of craziness in the world right now. When spiritual warfare feels like it is everywhere, I am reminded how important it is to have a home that is peaceful and centered on Christ. There are many things you can do to make your home a domestic church so that it is sheltered and protected from the evil and chaos of the world. Here are some things you can do to help your home become a domestic church.

First, I highly recommend having an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus displayed somewhere in the center of your home. In your domestic church, this image can be like the tabernacle of your home. Jesus appeared to St. Margaret Mary and told her many promises of having an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus displayed prominently in the home, including that He would protect the home from harm. God loves us so much and wants to be in our home, and putting up such holy images is a beautiful way to invite Him in.

One of the most important things to have in your home are holy books to reflect on. Of course, the essential book to have is the Holy Bible. If the world were to suddenly shut down, having the Holy Bible in your home would provide sustenance and protection because Satan hates the Holy Bible and he hates the truth. It is important to make sure that you have a Catholic Bible, because Protestant Bibles are missing seven integral books. Additionally, the Catholic Bible’s translation is honest and most closely aligns with the word of God.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church is also an important book to have in your home. This book is the summation of what we believe as Catholics. I know this book may look a little daunting, but remember that this book was written not for scholars, but for us, the laity. If you would still like an easier place to start with the Catechism, I recommend the Baltimore Catechism which was written for kids in 3rd – 8th grade.

Three other good, holy books to have in your home are “The Pieta Prayer Book,” “Deliverance Prayers,” and “The Imitation of Christ” by St. Thomas a Kempis. Each one of these books contains prayers and reflections that are so rich for spiritual formation and spiritual protection.

Next, I highly recommend getting your home, your domestic church, blessed by a priest. For the blessing, the priest will go around and bless your home with holy water. This is such a wonderful experience for the whole family to be present, especially children, and to build your family’s personal relationship with a priest. Often a priest will come over for dinner and then do a blessing of your home. If a priest doesn’t want to stay for dinner, I would still recommend making him some bread or other food item as a gift of thanks for blessing your home.

Holy water is also very important to have in your home. Holy water is blessed water that you can get usually in the back of any Catholic church. Don’t feel like you need to have a special container for your Holy water, because you can use even a simple jar. What you should do is use the Holy water by sprinkling it throughout your home, sprinkling on yourself, and setting up a holy water font in your home. Satan hates Holy water, and it will provide spiritual protection for all who use it.

On a similar note, blessed salt is a great thing to have in and around your home as well. All you need to do is get normal table salt, have a priest bless it, and then you distribute it around your home and property. Some people put blessed salt under each window, door, and opening into the home, while others sprinkle blessed salt around the entire perimeter of their property. This is intended to keep you and your family safe inside of your home from spiritual attacks. Similarly, I have heard of some people putting blessed St. Benedict medals in the four corners of their homes or under their rugs to help combat spiritual warfare and anxiety.

Other really important things to have around your domestic church are sacramentals. These include holy images or icons (like the Sacred Heart), statues, rosaries, crucifixes, etc. God gave us eyes and made us to be visual people, so having these around in our homes helps remind us to strive for holiness and grow closer to God. Sacramentals are not things that we worship, but they remind us of God, who we do worship, and they remind us of ways to worship Him in our daily lives. If you get your home blessed, the priest can also bless your sacramentals at the same time. Otherwise, you can always bring your sacramentals to any priest and ask him to bless them.

Finally, every domestic church should have some blessed candles. Any candle can be blessed and I definitely recommend getting all of the candles in your home blessed. If you want to purchase candles specifically for blessing, you can find “3 day” candles at your local Catholic book store or even on Amazon. (They are called “3 day” candles because they will burn for 3 days straight.) Whenever I pray, I light one of my blessed candles to remind me of the holiness of prayer and invite the Holy Spirit to be with me.

Now a number of the things I have described are physical things that you would need to purchase. If your finances don’t allow you to buy these things, don’t be discouraged. I have heard so many stories of people who have found these things in thrift stores, at garage sales, or received them free from a generous donor at church. So don’t be discouraged. Ask God to help, and He will provide. He loves each of us so much and he wants you to have these things so that your home truly becomes a domestic church.