The Little Oratory by David Clayton, Leila Marie Lawler

(Manchester: Sophia Institute Press, 2014), 186

Chapter 1 - The Christian Life

Chapter 2 - The Family and the Home

  • The home is the school of virtue and a domestic church (16)
  • Parenting: "The best way for a person to learn real virtue is by living with good people who love him." (17)
  • "The habit of praying with visual imagery will develop our instinct for what is beautiful" (20) ^f79b10
  • The illuminated Westminster Psalter (21)
  • "There is hardly a place in the house that isn't enhanced by the use of shelving." (23)
  • Some aspects for a home altar: image of Christ at the center, facing east, symmetry, candles (28-29)

Chapter 3 - Making the Little Oratory in the Home

  • "Candlelight has the effect of drawing the spirit toward itself" (42)
  • demonstrate kneeling for your children and they will follow along (46)

Chapter 4 - The Liturgical Year

  • "If you put Sunday worship and Sunday rest first, all will be added unto you. You will finally understand life and your place in it. You will see your way clear to solutions to problems that have seemed intractable, or you will will be content with the way things are, depending on what God's will for you is—which you will grasp." (52)
  • the liturgical year is the best way to teach the faith to children (53)

Chapter 5 - Learning to Pray with a Breviary

  • don't force something that doesn't work, but give it 30 days try (66)
  • "If a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing badly" - G.K. Chesterton (67)
  • use the Anglican Ordinariate Breviary to sing (75)
  • see my Liturgy of the Hours notes

Chapter 6 - Getting Closer to God's Word

  • Lectio - reading
  • Meditatio - thinking
  • Oratio - prayer
  • Contemplatio - contemplation

Chapter 7 - Devotion

  • Pray the morning offering (88)
    > O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
    > I offer You my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day,
    > for all the intentions of Your Sacred Heart,
    > in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world,
    > in reparation for my sins,
    > for the intentions of all my relatives and friends,
    > and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father.
    > Amen
  • Devotions throughout the week:
    • Sunday: the Resurrection, the Trinity
    • Monday: the Holy Spirit
    • Tuesday: the angels
    • Wednesday: St. Joseph
    • Thursday: the Blessed Sacrament
    • Friday: Christ's Passion
    • Saturday: the Blessed Virgin
  • Devotions throughout the year:
    • January: the Holy Name of Jesus
    • February: the Holy Family
    • March: St. Joseph
    • April: the Blessed Sacrament
    • May: our Lady
    • June: the Sacred Heart
    • July: the Precious Blood of Jesus
    • August: the Immaculate Heart of Mary
    • September: the Seven Sorrows of Mary
    • October: the Holy Rosary
    • November: all saints and souls
    • December: the Immaculate Conception

Chapter 8 - Praying the Rosary

  • the Rosary has the virtue of compressing important points of the Faith and the history of salvation into one easily memorized devotion (100)
  • "You are not just aiming at some sort of success at saying prayer together today. You are aiming at instilling in your children a lifelong love of prayer." (101)
  • "it's when their father leads the prayer that the habit of praying lasts into their adulthood" (101)
  • try not to explain too much, just pray (103)

Chapter 9 - Who Prays and Who Leads

  • the woman is the heart of the home
  • the father is the priest for his family

Chapter 10 - Difficulties You May Have

  • good tips on praying with children...

Chapter 11 - Transform the Home, Transform the World

  • how to pray at work...

Appendices

  • "Our pattern of prayer will govern the pattern of our lives" (151)
  • Always ask the question, "Is this beautiful?" (160)
  • Chant the Psalms

Topic: Prayer

Created: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2024-05-26-Sun